One third of life is spent in sleep, sleep is closely related to human health and is an important part of health, sleep promotes the development of brain function, helps consolidate memory, promotes the recovery of physical strength and energy, promotes growth, delays aging, and enhances immunity, protects the central nervous system, sleep directly affects the mood, state and efficiency of the next day, long-term insomnia can induce multi-system diseases, and It can lead to various psychological disorders.
If you are a good sleeper, you may not take insomnia seriously; however, once you join the ranks of insomniacs, you will experience the unbearable taste of suffering in the dead of night. I’m afraid no one who has ever had insomnia wants to experience that pain again, but insomnia still often comes to you on its own, making it unbearable.
How can we have a good sleep?
First of all, you need to develop good sleep habits, including the following points.
1, avoid using excitatory substances (coffee, strong tea, smoking, etc.) a few hours before bedtime.
2, do not drink alcohol before bedtime, alcohol can interfere with sleep.
3, regular physical exercise, but avoid strenuous exercise before bedtime.
4, do not eat and drink or eat indigestible food within 2 hours before bedtime.
5.After dinner, do not drink a lot of water to reduce nocturnal urination.
6.After going to bed, relax your mind and think of pleasant things to promote sleep.
7, at least one hour before bedtime, do not do mental work or watch books and movies that are likely to cause excitement.
8, the bedroom environment should be quiet, comfortable, light and temperature appropriate.
9, to maintain a regular work and rest schedule (get up at the same time every day, no exceptions on weekends, with an alarm clock to achieve the purpose).
10, the bed can only be used to sleep, just rest and relaxation if you can sit on a chair.
11.Establish a set of procedures for preparing for bed.
12, try to avoid daytime naps, if you want to take a lunch break, you can sleep 20-30 minutes before 3 p.m..
Next, learn the common methods to help fall asleep.
A. Relaxation therapy
It is suitable for insomnia caused by various reasons of difficulty in falling asleep or waking up at night and having difficulty in sleeping again, and can be used for both occasional episodes of insomnia and chronic insomnia, with better effect on insomnia accompanied by anxiety. Relaxation therapy induces sleep by gradually relaxing the mind and muscles, and most people fall asleep during the implementation of relaxation therapy.
Specific practices.
When you go to bed at night or wake up at night and have difficulty falling asleep, relax your mind, exclude all distractions, focus all your senses on the process of muscle relaxation, and pay attention to enjoying this calm and comfortable taste; have a feeling of not even wanting to move the relaxed limbs. Generally, you can do it in the order of left shoulder, left arm, left hand, left finger, right shoulder, right arm, right hand, right finger, chest, back, waist, hip, left thigh, left calf, left foot, right thigh, right calf, right foot, head, face and neck, the more detailed this process is done, the better. The time required to complete all the relaxation is not limited, depending on the individual situation, but should not be too fast, the focus is to experience the feeling of relaxation.
While relaxing your muscles, say something silently such as “I am tired, I have no energy, I need to rest”, “Tension is gone”, “Loose…loose…loose …”, “totally relaxed”, etc., help the relaxation process.
When you try relaxation therapy, you will naturally appreciate the beauty of the therapy and will no longer be bothered by the difficulty of falling asleep.
Second, stimulation control therapy
It is mainly applied to chronic insomniacs who have serious difficulty in falling asleep. Because of the difficulty in falling asleep often go to bed earlier, trying to force themselves to go to sleep early, but in fact it is not what you want, the more you want to go to bed earlier the more you can not sleep, anxiety and irritability, resulting in a vicious circle, and even sleepless nights.
Specific practices.
1, only when there is a sleepy feeling to go to bed.
2, if the bed for 20 minutes can not sleep, should get up and leave the bedroom, can engage in some simple activities, and then return to the bedroom to sleep when there is sleep.
3, do not do activities in bed that are not related to sleep, such as eating, watching TV, listening to the radio and thinking about complex issues.
4.Maintain a regular waking time, regardless of how long the previous night’s sleep is.
5.Avoid naps during daytime.
Third, sleep restriction therapy
Increase the drive to fall asleep to improve sleep efficiency by shortening the waking time in bed. It is mainly applied to those severe chronic insomniacs who often wake up at night or have intermittent sleep.
Specific practices.
First, assess your usual sleep to obtain the average number of hours of sleep per night, and then, limit your time in bed to this value. For example, if you estimate that you sleep an average of 4 hours per night, set yourself to go to bed at 2:00 and get up at 6:00 each day.
After a few days, when most of the time in bed each night is sleep, start increasing the time in bed to 1:30 a.m. and still get up at 6:00 a.m. When most of the time in bed is sleep again, go to bed half an hour earlier again to increase the time in bed, and so gradually reach a normal sleep time.
The actual sleep time/total time from bed to wake >= 90%, the sleep window is increased by 15 minutes; the actual sleep time/total time from bed to wake < 90%, the sleep window remains the same; the actual sleep time/total time from bed to wake < 85%, the sleep window is reduced by 15 minutes.
Sleep restriction therapy requires that you get up every morning at the specified time, even if you have a bad night sleep, and do not nap at noon.
IV. Other methods
1.Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS): The effect of treating insomnia is achieved by stimulating the corresponding cortical areas of the brain.
2.Traditional medicine: including acupuncture, tui na, acupressure (e.g. Shen Men point), etc.
If the above methods do not help you improve your sleep, and insomnia affects your daily life, you must seek medical attention early and take hypnotic drugs under the guidance of a doctor.