I. Understanding your sleep status
Before reading the following, please answer 10 questions and fill in your answers in the brackets afterwards.
A. Often. B. Sometimes. C. Rarely. D. Never. Please answer each one according to your own situation.
1.Do you sleep very irregularly and can’t go to bed on time?
2.Do you often work late or play late into the night?
3.Lying in bed, your mind is full of people you have seen and things that happened during the day, and it is difficult to fall asleep.
4.After going to sleep, you can know the slightest movement?
5.You always dream all night and feel tired when you wake up?
6.Every morning you wake up very early, and can no longer sleep?
7, a little bit of bad things, you can not sleep at night?
8.Change the place, you have trouble sleeping?
9.After a night shift, you do not sleep well?
10.You need to use sleeping pills to sleep peacefully?
Answer: (Choose A for 5 points, B for 2 points, C for 1 point, D for 0 points)
If your score > 20 points or more is a serious sleep disorder; 5 to 20 points indicates poor sleep quality; < 5 points indicates good sleep quality. If your cumulative score is above 5, especially if you have A score, you need to pay high attention and find ways to improve your sleep.
Sleep disorders can be subdivided into three types.
One is the onset sleep disorder, that is, it is very difficult to fall asleep, and you can’t sleep until the second half of the night, mostly caused by mental tension, anxiety, fear, etc.
The second is the intermittent sleep disorder, which means that it is still possible to fall asleep, but it is easy to wake up and often have nightmares, which is easy to happen in middle-aged people with indigestion.
Third, it refers to endpoint sleep disorder, which means that it is not difficult to fall asleep, but lasts for a short time, and cannot fall back to sleep after waking up in the second half of the night, and elderly patients with hypertension, arteriosclerosis and mental depression often have this kind of insomnia.
In addition, sleep disorders can be divided into physiological and pathological by nature.
Physiological refers to sleep disorders caused by environment, emotion, diet, entertainment, drugs, etc. Almost anyone has experienced momentary or short-term insomnia in their lifetime. Momentary, or even short-term insomnia of a few days, is not considered a disease and does not require special treatment. Pathological refers to the inability to sleep normally due to respiratory diseases, digestive diseases, neurological diseases and other factors, mostly seen in the elderly.
There is also a kind of chronic insomnia for a long time, which will be slowly converted into a pathological state and should be paid attention to and measures should be taken to prevent deterioration.
Second, the sleep motto
”Three points of adjustment, seven points of nourishment.” “Nurture” is to develop good habits in daily sleep, diet, exercise and other aspects, so that the body as soon as possible to restore vitality.
The ancients said: “Do not look for immortal formula for sleep. Sleep enough and get up, clear and refreshing, really no less than the boundless real people.” The happiness brought by sufficient sleep is indeed hard to buy.
Li Yu, a scholar of the Qing Dynasty, wrote in “Leisurely sentiments”: “The secret of nourishment, when sleep is the first. Sleep can return the essence, sleep can nourish the qi, sleep can strengthen the spleen and stomach, sleep can strengthen the bones and tendons.”
The common people also often say: “medicine is better than food, food is better than sleep.”
The famous dramatist Shakespeare once praised sleep in poetic language as “an ointment for the wounded soul, nature’s most sumptuous dish.”
”If you sleep well every day, you will not see old age for eighty years,”
”He who sleeps, can eat and live long.”
”Eat without saying much, sleep without speaking much.”
Drink less water at dinner and no tea before bedtime.”
”To have good health, do not eat too much; to have good health, get up early every day; to have good health, sleep without blindfolded brain.”
”Sitting has a sitting phase, sleep has a sleeping phase, sleep should be like a bent moon.”
”Sleepy without roots, the deeper you sleep.”
”Greedy eating and sleeping, add disease and reduce the age.”
”Open the window at night, the night is fragrant.”
”Wash your feet before going to bed, better than taking tonic.”
”Summer does not sleep on the stone, autumn does not sleep on the board; spring does not show the navel, winter does not cover the head”;
”More movement during the day, less dreams at night”.
”Early to bed and early to rise, no disease to mess with you.”
”Early to bed and early to rise, the spirit of refreshment.”
”Take a nap after lunch, live a healthy life until old age.”
”Couples in bed together, live long and healthy.”
”If you can eat and sleep, you will live a long life.”
”Taking ten doses of medicine is better than sleeping alone for one night.”
”Early to bed and early to rise, better than ginseng for the body.” “Eating foreign ginseng is better than sleeping five shifts.”
Three, diet and sleep
Once, someone asked an American health expert, what is the secret of being able to sleep solidly for 7-8 hours a night? He replied, “Go to the kitchen and enjoy one or two of the following 10 kinds of food.” Because these foods ease tense muscles, smooth out tension, provide calmness, and induce the production of sleep hormones such as serotonin and melatonin.
Below, I’ve listed these 10 foods that you can also mix one or two in when making dinner.
▲ Millet: rich in tryptophan, which temporarily inhibits brain thinking activity and makes people feel sleepy. It has the effect of eliminating stomach fire, calming the mind, nourishing kidney energy, benefiting the dantian, replenishing deficiency and opening the stomach and intestines, and can cure insomnia, regurgitation, feverish dysentery and urinary discomfort. It can be consumed in porridge.
▲Whole wheat bread: Eating a piece of whole wheat bread with tea and honey water will help promote the secretion of insulin, which is converted into serotonin in the brain and helps tryptophan to have an effect on the brain and promote sleep.
▲ Potato: It clears out the acid that interferes with tryptophan, which can induce sleep. To achieve this effect, you simply mash a baked potato and mix it with warm milk for consumption.
▲Pig brain: It has the effect of benefiting the kidneys and calming the mind, strengthening the brain and educating the mind, and is suitable for insomnia and forgetfulness, vertigo and tinnitus caused by kidney deficiency.
▲Pigeon egg: It is effective in tonifying the kidneys, benefiting the qi and detoxifying the toxins. It is suitable for insomnia, kidney deficiency, qi deficiency, fatigue and weakness, palpitation, dizziness and weakness of the waist and knees.
▲Oatmeal: it can induce the production of melatonin, a small bowl can play a role in promoting sleep, and the effect will be better if a lot of chewing oatmeal.
▲Warm milk: contains some tryptophan (an amino acid with a sedative effect) and calcium, which facilitates the brain to make full use of tryptophan.
▲Honey: Put a small amount of honey into your warm milk or herbal tea. Some glucose can prompt your brain to stop producing feeding hormone, a recently discovered neurotransmitter associated with staying awake.
▲ Chrysanthemum tea: With a moderate calming effect, it is the perfect natural countermeasure for nerves or bodies that cannot relax. But remember, do not drink more than one.
▲ Banana: In addition to smoothing serotonin and melatonin, it also contains magnesium that can have a relaxing effect on muscles.