Depression Can Be Exhausting
Anxiety, tiredness, and negative thoughts are seen as the symptomatic triad of depression. Even though depression is a psychological disorder, it can trigger somatic symptoms including loss of energy. Often, this sense of constant exhaustion unleashes a vicious cycle that can maintain depression for years. Chronic tiredness, a physical disorder, is often confused with depression because the symptoms are so common. Each, however, can trigger the other, so its possible to develop both.
What Causes Depression Fatigue
People with depression are more likely to experience fatigue, and people with chronic fatigue are more likely to become depressed, creating a cycle that can be hard to break.
Potential causes of depression fatigue include sleep problems, diet, stress, and even the medications used to treat depression.
Learn more about each cause below:
Elderly Sleeping Too Much
It is common for people to become light sleepers when they grow old. Many find it difficult to sleep through the night due to the need to use the bathroom or achy joints. Sometimes, people try to catch a restorative nap during the day to make up for their lost sleep, and that is quite normal. You may have to worry a bit when you have an elderly sleeping too much. But, exactly how much is too much? Should you talk to your doctor when an elder spends a lot of time sleeping throughout the day? Let’s find out more.
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Physical Causes Of Tiredness
There are several health conditions that can make you feel tired or exhausted.
These include:
Tiredness can also be the result of:
- pregnancy particularly in the first 12 weeks
- being overweight or obese your body has to work harder to do everyday activities
- being underweight poor muscle strength can make you tire more easily
- cancer treatments, such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy
- carbon monoxide poisoning especially if your gas boiler has not been serviced regularly
- side effects of medicines and some herbal remedies
If you have been feeling constantly tired for more than 4 weeks, it’s a good idea to see your GP so they can confirm or rule out a medical condition that could be causing your tiredness.
Difficulty Getting Out Of Bed
Its normal to enjoy sleeping in or spending time in bed. However, if it has become difficult to find the motivation to get out of bed or get ready in the morning, this could be a sign of depression. Depression can make us feel fatigued and physically drained to the point where even small tasks, like getting up in the morning, can feel exhausting or difficult to do.
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Aim To Exercise More And Start Small If You Need To
Though depressive attitudes may make it harder to work out, implementing an exercise routine thats realistic and attainable in your everyday life can ease depression fatigue.
Exercise has the added benefit of improving your sleep, too.
Its OK to start small even just walking for 30 minutes a day will likely boost your energy and mood. Exercise is truly an organic and reliable way to help address your depression fatigue.
Its Harder To Exercise When Youre Depressed
Exercise is a great source of energy, but feelings of depression might make it harder for you to want to work out on a regular basis. Depression can cause you to experience a lack of motivation in many aspects of life, and this can channel into a lack of desire to exercise.
But dont think that this lack of exercise is because of laziness. This couldnt be further from the truth!
Summoning the motivation to exercise is already hard enough. But feelings like reduced self-esteem and pessimism are specific depressive attitudes that research suggests may be interfering with your exercise.
Its completely understandable that you might not be working out as much as you used to or would like to. Recognizing that these thought patterns are a result of depression means youre better equipped to deal with the challenge of motivating yourself to exercise.
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How Do You Treat Residual Fatigue In Depression
Dr. Fava: In clinical practice, evaluation of the treatment of fatigue as a residual symptom of MDD is complicated because it can be part of the symptom cluster of MDD, can be a prodromal symptom of another disorder distinct from MDD, or could be a side effect of antidepressant treatment.2,3 Furthermore, treating fatigue by adding more medications can be risky because of the possibility of inducing additional adverse symptoms as a consequence of the intervention. Baldwin and Papakostas11 describe the following three treatment strategies: 1) using antidepressant medications that are less likely to induce or exacerbate fatigue symptoms 2) using antidepressant medications that are more likely to resolve the fatigue symptoms or 3) using adjunctive treatments to specifically target residual fatigue and sleepiness in MDD patients.
Research Shows Napping Once Or Twice A Week May Cut Risk Of Heart Attack Stroke
Personally and professionally, I dont like the phrase depression naps and would deter patients from using that phrase and taking that sort of nap, Farrell said. While naps are meant to be restorative and energizing, these types of naps actually can be an unhealthy way of dealing with your feelings, becoming a kind of defense mechanism, she said.
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Stay Alert For Signs Of Depression
These include feeling hopeless, helpless or sad trouble concentrating and remembering things loss of energy daytime sleepiness loss of interest in activities that once gave you pleasure or thoughts of suicide or death. Tell your doctor if you have any of these.
This is especially important if youre discussing insomnia with your doctor. Insomnia may be a separate condition or it may be a symptom of depression, Finan explains. Your doctor needs to know as much as possible to treat the right problem.
