A. The role of sleep on the human body
If we compare sleep to a bank, not sleeping every day is equivalent to borrowing money from the bank every day, and if you borrow more, you have to pay back the money with interest. If you do not sleep for a long time, someone has done an experiment, 11 days without sleep, there is no way to maintain a state of wakefulness.
How many people around the world have insomnia problems? On average, about 25% of people have sleep problems. According to a survey of our cities, about 45% of people have sleep problems, accounting for about 600 million people.
How long should a person sleep normally to be appropriate?
Young people have a greater need for sleep, about 7 to 9 hours; for older people older than 60 years old, 6 hours of sleep is enough.
What is the effect of sleep on the human body?
First, it can eliminate fatigue and restore physical strength. It restores physical strength because the basal metabolic rate decreases during sleep.
Second, it protects the brain and restores energy. The brain in the sleep state oxygen consumption is greatly reduced, which is conducive to brain cell energy storage.
Third, it enhances immunity. Sleep can enhance the body’s ability to produce antibodies, thus enhancing the body’s resistance, modern medicine often uses sleep as a means of treatment.
Fourth is to delay aging and promote longevity. Research data show that long-lived old people have good sleep habits, sleep can ensure the longevity of life.
Fifth is to protect mental health. Sleep is very important to maintain normal mental activity, lack of sleep can cause irritability, agitation, mental depression, etc..
Sixth, it is beneficial to skin beauty. Sleep speeds up skin regeneration and protects the skin. So sleep is an important physiological process in the human body, which has a very important role in human energy, physical recovery and growth and development.
People who suffer from chronic insomnia are prone to diseases and have low immunity. For example, women with long-term insomnia may lead to endocrine disorders, producing mastocytosis, menopause, uterine fibroids, hormonal disorders, etc.
How can I tell if I have insomnia?
First, to see if there is difficulty in falling asleep, difficulty in falling asleep is mainly half an hour after going to bed and still can not sleep.
Secondly, when you fall asleep but keep waking up at night, you wake up 2~3 times, and every time you wake up, you have to toss and turn for half an hour to fall asleep, which is called difficulty in maintaining sleep.
Third, you can fall asleep, but wake up very early, this is called early awakening.
Fourth, the total time of sleep is less than 6 hours a day, which is not enough sleep time, also called insomnia. In addition, although you can fall asleep at night, but the sleep is shallow, seemingly sleepy, you will be very tired during the day and can not complete the daily work, which is also brought by poor sleep quality. So, whenever we are not satisfied with sleep, including the quality and quantity of sleep, we call it insomnia.
Second, what are the factors affecting sleep
What are the factors that affect sleep? One is the psychological factors, such as something at home, children have something to worry about the elderly, there will be sleep problems. Some people are more serious, worrying, more sensitive, this kind of people are very easy to insomnia. Second, women are more likely to suffer from insomnia than men. Third, people with physical illnesses are prone to insomnia, such as an enlarged prostate, the constant need to go to the bathroom, or pain that causes sleeplessness. Fourth, external factors, such as the environment is very noisy or competitive, or more social at night, the old night shift, are likely to bring sleep problems.
Long-term insomnia can lead to physical diseases, some cancers, diabetes, etc. are caused by long-term inattention to sleep, lack of sleep. There are also people with emotional problems, such as depression, anxiety, long-term sleep deprivation, insomnia can lead to high blood pressure, some people may also have low blood pressure, or unstable blood pressure, some people’s blood pressure is high and low. Long-term sleep deprivation also has a greater impact on blood sugar, which can lead to increased blood sugar levels. In addition, long-term sleep deprivation slows down blood flow, which can cause cardiovascular disease, such as stroke, heart ischemia is more likely to occur at night. Sometimes illness is also an important cause of insomnia for many people. People who suffer from chronic diseases for a long time will have sleep disorders, and insomnia can make the patient’s condition worse. Some people will also experience gastrointestinal symptoms such as flatulence, ulcers, gastritis, and belly bloating. Long-term insomnia will lead to a decrease in immunity and induce tumors, because tumors themselves are caused by long-term body immunity in a low state. People with chronic insomnia who have kidney disease will have accelerated kidney failure, acidosis, electrolyte disorders and so on. Sleep deprivation can also produce endocrine disorders like hyperthyroidism and menstrual disorders. If long-term insomnia, the brain will be slow to react, memory loss and other phenomena, and in serious cases will develop into dementia.
Third, how to get a good night’s sleep
First of all, we must develop good habits and keep our mouths shut. Older people should eat in moderation, try not to drink tea at night; open your legs, do appropriate exercise, go for a walk outdoors and participate in more social activities.
Second, create a good sleep environment, temperature, humidity, pillows, quilts, beds should meet the requirements of the elderly.
