If you’re under the age of 25, you’ve probably heard of the term “depression nap.” For those who aren’t glued to social media 24/7/365, the phrase may be new. Depression nap is a current internet meme — another term some people may need to Google. Users of Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat are fond of talking about taking a depression nap to escape whatever real life has thrown at them — whether it’s work, school, nonvirtual socialization — in a mostly snarky tone. Behind the snark, though, might there be something more concerning at play?
After all, depression and sleep form a complex and intricately linked couple. As the National Sleep Foundation puts it, “depression may cause sleep problems and sleep problems may cause or contribute to depressive disorders.” In some cases, depression can lead to sleep issues like insomnia and, conversely, oversleeping. In other cases, sleep problems occur first and lead to depression: One study found that those with insomnia are 10 times more likely to develop depression and 17 times more likely to develop anxiety than those who sleep soundly. The NSF says that sleep problems and depression “may also share risk factors and biological features and the two conditions may respond to some of the same treatment strategies.”
So if sleep problems and depression are nothing to joke about, why are so many on social media doing just that?
[Read: Mental Health Experts Recommend Their Favorite Depression Books.]
Is Depression Napping Really Depression?
“Depression is a complex mental health issue, and while daytime sleeping can be a symptom, it hardly is, in and of itself, an indication of depression,” says Ellen Braaten, associate director of the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Depression is marked by problems with mood and behavior that lead to a loss in functioning, she says. Behavioral symptoms, such as a loss of appetite or overeating, are common for people with depression, as are changes in sleeping habits. These changes may include sleeping too much or sleeping too little. They can also include early morning awakening, restless sleep and insomnia. “Thus, to say that one possible symptom of depression, such as frequent napping, is an indication of depression is misleading,” she says. “It is not a quasi-syndrome, nor is napping alone without other symptoms an indication of clinical depression.”
But depression napping is problematic, at least as a social media meme, says Rebecca Schwartz-Mette, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Maine. “In general, yes, I’ve heard of [depression napping], but no, it’s not a real thing in a psychological sense per se,” she says. It depends more on the person than the tweet. In some cases, excessive napping could be a symptom of depression, Schwartz-Mette says. “Alternately, it could be an avoidance-type behavior resulting from depression, like losing interest in things you usually enjoy, being tired, being down, withdrawing socially. Often times when we feel depressed, we may quite literally feel like pulling the covers over our head and shutting out the rest of the world for a while.”
On the other hand, taking depression napping at face value may not be the point. “The fact that this has taken a life of its own on social media is perhaps not surprising. It’s sort of a tongue-in-cheek, ‘I’m shirking my responsibilities for a while,’ sort of thing that is likely to get a laugh or a like from friends who find it funny,” Schwartz-Mette says. Indeed, even if someone isn’t depressed at all, just hiding out from the real world for few moments, or indulging in some other guilty pleasure, such as skipping out of work and seeing a matinee movie, “is part and parcel of our human experience,” she says. “It can be a fun, relatively harmless way of just unplugging for a second.”
[Read: A Look at Depression Around the World.]
When Should You Be Concerned?
Taking a tiny vacation from the real world, be it with a nap, an ice cream sundae or not answering phone calls, can be rejuvenating from time to time. “It becomes problematic avoidance when it’s habitual, which can begin to happen when someone takes these minibreaks over and over, feels better when they do, and then does it more and more to the point where they are not active participants in their own lives,” Schwartz-Mette says. “It’s reinforcement in its purest sense.”
Should parents be concerned if they spot this on their child’s social media? “In a word, yes, for two reasons,” Braaten says. “First, if your child isn’t depressed, this is a good time to teach them that postings on social media have consequences. Even if it’s completely a joke, this is a teachable moment. Second, if it’s not a joke, this is a time to seek help. A child who speaks about his depression on social media is a child who is essentially asking for treatment.”
[Read: How Do I Know If I Have Depression?]
If napping and daytime sleepiness is excessive and is interfering with a person’s functioning, it should be evaluated by a medical doctor, as it could be a sign of a more serious medical problem, Braaten adds. If it is related to depression, treatment can include therapy and medication, she says, but the first step would be a thorough evaluation with a mental health professional such as a psychiatrist, psychologist or social worker. School personnel can also be helpful in determining how serious these behaviors may be, she says.
The goal of treatment, Schwartz-Mette says, is to help the individual “get that same positive reinforcement, positive feeling from being out there and having real, positive experiences in their actual, daily life.” It can be difficult to determine whether someone’s postings on social media are made in jest or are a sign of needing help, Braaten says. “So it’s always best to take these comments seriously and to ask more about whether the comments have a ring of truth — or more.”
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Are Depression Naps a Harmless Internet Meme or Concerning Sign? originally appeared on usnews.com
