You're probably wondering why sleep and appetite are predictors for depression. Plenty of studies have been done on what happens to a human being both physically and emotionally when they are deprived of sleep or their appetites are disturbed somehow. They become less immune to illness and more reactive to stress. Stress is easily converted to other problems such as depression.

Sleep

If your child is not getting the rest he needs to repair his body and mind, he may become depressed. If you think back on it, has there been a time where you were much more emotional, irrational, and upset about something when you hadn't been getting your rest? The same thing happens with a child. The difference is that, again, you have knowledge and experience on your side.

If your child has been up late studying for exams for several nights in a row, you will notice he is more irritable and edgy than usual. If this lack of sleep lasts for much longer, his emotional reactions are likely to escalate and you will wonder who the beast is standing before you! Give a child a chronic lack of sleep, and he may get depressed.

The same goes for too much sleep. Children at different stages of growth and development need more sleep than at other times. That is different from the child who is sleeping more than usual for longer periods of time.

Consider the story of Amy. Under ordinary circumstances, Amy is not a morning person! However, after hitting her snooze button once, she is up by 7:00 A.M. and out the door for school in forty-five minutes. After school, when she isn't practicing for the tennis team, she likes to chat on the computer, shop, and has even been known to do her chores without having to be asked. Occasionally, she might take a short nap for thirty minutes. She's routinely in bed by 10:00 P.M.

Now let's look at Amy in a different set of circumstances. For some reason, now Amy cannot get out of bed unless her mother physically shakes her, pulls the covers off the bed, and threatens that she'll be late for school. As soon as she walks in the door in the afternoons, Amy is in bed, sleeping soundly. She might miss dinner altogether, or she will make a brief appearance at the table and then go right back to bed. She might get up long enough to do some homework, but she will sleep the whole night through, even though she slept pretty much until her bedtime. This is not the teenager who is having a growth spurt and needs a little more sleep to accommodate it. Amy is becoming depressed and her body is trying to alert her to that fact.

Appetite

Just as too much sleep or too little may predict the occurrence of depression, so do changes in the appetite. An occasional lapse in your dietary functioning is normal and expected. There may have been times when you ate the dozen doughnuts or the half-pint of ice cream when you've experienced some sort of terrible event. That's not out of the ordinary.

What you should look for in your child is a significant change in appetite. To be considered a predictor of depression, you must look at the overall picture. Is your child medicating herself with food? If she tends to overeat in times of emotional stress, and can't seem to control herself, she may be getting depressed.

Likewise, if your child quits eating or the amount she eats is substantially less, it could be a warning that she is depressed. Of course, if a child is dieting, this is different. You should be on the prowl for eating behavior that deviates significantly from what is normal for your particular child.

The other troubling issue with appetite is that of eating disorders, which will be discussed later. Obsessions with body image and control are quite prevalent. Depression and eating disorders almost always go hand in hand.