Third, the mood must be good before going to bed, a good mood is necessary to ensure a peaceful sleep.
Fourth, the problem of napping, if you are really sleepy, you can take a nap, but never more than half an hour, or you will not be able to sleep at night.
Fifth, take all the methods to ensure restful sleep. Older people generally go to bed earlier, maybe eight or nine o’clock on the bed, but wake up earlier, so you should drag the sleep time backwards to ensure a normal sleep cycle. Then there is a bath and bubble feet before going to sleep, so that the blood goes to the limbs, you want to sleep. Some elderly people are more serious, can’t sleep, drink milk, count, soak feet, exercise, the result is busy all night, lie down or sleep. In fact, sleep is a natural thing that happens, we do not deliberately do these things, do not take it as a task to do, to follow the situation, so as to ensure sleep.
Fourth, the use of sleeping pills
Treatment of insomnia should first be treated for the cause, to establish good sleep hygiene habits, and only after the failure of psychological and behavioral therapy, you can try to use sleeping pills. Take sleeping pills is only an auxiliary treatment means, do not take it as the first treatment.
1. The principle of taking sleeping pills is to take them as needed
What do you mean by taking as needed? If we can’t sleep, if we lie in bed for half an hour without sleep, or the next day there are important things to do and foreboding may not be able to sleep you can use sleeping pills to achieve the purpose of a good night’s sleep. If you really can’t sleep, decisively take the medicine does not matter, the doctor prescribed you sleeping pills, let you take a piece, you take a piece. Some people are afraid that they will become addicted to sleeping pills and think that they can’t stop taking sleeping pills and will feel bad if they stop. What do you mean by addiction? We need to be clear on the concept. If you take one tablet today, you have to take two tablets tomorrow, and three tablets the day after tomorrow, which is called addiction; while the daily ration of sleeping pills can not be called addiction. We can’t stop taking the drugs for hypertension and diabetes, we have to take them every day, and if we stop, we will have problems. Sleeping pills and these drugs are the same, you can not just stop. Some elderly people have long-term insomnia, stop the drug can not sleep, can not sleep will be very uncomfortable, blood pressure will rise, blood sugar will also rise, the burden on the heart will increase, blood circulation problems, insomnia itself induced consequences far more than taking sleeping pills on the human body, such as strokes, myocardial infarction, diabetes that is not a persistent disease, serious will kill, so the sleeping pills or have to eat, moderate taking, many people taking Sleeping pills have not been silly for decades.
Sleeping pills can be eaten under what circumstances?
First, encounter a thing excited, have a feeling that you may not be able to sleep at night, then you can take the drug today, it does not matter, and so things passed, it may be good, this time you can not take the drug.
Second, if you lie in bed for 30 minutes, you do not have any sleep, then you should take sleeping pills. Generally after 3 o’clock still can not sleep, we do not advocate to take medicine, because when the drug works, to the morning can not get up. We if insomnia more than 3 days in a row, you should take the medicine in advance, even if you do not know if you can sleep today, you can take it in advance. Some patients can gradually reduce the drug according to the improvement of sleep, sleeping pills can not suddenly stop, slowly reduce the dose, gradually stop, you can figure out some rules, as long as the dose range in the doctor told you, I think there is nothing wrong.
2. How to choose sleeping pills
Sleeping pills have a long and short effect, some last 2 hours, some work 3 to 4 hours, some work 10 hours to excrete from the body. If the effect is long, the next day there will be a reaction, will be weak, can not wake up, no energy, so we can choose the short-acting. When choosing sleeping pills, people who have difficulty sleeping should use short-acting ones, such as Sinox, Zopiclone and Midazolam, which are all short-acting sleeping pills with fast onset and fast metabolism. Some people are fast asleep, wake up early, you can choose the medium and long-acting, such as Scholastin, Jiajing Valium this kind of drugs, including clonidine. There are also medium- and long-acting sleeping pills that work slowly, so it is recommended that you take your medication not too late, but an hour earlier, and you will be sleepy the next morning if you take your medication too late.
As you get older and sicker, will there be any interaction between sleeping pills and other drugs? This is indeed the case.
So when taking medication you must pay attention to one principle.
First, start small doses of sleeping pills.
Second, when taking drugs must see if there are interactions, if so, you can reduce the amount of food. People who have the habit of drinking alcohol should pay more attention, because alcohol and sleeping pills will interact with each other, drink a lot of alcohol, and then take sleeping pills, the interaction of a very dangerous.
