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The Conversation
The Conversation
Jenalee Doom, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Denver

Sleep problems and depression can be a vicious cycle, especially during pregnancy − here’s why it’s important to get help

Restless or too little sleep can make us feel unfocused and indecisive the next day. Valerii Apetroaiei/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Imagine you got a rough night of sleep. Perhaps you went to bed too late, needed to wake up early or still felt tired when you woke up from what should have been a full night’s sleep.

For the rest of the day, you feel groggy and unfocused. Things that are usually fun or exciting don’t give you the same level of pleasure. You don’t have energy to exercise, so you avoid it. You don’t feel motivated to see friends, so you cancel plans with them. You focus on your rough day as you try to fall asleep that night and start to have anxiety about the next day. Instead of getting the restful night of sleep you need, you have another night of poor sleep. You become caught in a vicious cycle of poor sleep and depressed mood.

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