Depression and anxiety are negative emotional states familiar to us all through personal experience. Less familiar are severe states of depression, in particular, which can actually shorten the lives of sufferers by over a decade. The relationship of these very severe states of illness to the milder cases more common earlier in development is important. Most patients who have suffered from depression will suffer from further episodes during their lifetime, and an early onset may make recurrence more likely. A number of factors increase the risk for depression, including family history, stressful life events, early life experiences, personality (particularly the traits of neuroticism and perfectionism) and mood lability (marked ups and downs). Sleep disturbance may both provoke and/or signal the onset of mood disorder. Sleep is therefore doubly important as a gateway to treatment. Understanding more about how sleep interacts with the established risk factors would allow vulnerable young people to be identified earlier for more effective intervention. Early identification of sleep disorder and depression allows psychological treatments to be used, which are less effective once a full depressive episode and a cascade of neurobiological and psychological effects have occurred.

中文翻译：

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为什么睡眠对于可能患有抑郁症的年轻人很重要。


抑郁和焦虑是我们个人经历中所熟悉的负面情绪状态。不太为人所知的是严重的抑郁症，它实际上可以使患者的寿命缩短十多年。这些非常严重的疾病状态与发展早期更常见的轻度病例之间的关系很重要。大多数患有抑郁症的患者在其一生中都会遭受进一步的发作，而且过早发作可能会增加复发的可能性。许多因素会增加患抑郁症的风险，包括家族史、压力性生活事件、早期生活经历、性格（尤其是神经质和完美主义的特征）和情绪不稳定（明显的起伏）。睡眠障碍可能会引发情绪障碍和/或预示情绪障碍的发生。因此，睡眠作为治疗的途径尤为重要。更多地了解睡眠如何与既定风险因素相互作用，将使弱势年轻人能够更早地被识别出来，从而进行更有效的干预。早期识别睡眠障碍和抑郁症可以使用心理治疗，但一旦完全抑郁发作并发生一系列神经生物学和心理影响，心理治疗的效果就会降低。