March 21 is World Sleep Day, and the theme of this year’s event is “Focus on middle-aged and elderly sleep. The middle-aged and elderly population is defined as people aged 40 to 60 years old. According to a recent survey conducted by the China Sleep Research Association, middle-aged and elderly people account for 18.8% of the 12,000 respondents with sleep problems, and 77.28% of them suffer from chronic insomnia. Ms. Chen, 53, who has been menopausal for a year, has been suffering from insomnia for the past six months and often cannot fall asleep until 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. She wakes up easily after falling asleep. She sleeps only two or three hours a night, sometimes even all night long, accompanied by hot flashes, excessive dreaming, night sweats, dizziness, tinnitus, fatigue and other symptoms. She was unable to concentrate when she went to work, and her ability to work gradually decreased. Ms. Chen went to the hospital several times, but the doctors said it was menopausal syndrome and that it would pass after she got over it. Ms. Chen began to participate in exercise, also took a lot of tranquilizing Chinese medicine, and also took 2 tablets of “Valium” every night, but the effect is not very big. A year ago, Ms. Chen relied on alcohol to hypnotize, and after drinking two or three pairs of liquor each night, she was able to sleep for about 5 hours, but recently she had to drink up to 4 pairs to fall asleep. Ms. Chen was worried about her dependence on alcohol and went to the psychology department of Xiangyue Hospital a month ago. The doctor diagnosed her with insomnia caused by endocrine disorders during menopause. After using hormones, medication and psychotherapy, her sleep time returned to normal and her ability to work was gradually restored. Insomnia in menopausal women is caused by hot flashes that interfere with sleep on the one hand, and is related to insufficient estrogen levels in the body on the other. Because estrogen has an inhibitory effect on the cerebral cortex, when estrogen is lacking, the inhibitory process in the brain is weakened and the excitatory process is relatively too high, and the balance between the two is disrupted, which manifests as insomnia. Insomnia is often followed by fatigue and anxiety, and anxiety aggravates insomnia, forming a vicious circle. Liu Farong said that insomnia is a sleep disorder that lasts for a long time, not the inability to sleep caused by depression or anxiety, nor the insomnia caused by many medical diseases, such as chronic pain, high fever may make it difficult to sleep; respiratory infections, cough can also make people wake up frequently. Insomnia is the main symptom of insomnia. Insomnia is diagnosed only when it occurs at least three times a week and lasts for more than a month. Most insomnia patients have a fear of drugs, especially sedative-hypnotic drugs, and believe that once they are used, they will not be able to lose them, and will be overly concerned about the damage of drugs, especially Western drugs, to liver and kidney function. In fact, this is a misunderstanding, a small amount of drugs on the body is always much smaller than the impact of sleepless nights on the body. Short-term (less than 2 weeks) to eat “Valium” type drugs will not form dependence, long-term treatment available with sleep-assisting antidepressants, such as mirtazapine, trazodone, etc., also not easy to form dependence.