Venting Not sleeping much helps me with my mental health

[JadedBeing]

So i've noticed that everytime i only get 4-5 Hours of sleep or even if i don't go to sleep at all and go to work the next day i feel much more calm. I usually have this program running in the back of my mind where it's making me really anxious and askward, thinking alot about myself and how i'm being seen by others. But when i'm sleep deprived that's almost completely gone. I'm much more chill and even want to socialize more. It's Kind of like i have 1-2 beers in me for that day. I wish i could feel like that all the time. But unfortunantly sleeping little is very unhealthy. And i can only do it once a week.

Am i the only one?

 

[Fresh Soju]

IIRC there's something like that for ADHD, though it only works for 1-2 days tops, as beyond that you start to feel worse.
I am the same, though. I can be extremely productive those days quite ironically, as I can focus more easily on the things I have to do and not overthink as much about every step of the process.

 

[JadedBeing]

IIRC there's something like that for ADHD, though it only works for 1-2 days tops, as beyond that you start to feel worse.
I am the same, though. I can be extremely productive those days quite ironically, as I can focus more easily on the things I have to do and not overthink as much about every step of the process.

Yes, 1-2 days max. For me it's just 1 day, the second day without much sleep is already too much for my brain. but 1 day is just perfect. I think i'll do that once a week from now on. Probably gonna cut some years of my life by the long run because of the negativ health effects but it's totally worth it imo. Gonna ctb anyway sooner or later.

 

[overmorrow]

it's a good strat tbh for u, i haven't had a good night of sleep in ages, most i got recently was 6 hours, sleep overrated asf

 

[Grav]

I've been on might shift for 40 years and sleep 3 hours at a time max, usually only 5 total which includes waking up for stuff. After 4 or 5 days my mood sinks bad but not sleeping so much calms me because I can get stuff done, especially hobbies. Being able to work on stuff I've bought over the years because I actually liked something feels productive, otherwise it all goes in the trash. I don't get people who sleep 9+ hours like my wife. When they're on their last minutes are they going to say "man I'm sure glad I slept away over 1/3 of my time here!"

 

[looking4partner]

I think I read that it causes a dopamine increase. And some medications are also designed to help increase dopamine, but I have had very negative experiences with psychiatric medications so sometimes it seems like it could help if a medication would do that for me and other times I get scared that it will make anxiety way worse because that is one of the negative side effects and my nervous system is already stuck in chronic fight-or-flight mode almost 24/7 so I wouldn't be able to bear if it got any worse.

Yes, sometimes when I miss sleep, I have less depressive symptoms and less racing thoughts. Or they are slower. I do sometimes berate myself for not having been able to sleep though. But I have noticed feeling like I don't even have mental illness on rare days and on a lot of those days, I got way less sleep than you are supposed to the night before.

I also read that they are doing scientific studies about sleep deprivation for treatment of depression. I am not sure how that will work though because they (scientists/research papers) also say that getting enough sleep is so important for your mental health.

 

[FadingSnowFake]

Same, think I function better on 5 hours average, I don't even try sleeping before midnight. Once in a while I'd get a good night's rest of 7 hours. Now it's 4am and I'm still awake but this seldom happens, and luckily no work tomorrow. I wonder if, when we get less sleep, our brains aren't more tuned in to get done whatever needs to get done without adding more stress or even calming us, as opposed to being "all over the place" when rested, or allowing us to dwell on unnecessary things. I also think we can adapt to crazy work/sleep routines if we have to and get used to it. But it also depends on sleep quality, there's no point in getting hours of light sleep but no deep sleep.

I also read that they are doing scientific studies about sleep deprivation for treatment of depression. I am not sure how that will work though because they (scientists/research papers) also say that getting enough sleep is so important for your mental health.

This is interesting, I also believe that prolonged insomnia/sleep deprivation cannot be healthy for our brains and body's regeneration process while we sleep.