How Do You Define Fatigue In Depression
Dr. Fava: Fatigue is one of the identified symptoms of MDD listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition criteria where it is defined as physical fatigue or loss of energy. However, in my opinion, fatigue is much more than that. We see apathy and considerable emotional disturbance occurring as a consequence of fatigue. We have also seen high rates of diminished focus, word finding difficulties, and recall problems in fatigued patients with MDD.2 Recently, Arnold5 described three distinct categories of fatigue that commonly occur within a population of MDD patients: physical, cognitive, and emotional symptoms. The physical symptoms of fatigue include reduced activity, low energy, tiredness, decreased physical endurance, increased effort to do physical tasks, general weakness, heaviness, slowness or sluggishness, nonrestorative sleep, and sleepiness. The cognitive symptoms include decreased concentration, decreased attention, decreased mental endurance, and slowed thinking. The emotional symptoms of fatigue include decreased motivation or initiative , decreased interest, feeling overwhelmed, feeling bored, aversion to effort, and feeling low. Given the broad range of related, comorbid symptoms, it can be difficult to differentiate between independent symptoms of fatigue from symptoms directly related to MDD.
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Depression And Oversleeping: I Want To Sleep All The Time
Oversleeping is my way out of depression. That’s not so odd seeing that sleep, whether it is too much or too little, can be a symptom of depression. For me, I could never get enough sleep. That is often still the case, a keen reminder that I must always be aware of the symptoms of depression that affect me. Depression makes me want to oversleep to numb the pain.
Possible Reasons Why Some Old People Sleep All Day Long
Having an elderly sleeping too much can be a concern, and it really helps to find out more about the underlying causes of excessive sleep. Here are some of the reasons of excessive sleep in older adults.
1. Depression
Older adults may experience sleep problems due to depression. It can affect their appetite, energy, sleep, and interest in hobbies, work, or relationships. Unfortunately, most seniors fail to identify these symptoms in time and take no steps to treat it. Some seniors are simply reluctant to talk about their symptoms, while others are so isolated that no one notices their depression symptoms. Some of the most common symptoms of depression are sadness, lack of energy, feelings of despair, fixation on death, slow movement and speech, loss of self-worth, and sleep disturbances .
2. Bored with Life
An elderly sleeping too much may not have any underlying condition at all. Daytime sleepiness may not be a symptom of a medical condition in some cases maybe the person is just bored with life. Boredom is a serious issue for senior citizens and they may start sleeping more when their mental, physical, and emotional needs are neglected. Boredom can lead to several emotional issues, such as feelings of intense restlessness, feelings of worthlessness, feeling of uncared about, and feelings that life is not worth living. This often leads to depression that can cause sleep disturbances.
3. Effects of Medications
4. Dementia
5. Alzheimer’s Disease
6. Brain Tumor
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Reasons Depression Makes You Tired
Fatigue can be one of the first symptoms of depression, and one of the most noticeable. Those with depression might find themselves thinking things like Im tired of being tired, or I just want to sleep the day away. Are you wondering why depression makes you tired? Were here to explore several reasons why those with depression might be experiencing this.
The nature of the disease
Depression affects the neurotransmitters in the brain that control how awake and alert individuals feel. In our experience, it is very rare that fatigue is NOT one of the main symptoms of someone suffering from depression. Feeling excessively tired should be a warning sign that there is an imbalance of chemicals in the brain that needs to be addressed by a mental health professional.
Sleeping patterns
Depression can disrupt sleeping patterns at night, causing greater levels of fatigue during the day. It takes depressed people longer to fall asleep as well, which results in them sleeping for less time than their non-depressive counterparts. A good nights rest has many restorative properties for brain function, and when sleep is light, interrupted, or insufficiently long, restorative processes can be interrupted, and even halted. Sufficient rest is a key factor of managing a mental illness.
Medications
Fatigue can be a side effect of several antidepressant medications. Talk to your doctor if you feel your medications could be contributing to your fatigue.
Stress
Seeking Help
Whats The Connection Between Depression And Sleep
If you are trying to find the correlation between oversleeping and depression, let us tell you that oversleeping is the symptom, not the cause of depression. Sleep problems commonly occur with the severity of the cause of depression. Also, if you are living with depression, it can hamper how you feel and how you sleep. Around 90 percent of people who go through depression develop poor sleep. Insomnia is one of the most common sleep problems that is expected to develop in people with depression. In addition to this, around one-third of people worldwide experience insomnia, and hypersomnia because of depression.
- Hypersomnia- It is one of the daytime problems that make you fall asleep. It is much more connected with atypical depression which may appear with the major issues. With this type of depression, you are likely to bring temporary mood change, a positive attitude toward life, excitement, and brighten up your mood but only for a few minutes. It is something that doesnt happen with major depression or what you suffer when you are done with the severity of depression. Also, you are more likely to oversleep if you are a woman under the age of 30, which is one of the greatest causes of depression in many people.
