Psychiatrists are now suggesting that upset circadian rhythms could be a root reason for depression.
Our circadian rhythms are your body’s 24-hour cycle or biological clock. A disruption in these cycles causes more than the reasonable amount of difficulties sleeping and we slip into a jet-lag- like lack-of-sleep situation that brings on what is being termed ‘circadian depression’.
These findings, which were published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, are the results of a large nationwide ongoing Australian Genetics of Depression Study, looking at a cohort of over 11,000: ‘Participants were classified as having a ‘circadian’ or ‘non-circadian’ subtype of depression on the basis of meeting criteria for at least three binary circadian-associated features: social jetlag, seasonality, delayed sleep midpoint, evening chronotype, morning tiredness and hypersomnia’.
That means as many as one in four might be suffering this believed ‘circadian depression’ that is caused by disturbances in the internal body clock that can disturb the person’s mental makeup.
Those in the grip of circadian depression had symptoms like uneven sleep, poor energy levels and less day-time physical activity and this lead to a worse form of depression, from a younger age, and it affected females worse and could not be treated easily by the usual antidepressants.
Causes of circadian rhythm upsets can be wide-ranging right from, according to leading US medical centre, Cleveland Clinic, brain and vision issues to problems with work schedules and travel through different time zones.