Nowadays, there are benzodiazepines and non-benzodiazepines. Benzodiazepines were widely used in the 1960s and 1980s, and they are long-acting, medium-acting and short-acting. There are many varieties of benzodiazepines, such as Sulezade, Glaxoquine, Midazolam (Imipramine), and Clonidine. Non-benzodiazepines have a single sedative effect and do not bring about some effects in terms of unresponsiveness. The duration of action of non-benzodiazepines used in China is relatively short, such as Sinox, Zopiclone, Zaleplon are very short. But non-benzodiazepines anxiolytic effect is relatively poor, like many elderly people, suffering from many diseases, very anxious, I sometimes give patients prescribed Lola, Lola is benzodiazepines, it has a sedative-hypnotic effect, but also anxiolytic effect, such as panic, fear it, eat some Lola may be good. Benzodiazepines can be used by people with fast heart rates, but patients with particularly slow heart rates and sinus bradycardia should use them with caution, and patients with low blood pressure should also use them with caution, because it may make blood pressure lower and heart rate slower.
People with snoring and breath-holding should be careful with sleeping pills, and even more careful with benzodiazepines, which carry certain risks. So things like snoring and sleep apnea should always be treated. The vast majority of elderly people who do not sleep well have emotional problems, and the biggest worry is worrying about their illness. There are also many chronic insomnia patients who have more or less emotional problems. So people who have had insomnia for a long time, in addition to using sleeping pills, also use drugs that improve their mood.
3. The elderly use sleeping pills precautions
Some patients with urinary system have increased nocturia, and some patients with chronic pain must first be cured of their physical diseases.
Sleeping pills for the elderly must be used in small doses and according to the doctor’s instructions. Some people think that alternating the use of sleeping pills can prevent addiction, taking this pill today and that pill tomorrow? I think there is no basis, as long as the drug can solve the problem, use it, if the drug does not work, you can switch, it is best to be helped by your doctor to switch, change the drug to communicate with the doctor. Some people say that eating this medicine does not work, then you have to analyze whether the medicine is bad, or their own problems. In fact, some of the emotions are not resolved, eat sleeping pills also do not work. In addition, short-acting sleeping pills can be eaten half an hour before going to bed, medium and long-acting sleeping pills are slow to take effect, so you can eat an hour to two hours in advance. Sleep to have a sleepy feeling before going to sleep, do not eat the medicine and lie in bed, which is often not effective. It is important to take medication skills and adjust your mind.
The elderly have physical diseases, such as glaucoma patients should be cautious about taking medication, if there is glaucoma accompanied by severe insomnia must be used, you can first control the intraocular pressure, and then a small trial of sleeping pills, only a good night’s sleep, intraocular pressure can be lowered.
4. About the side effects of sleeping pills
The side effects of sleeping pills are discomfort the next day after taking them and sleepiness during the day. How to solve the problem of sleepiness, you can choose short-acting sleeping pills, or take the drug in advance, the next day sleepiness will not be. Some patients take long-acting sleeping pills to fall asleep slowly, take short-acting sleeping pills and wake up early, then you can take half a tablet half an hour before going to bed, and then eat the other half in the middle of the night when you wake up, but do not eat if you get to three or four o’clock. So the use of medication to vary from person to person, they are able to figure out some rules.
Use sleeping pills reasonably, do not be afraid to use sleeping pills. Some people are afraid before they take the medicine, sleeping pills are not poisonous snakes and fierce beasts, not so terrible. Some long-term insomnia, most people will have depression and anxiety, should use some anti-anxiety and depression drugs according to the situation, these patients improved mood after the sleep also improved. Some people with stubborn insomnia, who have used a variety of sleeping pills that do not work well can use small doses of some antipsychotic drugs, such as olanzapine (reprimand), the sedative effect is stronger, these drugs are used in small doses, with few side effects and will not become addicted. People with real psychosis use even larger doses. I suggest that patients who have had insomnia for a long time, anti-anxiety and depression drugs should be taken for more than six months. In addition, sleeping pills can be reduced according to the sleep situation, you can eat every other day, if the reduction of drugs and can not sleep, you can increase the dose again, maintaining the minimum effective dose. Sedative sleeping drugs can not be suddenly stopped, you can gradually withdraw, step by step withdrawal. When reducing the medication, you should first reduce the dosage, and then take it every other day, first withdraw the sleeping pill, and then start reducing the anti-anxiety depressant. For the new generation of sleeping pills, it is not the newer the drug, the better the efficacy, the effect and new are two different things. In short, you should take sleeping pills under the guidance of your doctor. Do not stop taking the medication immediately after it takes effect.
Finally I offer you a small recipe for sleep helpful foods are: milk, millet, grapes, dates, mulberries, lotus seeds, silver ears, sesame seeds, etc., but it does not mean that you should desperately eat these things. Although Chinese medicine is helpful for sleep, the effect is generally slow and light, suitable for auxiliary use. Mild insomnia can be effective with some Chinese herbs alone, such as lily of the valley, lingzhi, sour date seeds, etc. In short, if you have serious sleep problems, you must go to a sleep specialist to see a doctor.