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Forgive Yourself For The Bad Days
People living with depression are often their own worst critics. The truth is, there will be good days and bad days.
Some days, youâll be able to get out of bed and, quite honestly, other days you might not.
If giving your best on a bad day still isnât enough to keep moving, itâs perfectly fine to forgive yourself and start fresh the next day. Depression is an illness and youâre only human.
Tomorrow, you can always try a new technique to help you put both feet on the ground. Over time, youâll find a tool that makes getting out of bed most days possible.
Article originally appeared on February 13, 2020 on Bezzyâs sister site, Healthline.
You Dont Sleep As Well
Depression may be disrupting your sleeping patterns in some way. About 80% of people with depression, for example, experience insomnia.
But its not just a lack of sleep that causes tiredness. Oversleeping, which is also a common symptom of depression, can cause similar feelings of fatigue over a period of time.
These kinds of sleep irregularities are among the biggest causes of fatigue in those who experience depression.
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Popcultureselma Blair Opens Up About Her Anxiety And Depression In Heartfelt Post
Its very important for people to be able to tolerate their feelings and practice healthy coping skills that combat depression, rather than succumbing to it, Farrell explained.
Emanuel Maidenberg, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, agreed such naps could be a coping mechanism, noting they could either be a symptom of low energy or a way for people to avoid hopeless or helpless thoughts.
It can be helpful in the short run, but recurrent dependence on naps becomes a potential mechanism of depression maintenance, he explained.
Are Depression And Insomnia Two Sides Of The Same Coin
Posted April 7, 2011
Common and Connected
Depression and insomnia are common and possess common symptoms. Some estimate that 30% of Americans will eventually experience clinical depression, and perhaps 40% of adults complain that many or most nights they don’t get enough sleep, wake too often, or feel unrested on awakening.
So which is chicken and which egg? Or are they both?
Depression Causes Insomnia
One of the earliest symptoms for many depressives is insomnia. They can’t fall asleep. They can’t stay asleep. There are times you can almost diagnose depression by looking at individual sleep studies, where the sleep architecture goes fantastically out of line: 1. Deep sleep, where we produce growth hormone, a stage critical for memory and , may altogether disappear with depression. 2. Awakenings and arousals increase dramatically. Sleep becomes highly fragmented. 3. REM sleep is often broken up, and its very appearance changes. Rapid eye movements may appear both erratic and dense. The changes are so characteristic that Professor Jerry Vogel and others from the 1970’s on tried to treat depression by waking folks every time they started REM sleep. Preliminary results were strongly favorable, but faded.
Depressives and Sleeping Pills
Frequently sleep medications stop working altogether. Behavioral and other regimes may also then fail.
Depression Also Causes Prolonged Sleepiness
Can Forced Insomnia Treat Depression?
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Holistic Activities Complement Depression Treatment
Psychiatry has begun to embrace holistic therapies as complementary to traditional treatment modalities for depression, as these activities can help reduce stress and induce feelings of calm. Some of the holistic treatment elements include:
- Yoga. Yoga involves slow, purposeful physical poses with a focus on breathing. Yoga is known to promote relaxation and reduce stress while also strengthening and stretching muscles, and reducing blood pressure and heart rate.
- Acupuncture. Acupuncture uses tiny needles to open up energy paths in the body thought to assist in the improvement of mind-body connectedness and wellness.
- Meditation. Mindfulness meditation is also helpful in training the brain to focus purposefully on the present moment, taking in the various sensory stimuli and focusing on rhythmic breathing.
- Exercise. The positive effects of getting regular exercise are caused by the release of brain chemicals, such as endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine.
- Aromatherapy. Certain essential oils have been found to relieve symptoms of depressed mood. These include jasmine, citrus oils, bergamot, and chamomile oils.
- Nutritional counseling. A diet rich in lean proteins, nuts, and seeds, fresh vegetables, and fruits, and oily fish such as salmon, beans, and whole grains can significantly contribute to mental stability.
How Depression Impacts Daily Life
Living with depression on a day-to-day basis can have a significant impact on quality of life. In addition to the low mood and persistent feelings of sadness, depression can leave the individual feeling unwell. This combination of symptoms will often result in reduced functioning at work and at home.
Sleep disruptions, including sleeping too much or sleeping too little, will wreak havoc with concentration, energy and stamina, memory functions, and appetite, and can further intensify feelings of despair. When depression causes a person to literally not want to get out of bed all day it can cause a domino effect in all other realms. Hypersomnia may even lead to excessive absences at work and declining work performance overall.
Excessive sleeping also has a negative impact on the family dynamic. When mom or dad is holed up in bed the children who are dependent on the parent may not have access to the care they deserve. This places more pressure on the good parent to take up the extra burden, which can have an effect on the relationship. Eventually, the impact of depression will touch all aspects of life.
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