Which Way Is Up?: An Atheist's guide to Depression

Sweet Dreams

My dog just chased her tail and farted. Blissfully happy that one.

So, why are dogs so happy most of the time? 

My personal little hypothesis is that they get plenty of sleep.

There is a huge association between depressed people and sleeping all day, and I don't think it's all bad.  

Do you ever leave your phone uncharged?

Forget to put batteries in your favorite toy?

What happens?

They stop working! Duh!  They have no juice to run on. 

Sleeping is our bodies' way of charging.  It's how we regenerate and heal.  

Some people are like "I'm so tired all of the time.  Life sucks." and then I'm all like "Are you going to bed on time?" and then they are like "ahh, no."  

--___-- 

I can't stress enough how imperative sleep is to getting over depression.  You can't learn/change/grow for the better if you aren't functioning, and you can't function with sleep deprivation.

Things I notice:

My depression is always worse after the sun goes down.

But, at night, I often don't want to go to bed.  There is just so much I'd rather do.  

So I stay up and do it.  Till like 4 am.  Then I eventually fall asleep and wake up at 6 am because I have to, and then the next day really sucks because I feel like crap.  Then night rolls around again, I get my second wind, and I stay up doing things that don't really matter.  The day after that (can you guess??!) I feel like crap again.   

That stupid pattern continued until I self-destructed, which is never fun.  

Moral of the story? Go to bed. 

Whatever it is you are staying up to do isn't worth it.

So, your new goal is to set a bed time and sick to it.  10:00 is ideal.  The ‘sleeping all day because I'm depressed’ is not the type of sleep I'm aiming for here.  Think 'a good, productive, sleep pattern."  You have a circadian rhythm, my friend. Use it.

The next day, you'll feel legions better.  You'll have more energy.  You can do more things. You'll feel like you could conquer the world.  It's yours! Go get 'em boss.

And waking up after a good night's sleep? Priceless.  Even if you have to set an alarm, you'll still feel great.  To help me wake up, I taped a picture above my alarm clock.  It's a picture of sunrise that says "Good morning sunshine! The Earth says hello!"  I don't know, waking up to that makes me feel like one of those cute little flowers that yawns adorably when the sun comes up after stretching out its little leaves.  Whooohoooo!  Who's ready for another full day of photosynthesis? *swings arms and skips*

(If that’s not your style, then by all means, print a picture of a yawning lion.  It’s much more macho.  Instead of being a cute little flower, you can be all like “ROOOOOOOOAAAAAARRRR!!!!! I’m King of the jungle!”   Whatever. You do you.)

Here's a handy list.  I call it: "The Benefits of Sleep."

The Benefits of Sleep:

Rest! Your body gets a chance to repair itself. 

Dreams! Be a fairy princess or spiderman.  You're sleeping dude.  No one can judge you.

Laying down.  Your body and brain are like "thank you thank you thank you."

Enjoying your soft pillow. Ahhhhhhhh, it's soo nice.  If you just close your eyes, you could pretend you're on a cloud, floating in a clean blue sky. Just drifting, drifting, drifting, drifftt...ZZzzzzzZZZZzzzzzzz.

(Check out the video from Hairspray- now that is a great morning)