The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep is Broken and How to Fix It

by W. Chris Winter

Poor sleep itself can dramatically worsen mood and has been linked to worsened depression and anxiety. For some mental health professionals, the association between depression and insomnia is so strong, they don’t diagnose depression in someone who does not show signs of sleep disruption.

Circadian rhythm disorders are frequently associated with depression and other mood disorders. As patients spend more time in bed and withdraw from typical activities, their schedule and sleep-wake cycles become a big mess. Like syndicated episodes of Law & Order, their eating, exercising, and sleeping happen at all hours of the day and night.

it is the emerging link between poor sleep and breast cancer that seems to be strongest. Not only do sleep disturbances like shift work and sleep deprivation represent a potential risk factor for the development of breast cancer but epidemiologist Amanda Phipps found insufficient sleep before the diagnosis may be a predictor of treatment outcome.

Why is it that a late night spent cramming or being on call at the hospital almost invariably caused me to get sick or acquire a nasty cold? Our immune system’s function is intimately tied to the amount and quality of our sleep.

asleep. It is an accepted fact that true sleep deprivation (that is, you are in a situation in which no sleep is allowed to happen19) always leads to sleep or sleep intrusion (uncontrollable periods of sleep) and performance decline. In other words, if you are sleep deprived, you and everyone else know it! If, however, you think you are sleep deprived but you show no tendency to nod off when you are stretched out on a couch, does it really make sense to you, knowing what you know, that you really are sleep deprived?

Homeostasis refers to bringing balance or equilibrium to a system; it’s in charge of bringing rest to a system that is not at rest. The longer you go without sleep, the more powerful the drive to sleep and get your system back in balance. In the same way, the longer you read this compelling chapter and ignore the urge you have to urinate, the stronger the drive to pee will be until it’s overwhelming and you can’t concentrate on anything you’re reading—again, the drive to balance. A chemical called adenosine mediates the homeostatic system of sleep.

Dream sleep is also known as REM sleep and is important for memory and mood regulation.