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I think, here, there is an effect from "zero sleep" that you don't get from "not enough sleep" (which I'm guessing is at least a couple of hours).

The depression altering effect requires total sleep deprivation, or at least missing most of certain part of the night.

Getting 4-6 hours of sleep generally won't do it. You really have to upset the whole system to trigger the effect.

Which is also why it's completely unsustainable. More of a novelty and research topic, not an actual treatment.

>More of a novelty and research topic, not an actual treatment.

Sleep deprivation can be legitimately useful in crisis situations. Before the discovery of ketamine as a rapid-acting antidepressant, sleep deprivation was one of the only effective treatment options for an acutely suicidal patient. It doesn't solve anything long-term, but it can at least give the patient a bit of respite from their distress and perhaps engender a little hope.

Bad mood isn't the same as chronic depression though...