One third of a person’s life is spent in sleep, sleep is necessary for life, is an important part of the body to recover, return to the spirit, release fatigue, integration and consolidation of memory, is an indispensable part of health. However, according to the World Health Organization survey, about 1/3 of people in the world have sleep disorders, China has all kinds of sleep disorders is as high as 38.2% of people, higher than the proportion of 27% of the world. Sleep disorders refer to the various dysfunctions that manifest during the sleep-wake process. The most common manifestation is insomnia, including: difficulty falling asleep, poor sleep, easy to wake up, dreamy, early awakening, not easy to go back to sleep after waking up, feeling uncomfortable after waking up, fatigue or daytime sleepiness, etc. Sleep disorders can cause a variety of acute and chronic diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, menopausal syndrome and depression and anxiety disorders, and may also have serious consequences of sudden death. Sleep disorders are “invisible killers” that affect physical and mental health and are seriously threatening human life.
Correct understanding of sleep problems, out of misconceptions, to strengthen sleep health care.
Myth 1: The more you sleep, the better your health.
At present, some office workers like to “catch up on sleep” in the double day off, but later found that after sleeping for a long time is not as good as the usual mental state, in fact, sleep is certainly important to health, but not the more sleep the better, on the contrary, too much sleep may make people mentally unstable. Experts believe that the amount of sleep each person needs each day varies greatly, which is related to many factors such as personality, health condition, working environment, labor intensity, sleep habits and diet. There are 5% of people who only need less than 6 hours of sleep per day, while there are 5% of people who need more than 10 hours of sleep per day, and most people sleep for 7-8 hours per day. So the length of sleep needs to be defined according to your body’s reaction, and there is no need to over-impose it.
Myth 2: Dreaming is not well rested.
Dream is a common physiological phenomenon, every normal person will dream during sleep, and about 4 times a night. The whole process of human sleep is divided into non-rapid eye movement period (NREM) and rapid eye movement period (REM), of which the rapid eye movement period accounts for 20%-25% of the total sleep time, 80% of the dream occurs in the rapid eye movement period, if the sleeper happens to wake up in this period, it can be a complete narrative dream, otherwise the recollection of the dream is incomplete. Therefore, everyone is dreaming every day, and dreaming has no effect on the quality of sleep, and if the next day is in good spirits, it can not be considered not well rested.
Misconception 3: no need to nap.
Napping for the coordination of the physiological clock and the 24-hour cycle is helpful, research has shown that the help of napping on health far exceeds the help of drugs on the human body, proper napping can prevent premature aging, so that the incidence of cardiovascular disease by 30%, in many countries still retain the tradition of napping, napping is known as the “health of the charger”. But nap time should not be too long, generally 15 to 30 minutes is appropriate.
Myth 4: Drinking alcohol can help you sleep.
In reality, there are many people who drink some wine before bed, that this will soon fall asleep, experts believe that this practice is not desirable. Although drinking before bed can shorten the time to fall asleep, but it will make the sleep shallow, the number of awakenings increased, so that sleep becomes intermittent, the overall quality of sleep decreased. In sleep, alcohol decomposition of harmful substances can not be eliminated in time, in the body for a long time will be toxic to the body, so that all aspects of the body function down.
Myth 5: Sleeplessness is not considered a disease.
It is understood that 8% of people have varying degrees of sleep disorders throughout their lives, and the insomnia rate of Chinese adults is 38.2. Long-term sleep is unhealthy, which can lead to various metabolic disorders, causing premature failure of the organs of the body, weakening the immune function of the body, reducing memory, and even cause anxiety and depression. More importantly, sleep disorders may have reached the level of disease in most cases, and for a few people with sleep disorders, it may be a manifestation of some diseases that have not yet been revealed or have already appeared.
Myth 6: Snoring is a good way to sleep.
Snoring is a common sleep phenomenon, and most people see it as a sign of a good sleep. But in fact, snoring is mostly a manifestation of sleep apnea syndrome. If you often hear your spouse or someone who sleeps with you complaining about loud snoring, you should consider the possibility of sleep apnea syndrome. Studies have proven that drivers with sleep apnea are seven times more likely to be involved in car accidents and 83% more likely to die in traffic accidents than normal drivers due to drowsiness. Sleepiness is a more terrible road killer than drinking alcohol.
Myth 7: Taking sleeping pills can be dependent.
Many patients are afraid to talk about “medicine” and refuse to use sleeping pills, which often leads to more and more serious conditions, and even delay the time to adjust sleep or treatment of disease. In fact, after years of medical development, many new sedative-hypnotic drugs have been introduced and put into clinical use, these drugs have few side effects, generally do not form dependence, safety is very good.
The causes of sleep disorders are as follows.
1, psychiatric diseases, such as depression, anxiety, mania, etc.
2, adaptive sleep disorders: mood swings caused by stressful stimuli, conflicts, environmental changes, provoking changes in the original sleep pattern, such as interpersonal conflicts, divorce, unemployment, etc.
3.Somatic diseases: physical pain or discomfort caused by various diseases, such as arthritis, nocturia, angina pectoris, hyperthyroidism, hypoglycemia, etc., may affect sleep.
4, endogenous sleep disorders: periodic limb movement disorder, restless legs syndrome, sleep apnea syndrome, etc.
5, poor sleep hygiene habits, such as drinking a lot of coffee, tea, smoking before bedtime; exercise before going to sleep; sleep every day without regularity, etc.
When sleep disorders occur, we need to adjust our own habits and attitude towards sleep, but the most reliable solution is to actively obtain the help of a sleep specialist when sleep disorders persist, to find the cause, correct diagnosis, timely psychological guidance or drug treatment, to eliminate all the troubles brought by sleep disorders, and fully enjoy the sweet sleep to bring us joy and happiness.