Sleep is the source of health. Insomnia can cause a sense of fatigue, emotional instability, slow reactions, headaches, poor memory, and the whole body in a subhealthy state.
However, in the ever-accelerating pace of modern society, everyone, almost every day, has to face heavy work and life pressures. More and more people will mention: every night lying in bed tossing and turning, no matter how rolling just can not sleep.
Although human beings have invented various sleeping pills, however, even if they rely on drugs, the problem of insomnia simply cannot be completely solved.
Definition and causes of insomnia
Chronic insomnia is defined as a person who has not been able to sleep for more than one month and more than three days a week.
The definition of poor sleep refers to problems such as difficulty falling asleep, maintaining sleep, waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to sleep, waking up early and not being able to sleep, or not feeling full after waking up.
Generally speaking, the 3 main causes of insomnia are as follows.
1, emotional problems: 45% of office workers insomnia distress from the emotions, including worries and anxiety are the most common.
2.Environmental changes: Some people will experience environmental changes, such as changing jobs, getting married, having children, etc., which will generate pressure and cause insomnia.
Although the problem of the source of stress has been solved later, the insomnia problem persists because the sleep environment has been combined with the feeling of panic and non-relaxation. Others may become anxious about sleep as a result, and sleep becomes his only source of stress.
3.Primary insomnia: 25% of people have primary insomnia, that is, they do not have any special external reasons for insomnia.
This may be a physical relationship, perhaps because the insomniac’s autonomic nervous system is hyperactive, so he will often be overly alarmed, if once the insomnia, it becomes the daytime can not sleep, can not sleep at night.
Obviously no sleep, but because of the fear of tomorrow’s work will not have the spirit, have to force themselves to go to bed to lie down, thinking that always fall asleep! As a result, from night to day, with eyes closed, counting thousands of sheep, but did not fall asleep, can not help but shout: “almost dawn, how to do?”
But now the gospel is here, insomniacs can do 3 behavioral therapy and 2 physical relaxation methods at home to help themselves completely solve the insomnia problem.
Three behavioral treatments
The following three behavioral treatments can be done at home by insomniacs, but remember one principle of sleep hygiene: never stay in bed. That is, no matter which behavioral therapy method you use, you should have a fixed time to get up.
1. Stimulation control method.
When you can’t sleep, don’t force yourself to lie down on the bed, and then lie down on the bed when you feel like sleeping.
If you lie in bed for 10-20 minutes and still can’t sleep, you should have to leave the bed or leave the room to do some static activities to try to divert your anxiety about sleep.
It is recommended that you can do things like reading a book, taking a walk, listening to music, just don’t do something that makes you more and more energetic or more and more irritable.
Wait until there is sleep, and then lie back in bed, or can not sleep then get up again, after such repeated actions, can make the sleep environment and relaxation, want to sleep together, over time, insomnia problems will improve.
2. Sleep restriction method.
Simply put, it is to enhance the efficiency of sleep.
The so-called sleep efficiency refers to the real sleep time divided by the total lying in bed time, the percentage obtained. The higher the sleep efficiency, the easier it is to solve the insomnia problem.
The sleep restriction method is to do 7 days of sleep diary for insomniacs, record their total lying time and real sleeping time in 7 days, and then calculate the sleep efficiency.
Suppose you lie in bed for 10 hours, but really only slept for 6 hours, the sleep efficiency is 60%. This time to shorten their own lying time to 6 hours, that is, from the fixed waking time to 6 hours, and then according to the calculation of the time to lie in bed, and then do 7 days of sleep diary, test their sleep efficiency increased.
If the sleep efficiency increases to more than 80%, you can move the lying bed time from the original calculation time to 15-30 minutes forward, and then do the sleep diary for 7 days, after repeated actions, 80% of insomniacs can solve insomnia trouble.
3.Reverse operation method.
As the name implies, since you already have significant anxiety about sleep, simply deliberately keep yourself awake.
That is, when insomniacs lie in bed, do not want to fall asleep immediately, but instead keep thinking about other happy things, someone but instead eliminate the fear of sleep and solve the insomnia trouble.
Two physical relaxation methods
According to clinical experience, many office workers or entrepreneurs have difficulty falling asleep because of the tightness of their bodies caused by stress, so learning to let the body relax is also a good way to help fall asleep.
1. Intermittent muscle relaxation method.
First hands clenched fists forward, and then slowly apply pressure to push forward, and then slowly relax, and then tighten, and then relax, …, repeat the action.
2, abdominal breathing method.
When lying down, adjust the light to a slightly dimmed state, loosen the abdomen too tight clothing.
Easily close your eyes, put your hands comfortably on your abdomen, inhale through your nose, exhale through your mouth, and pay attention to the ups and downs of your hands on your abdomen while breathing.
Inhale slowly and deeply through the nose, draw fresh air in through the nose, feel the air slowly flow through the lungs and down into the abdomen, allowing the abdomen to expand slowly.
Then exhale easily and evenly, the exhausted air in the body from the abdomen, to the chest, and then gently exhale from the mouth, the abdomen will slowly drop, when your exhalation action to the end, you can start the next inhalation and exhalation.
Keep practicing for about ten minutes
”This slow and deep breathing method can stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, which is “in charge of relaxation” and can reduce the over-tightened body and mind, helping to alleviate anxiety and ease the restlessness.
Abdominal breathing can be done anytime and anywhere, when feeling tense, in the spare time of a ride, lunch break or before going to bed, you can practice doing a few minutes of abdominal breathing to help yourself achieve physical and mental relaxation, or to promote sleep.