Hi there, it's Matt here and welcome back to the podcast. Today we're going to dive into a

corner of medical science that on its surface feels deeply counterintuitive, almost like a medical

hoax. It's the story of sleep, or rather the deliberate lack of it, as a potential antidote for

one of humanity's most pervasive afflictions.

Depression.

What if I told you that one way to mend a broken mind was to keep it awake?

You'd probably look at me sideways.

I've spoken at length on the virtues of a good night's rest for mental health.

Yet, for over four decades, a small dedicated band of researchers and clinicians has been poking at this paradox.

What if, for some, sleeplessness is a path to breaking free from serious depression, at least

for a very brief moment.

It began, as these things often do, with observations.

The kind that make you scratch your head and ask, is that really happening?

Back in the early 1970s, German psychiatrists stumbled upon something remarkable.

They found that keeping depressed patients awake for just one night, a process they called

induced wakefulness therapy, could produce a startling effect. Temporary remission in a staggering 40 to 60% of patients

with major depression, often within hours. Think about that. Most standard antidepressants take

weeks if they work at all. This was like hitting a reset button and it was fast. One of the fastest acting

non-pharmacological antidepressant treatments available, in fact. But here's the rub. The effect,

as almost all early observers noted, was rarely stable. It was like Cinderella's carriage

turning back into a pumpkin at midnight.

After a single night of recovery sleep, roughly 83% of unmedicated responders would relapse back

...