I am currently struggling heavily with depression. Which impacts my quality of sleep. Sleep now has never been a talent of mine. So I generally make up for it by napping. I used to absolutely love it. Both the initial and the waking up (feeling well rested). But lately the waking up part is getting more and more difficult. It then feels like someone hung an anchor on my mental health. I am at that point in absolute disarray and so depressed it makes me feel anxious it’s so bad.

This may be above lemmy’s pay grade but still here goes. Should I stop taking naps? Also I’m thinking of taking antidepressants, anyone here have any experience?

Edit: Thank you all for the replies. I currently in talks with a therapist about taking antidepressants. For the mean time I have found that if when I wake up from a nap and just immediately get out of bed and go into the other room. It helps alleviate the “depressional” fall out that would normally follow.

  • I have a sleep disorder. I can no longer nap, have alcohol (at all), caffeine after 9am, and so on.

    I also love napping and have napped my entire life when possible until recently.

    Since I can’t nap anymore without ruining my sleep I now sit or lay quietly with my eyes closed and just rest. I set an alarm for 5-10 minutes and snooze for a few minutes over and over until I “get up”. I never really fall asleep so (reluctantly) ending this rest period is not that hard.

    This doesn’t give you that same rested feeling but I can destress, lower anxiety, and so on. This absolutely has led to me sleeping more deeply at night, getting drowsy before bed, etc.

    A little like meditation but mostly just taking a break.