When I was a senior in high school, I went through a period of extreme depression where I felt empty inside and I would just randomly start sobbing. I lost interest in almost everything. People were worried about me and kept checking on me and asking what was wrong. I just kept telling them that I didn't know what was wrong. I just felt horrible. That feeling of being deeply depressed slowly went away a few months after high school ended. It didn't return until I had my first baby. It was then that I figured out that sleep deprivation from accumulative sleep loss was causing me to have severe feelings of depression (or lack of normal feelings if that makes sense).
Once I figured that out, I wasn't afraid of those feelings anymore because I realized that it was my body's way of trying to get me to slow down and take care of it. So instead of trying to suppress those feelings with junk food, entertainment, drugs etc., I prioritized good sleep, ate better, spent some time in the sun, meditated etc. (took me a while to lean and implement all those things, and still trying to improve) A lot of different forms of stress, sleep deprivation included, can and probably will lead to adrenal burnout, which is what I believe most depression probably stems from.
I'm SO glad that no one tried to put me on SSRI's during that time because they are so harmful and I wouldn't have figured out that depression is the bodies way of demanding more care. I take so much better care of myself now as a result and can face life challenges so much more robustly. When I take care of myself, I can feel all the range of emotions and I'm thankful for that. Anyway, I loved this post and all the info about sleep! I definitely think good sleep is essential.
I wore an Oura ring for around three years. I decided it was giving me more anxiety about my sleep and not helpful. Some mornings I would wake up feeling rested and ready for a productive day and then look at my app to see that I had very little deep sleep or REM sleep and had a low “readiness” score. I still struggle with sleep but I think it is probably improved now that I quit focusing on it so much. Sleep is the only thing that you can’t make happen by trying harder. Of course, sticking to a schedule, watching caffeine, avoiding alcohol, getting sunlight, all help. The other thing that has helped me is to limit my news intake. The world is not going to fall apart if we miss something. Try to have more joy and avoid too much negative energy from the media. Good Luck!
Agree sleep is critical to feeling “grounded“! Basics: 1. Sleep without your phone or other electronics. 2. Get to sleep before 11 PM. 3. Try earthing.com— miraculous effect of being “grounded“. 4. Grounding or earthing enabled me to get off all the sleep aid supplements.
I tried the sleep mat from earthing.com, placing it under my fitted sheet beginning at my shoulders. I slept seven hours or more without waking up, for days and days in a row, with no supplements. When occasionally I did wake up after five or six hours I would go right back to sleep for a couple of hours. My functional doctor prescribed it because I was beginning to wonder whether my city home was surrounded by too much EMF that I could not abate.
Hey Rav - thanks for writing this post and sharing your own experience. Very valuable. Like you, I religiously track my sleep stats and am forever seeking improvements as I realised several years ago how critical sleep is for realising potential, healing, processing and being the best version of oneself. It’s an ongoing WIP for me :) One thing I’ve found helpful is ‘switching off’ at least 2 hours prior to bedtime. Doing focused and/or mentally stimulating activity close to bedtime makes it infinitely harder for me to drift off into quality sleep as my brain is then busy tick tock ticking. For me, an amber booklight on lowest setting and a relaxing book is a good way of achieving that and/or doing a simple form of meditative breathing and body relaxation techniques. Interested to know how working right up to bedtime affects you or if you have found other ways of helpfully preparing for a good nights rest?
You’re 100% right about switching off an hour or two before bed. In the sleep challenge I linked to in this post (by expert sleep performance coach Andy Galpin PhD), Andy recommends having an alarm on one hour before bed and using that as a cue everyday to switch off and relax.
When I was a senior in high school, I went through a period of extreme depression where I felt empty inside and I would just randomly start sobbing. I lost interest in almost everything. People were worried about me and kept checking on me and asking what was wrong. I just kept telling them that I didn't know what was wrong. I just felt horrible. That feeling of being deeply depressed slowly went away a few months after high school ended. It didn't return until I had my first baby. It was then that I figured out that sleep deprivation from accumulative sleep loss was causing me to have severe feelings of depression (or lack of normal feelings if that makes sense).
Once I figured that out, I wasn't afraid of those feelings anymore because I realized that it was my body's way of trying to get me to slow down and take care of it. So instead of trying to suppress those feelings with junk food, entertainment, drugs etc., I prioritized good sleep, ate better, spent some time in the sun, meditated etc. (took me a while to lean and implement all those things, and still trying to improve) A lot of different forms of stress, sleep deprivation included, can and probably will lead to adrenal burnout, which is what I believe most depression probably stems from.
I'm SO glad that no one tried to put me on SSRI's during that time because they are so harmful and I wouldn't have figured out that depression is the bodies way of demanding more care. I take so much better care of myself now as a result and can face life challenges so much more robustly. When I take care of myself, I can feel all the range of emotions and I'm thankful for that. Anyway, I loved this post and all the info about sleep! I definitely think good sleep is essential.
I love this. Glad you're doing much better. All those tools you're referring to are indeed critical.
I wore an Oura ring for around three years. I decided it was giving me more anxiety about my sleep and not helpful. Some mornings I would wake up feeling rested and ready for a productive day and then look at my app to see that I had very little deep sleep or REM sleep and had a low “readiness” score. I still struggle with sleep but I think it is probably improved now that I quit focusing on it so much. Sleep is the only thing that you can’t make happen by trying harder. Of course, sticking to a schedule, watching caffeine, avoiding alcohol, getting sunlight, all help. The other thing that has helped me is to limit my news intake. The world is not going to fall apart if we miss something. Try to have more joy and avoid too much negative energy from the media. Good Luck!
Interesting. Highly rec the sleep challenge linked in this piece from the Waking Up app. May help you!
Agree sleep is critical to feeling “grounded“! Basics: 1. Sleep without your phone or other electronics. 2. Get to sleep before 11 PM. 3. Try earthing.com— miraculous effect of being “grounded“. 4. Grounding or earthing enabled me to get off all the sleep aid supplements.
Did Earthing help that much? What was your sleep like before and after? How quick was the shift? And which product did you purchase?
I tried the sleep mat from earthing.com, placing it under my fitted sheet beginning at my shoulders. I slept seven hours or more without waking up, for days and days in a row, with no supplements. When occasionally I did wake up after five or six hours I would go right back to sleep for a couple of hours. My functional doctor prescribed it because I was beginning to wonder whether my city home was surrounded by too much EMF that I could not abate.
I'm very curious what robust science - if any at all - underlies this mat.
You might look at the website after reading “the invisible rainbow“ by Firstenberg or the bestseller “the body Electric”.
Hey Rav - thanks for writing this post and sharing your own experience. Very valuable. Like you, I religiously track my sleep stats and am forever seeking improvements as I realised several years ago how critical sleep is for realising potential, healing, processing and being the best version of oneself. It’s an ongoing WIP for me :) One thing I’ve found helpful is ‘switching off’ at least 2 hours prior to bedtime. Doing focused and/or mentally stimulating activity close to bedtime makes it infinitely harder for me to drift off into quality sleep as my brain is then busy tick tock ticking. For me, an amber booklight on lowest setting and a relaxing book is a good way of achieving that and/or doing a simple form of meditative breathing and body relaxation techniques. Interested to know how working right up to bedtime affects you or if you have found other ways of helpfully preparing for a good nights rest?
You’re 100% right about switching off an hour or two before bed. In the sleep challenge I linked to in this post (by expert sleep performance coach Andy Galpin PhD), Andy recommends having an alarm on one hour before bed and using that as a cue everyday to switch off and relax.