Posted by cache-monkey on September 13, 2004, at 21:23:48
In reply to does anyone feel good during the night...only, posted by mike lynch on September 9, 2004, at 23:48:11
> During the day my mood is generally pretty low..if i'm not at school I generally asleep all day and really have no interest in anything..At night..for what ever reason I cheer up and my mood lifts somewhat.. DOes this happen to anyone else...any explanations?/
Like a number of the other posters in this thread, I have pretty much the same deal. Tired, spaced, and low for most of the day. Then (some days) after 7 pm or so I start feeling better. Another thing I seem to share with the other posters is "delayed phase syndrome" (getting up late, staying up late), as well as some sort of psychological ailment. I wanted to bring up a couple of possible mechansisms relating these.
First, sleep apnea might be a causal factor. It could explain feeling out of it when first waking up and then perking up over the day. Plus, I've read somewhere that it can lead to depression/anxiety. (For me, I had a sleep study done, and they didn't find me to be apneatic, but they could have caught me on an off night.)
Second, a delayed phase means that you're missing out on many daylight hours. This can mess up your internal clock, which means that the shifted schedule becomes self-reinforcing.
Missing out on a substantial number of daylight hours can also lower your mood in and of itself. I realized at some point that even at midsummer I was only getting the same number of daylight hours that 'normal' sleepers get in the winter. And that's enough to bum many 'normal' people by way of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
I've been trying to break out of this pattern as part of my treatment for depression and anxiety. I've been inching my wake time back (no big jumps or it's harder to stick to). It hasn't been easy; for me I basically have to accept the fact that the first half hour of the day is going to be hell. What's really helped as far as waking up is having my bedroom floor lamp on a timer and set to go on about 15-30 minutes before I want to wake up. This seems to be helping a little bit, so far.
I've also started bright light therapy, which has proven clinically therapeutic for SAD. I didn't buy a light box, which can be an expensive proposition. Instead, I rigged up a system of my own that should match the clinical specifications, but is much cheaper. If anyone's interested, I'll post the details to the main message board.
Anyway, I'm just starting with the earlier schedule and light therapy, so I don't have any results to report yet. I'm also looking into going on a medication for depression/anxiety again, since my starting point is pretty low. I'm looking at Cymbalta right now, but if anyone else with delayed phase has a suggestions, I'd love to hear it.
Peace,
cache-monkey
poster:cache-monkey
thread:389021
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040909/msgs/390498.html