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Anneida Ayala

Professor Dunham

ENG 1201

1 May 2021

Mental Disorders Influence Sleep

In passing, or as individuals, everyone shares the same revelations. Every person is

unique and goes through challenges with or without help. One of these challenges pertains to

mental health, moreover mental disorders. According to the National Institute of Mental health,

“1 in every 5 United State of America adult lives with a mental illness” (National Institute of

Mental Health). Mental disorders can impact a person's life and basic human functions, such

as sleep. Furthermore, mental disorders like depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety can

influence dreams and the sleep cycle.

Mental disorders have a long history and an extensive background. Mental disorders are

commonly referenced to as mental illnesses. In history, mental illnesses were identified in the

ancient time of the Greeks even though the Greeks were the first to discover this illness, it was

not studied until 1883. From NOBA, a psychology textbook, in 1883 Emil Kraepelin published

informative documents that focused on “patterns of symptoms” and physiological causes for the

stated symptoms (Farreras). From there it was not until the 1960s were mental illness was truly

believed in, practiced, and treated in the medical field. Since then it took time for the American
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public to truly accept mental illnesses, but it was accepted by the American culture in the late 80s

(Borinstein).

Research for sleep and the theory behind sleep dates back to more recent times. Eugene

Aserinsky in 1953, began to bring to the public scientific research of dreams. He brought to light

the area in which dreams occur in the sleep cycle and what happens to the body during that

process. Aserinsky discovered that during sleep, our body’s mainly our eye while sleeping

rapidly move. Due to this fact, he found and named this process REM, Rapid Eye

Movement (Brown). As for dream theory, many people had different ideas and definitions, but

Sigmund Freud was the main theorist on this topic. Sigmund Freud, a dream theorist, designed

the psychology background of dreams and what they pertain to (William). 

Mental illness can impact a person’s dreams, dream state, and what occurs in the dreams.

Due to this and mental illnesses affecting the chemistry and brain structure, people will disorders

like depression have different dreams compared to others. Depression is defined as a feeling of

loneness, sadness, disinterest, that together stops a person from doing daily activities (Better

Health Channel). From Banyan Mental Health, depressed people on average sleep more.

Additionally, depression affects sleep and impacts the individual's REM state of dreaming by

extending it. According to Banyan Mental Health, “A research study discovered that 28.4% of

participants that had the mental illness of depression reported to have repeatedly experienced

nightmares. Moreover they found that depression was the strongest tell that a person has

depression.” (Banyan Mental Health). In the conclusion of this study, the researchers found a
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correlation between depression and dreams. The researchers discovered that depressed people

tend to have more dreams and that they tend to get more nightmares compared to the

public (Banyan Mental Health).

Bipolar disorder is defined as a mental disorder that affects the mood, energy, and

concentration that can make it difficult to live life (Bipolar Disorder). Many people that have

bipolar disorder tend to have night terrors. When night terrors happen REM sleep is not affected.

This is because this stimulation happens between sleep stages and can be considered Confusional

Arousal Disorder (Bipolar Disorder and Dreaming). Additionally, nightmares also rapidly occur

in people with bipolar disorder. According to a study called “The role of sleep in bipolar

disorder” patients with euthymic bipolar disorder show a lot of “sleep troubles which include,

reduce levels of study, decreased activity hours, and displaying anxiety about not sleeping at

night” (Gold and Sylvia). Likewise, people with euthymic disorder have common sleep

disturbances. The study showed that depressed bipolar patients display an increased REM sleep

and increased times of waking up (Gold and Sylvia).

Anxiety affects your emotions. This condition deals with a large feeling of worry or

concern. Anxiety causes uneasiness, therefore it affects sleep. The worrying makes a person at

times overthink therefore it makes a person have frequent awakenings at night. When this

happens this can lead to insomnia and sleep deprivation causing a harmful impact on a person’s

sleep cycle. 
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Both sides to this question are extensive and have backing to them. Even though there are

two sides the majority of the sides point to mental health and a person's mental state does play a

role in dreams. This is because mental illness has to deal with a person's brain and the different

levels of liquids that balance of them. If a person’s balance is off, then it can affect many

different attributes in a person. Even though some studies state that “anxiety is not a leading

singular influence it does impact the sleep cycle” (Staner).   

