From The Australian Women’s Weekly
Insomnia, How to sleep easy health book.
One of the most common causes of insomnia is anxiety. The relationship between anxiety and insomnia is a relatively simple one. Anxiety produces increased alertness. However, your alertness level must be low for sleep to occur for any number of reasons.
Depression is another common mood disturbance that effects sleep. Often people who are depressed fall asleep easily, but then may wake up in the morning and be quite unable to sleep again.
This sleeping pattern can happen for other reasons, too, and isn’t always associated with depression. However, depression doesn’t always produce sleeplessness – sometimes opposite is true. Some people, who are depressed sleep a lot, are often lethargic during the day and find it very difficult to get enthusiastic and motivated about anything.
Other symptoms of depression are:
Feelings of great sadness
Tearfulness
Weight loss or gain
Difficulty with concentration and memory
Sometimes, suicidal thoughts
If you have symptoms of depression associated with sleep disturbance you should consult your doctor, particularly if these symptoms are severe – and seek help immediately if you have thoughts of suicide.
In many cases, treating the depression fixes the sleep disturbance. This can be true even when it seems that the sleep disturbance came before the feelings of depression.
