People suffering from severe depressions have an unusual longing for sleep. It has been found that sleep depravation lessens the depression.

We can try to explain this with resonator chains.

To work properly the electrolytic environment around resonator chains has to have a fairly constant value. Its like a bipolar oscillator between two capacitor plates. If the capacitor voltage is too high the oscillation gets distorted and if its too low it is distorted as well.

In some way the oscillators must be able to measure their distortion using reference oscillators that signal - go to sleep - when they get out of frequency. If the recharging mechanism is faulty the electrolytic balance is not restored correctly.

Any imbalance, whether positive or negative, blurs recognition. Assume that depression is a blurring caused by overcharge. Sleep depravation will suppress recharging. The continued brain activity will use the surplus energy, which means that the electrolytic state progresses into the direction of the correct value. The more activity there is the sooner the normal stage will be reached. Therefore it is important that people do something when they are in depression.

The blurred vision during depression not only suppresses recognition and movement capability, it also produces no events that are rewarding and suppresses object recognition that represent rewards.

It seems that Lithium (used to balance manic depression) plays an important role either in the reference oscillator or in the process that recharges the brain cells. If not it serves as a buffering agent for overcharge and undercharge.