Some people might say that the side effects of the medications can impact a person’s

sleep cycles more than the disorder. This is not possible because the medications balance

everything out in their system. This simply means that the medications force their body to act

“normally” and therefore it should make their sleep cycle normal. Additionally, some people

with mental illnesses take medication to help them go to sleep. By them taking medication it

allows for a smoother and regular sleep cycle that could not impact normal sleep cycle patterns.

Dreams are influenced by a person’s mental disorder. With every one of the disorders in

this paper (depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety), the individuals have an increased amount

of night terrors and nightmares. People with depression have an increased amount of memory

recognition and tend to recall their dreams more. Likewise, people with bipolar disorder have the

same effects, or they do not sleep since they stay up due to anxiety. 

In conclusion, mental disorders like depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety can

influence dreams and the sleep cycle. Depression influences dreams by causing a person to have

an increased amount of nightmares. Likewise, it influences the cycle by making the individual
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have an extended REM period. Additionally, bipolar disorder has the same effects. Anxiety is a

little different in the fact that it is an ad to an influence and not the main cause. Overall, all three

disorders influence dreams and the sleep cycle.

Works Cited

“Bipolar Disorder.” National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services, 2020, www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/bipolar-disorder/index.shtml.

“Bipolar Disorder and Dreaming.” International Bipolar Foundation, 2019, ibpf.org/bipolar-

disorder-and-dreaming/.

Banyan Mental Health. “Depression and Dreams: How Mental Health Affects Your Dreams:

Mental Health Blog.” Mental Health Program at Banyan Treatment Centers, 2021,

www.banyanmentalhealth.com/2019/11/27/depression-and-dreams-how-mental-health-

affects-your-dreams/#:~:text=Yes%2C%20depressed%20people%20tend%20to,people

%20who%20are%20not%20depressed.

Better Health Channel. “Depression Explained.” Better Health Channel, 2018,

www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/depression.

Borinstein, Andrew B. “Public Attitudes toward Persons with Mental Illness.” DataWatch, vol.

11, no. 3, 1992.

Brown, Chip. “The Stubborn Scientist Who Unraveled a Mystery of the

Night.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 2003,

www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-stubborn-scientist-who-unraveled-a-
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mystery-of-the-night-91514538/#:~:text=Fifty%20years%20ago%2C%20Eugene

%20Aserinksy,think%20about%20sleep%20and%20dreaming.

Domhoff, G William. “The Purpose of Dreams.” Dreamresearch.net,

dreams.ucsc.edu/Library/purpose.html.

Farreras, Ingrid G. “History of Mental Illness.” NOBA, 2021, nobaproject.com/modules/history-

of-mental-illness#:~:text=While%20diagnoses%20were%20recognized%20as,of%20an

%20underlying%20physiological%20cause.

Gold, Alexandra K, and Louisa G Sylvia. “The role of sleep in bipolar disorder.” Nature and

science of sleep vol. 8 207-14. 29 Jun. 2016, doi:10.2147/NSS.S85754

Khazaie, Habibolah et al. “Evaluation of Dream Content among Patients with Schizophrenia,

their Siblings, Patients with Psychiatric Diagnoses other than Schizophrenia, and Healthy

Control.” Iranian journal of psychiatry vol. 7,1 (2012): 26-30.

“Mental Illness.” National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services, 2021, www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness.shtml#:~:text=Mental

%20illnesses%20are%20common%20in,(51.5%20million%20in%202019).

Staner, Luc. “Sleep and anxiety disorders.” Dialogues in clinical neuroscience vol. 5, 3 (2003):

249-58. doi:10.31887/DCNS.2003.5.3/lstaner