Sleep is a necessity of life, and people cannot live without it. In the sleep laboratory, researchers try to prevent the subjects from going to sleep for several days, as a result, the participants of the experiment dizzy, unable to concentrate, memory significantly reduced, emotional irritability, easy to lose temper, dull and confused expression, and sometimes even frustrated, depressed, suicidal thoughts. Individuals may also experience hallucinations, such as hearing people talking to them, seeing strange things, etc. Sometimes they become paranoid, sensitive, and always suspect that others are trying to harm them, inducing similar mental system disorders.
Since the 1950s, people’s understanding of sleep has been much deeper due to the invention and application of polysomnography. Scientists have discovered that sleep is an absolute need that every person must satisfy in life, just like food and water.
According to the observation, healthy people can endure hunger for as long as three weeks, but as long as the lack of sleep for three days and nights, people will become restless, mood swings, memory loss, reduced judgment, and even some delusions and hallucinations, so that it is difficult to adhere to the activities of daily life. Therefore, sleep is an absolutely necessary and indispensable need for everyone.
I. Dangers of insomnia
Insomnia and insomnia are the most common mental disorders in the population and can cause multidimensional damage to the mental and physical health, physical, psychological and social functions (work, study, daily life, social interaction, etc.), as well as the quality of life of those who seek treatment.
1.Insomnia can lead to occupational frustration and a high incidence of accidents
Occasional insomnia brings fatigue and uncoordinated movements the next day. Chronic insomnia predicts poor occupational behavior, inability to concentrate, memory impairment, incompetence at work, and a twofold higher chance of accidents than those with normal sleep.
2, insomnia can lead to mental disorders
Some studies have shown that people who have insomnia for a week will become impatient, fearful, nervous, inattentive, etc. In severe cases, there may be disorientation or ataxia, and there may be hallucinations, delusions and other serious mental disorders.
3, insomnia can lead to increased suicide rate
Insomnia may lead to the third consequence, irritability, emotional vulnerability, sentimental, self-imposed, interpersonal tension, lack of interest in life, loss of libido, with anxiety, depression and other psychiatric symptoms, in addition, insomnia people suffering from depression is three times the number of normal people, in the case of depression with severe insomnia, the suicide rate among them has increased greatly, in recent years, the suicide rate of young people and college students In recent years, the suicide rate of young people and college students has increased, becoming an important factor in family and social instability.
4.Insomnia can induce other diseases
Insomnia is closely related to physical diseases, and lack of sleep can make the body’s immunity decline, and the ability to fight and recover from diseases is low, so it is easy to catch a cold, aggravate other diseases or induce the onset of existing diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, gastrointestinal diseases and other physical and mental diseases.
5.Insomnia can lead to huge social losses
Sleep deprivation indirectly causes economic losses and harm is alarming, because of physical fatigue during the day, mental atrophy greatly increases the chance of accidents at work, not only their own lives but also endanger the lives of others, causing huge losses to society. Some information shows that in the United States due to insomnia caused by car accidents, accounting for 7% of the overall incidence of car accidents.
6, insomnia leads to stunted physical development and sub-health
Children who suffer from severe sleep deprivation can affect their physical development because the brain secretes the most growth hormone during sleep, especially in the deep sleep period, which is the main substance to promote the growth of children’s bones. Growth hormone can also accelerate the metabolism of skin cells, burn body fat, and maintain the body’s metabolism in a “young” state, so people who get enough sleep look nourished and beautiful, and have a proportionate body.
Second, insomnia (disease)
Insomnia is a common psychological and physiological phenomenon, people may have different degrees of insomnia on different occasions (such as the eve of a competition or exam eve) and try to reduce or avoid insomnia, which is a normal psychological response, because this insomnia is consistent with the reality of the environment, and does not significantly affect the function, insomniacs realize that this is a reasonable physiological and psychological response, and therefore do not feel very painful.
When the severity or duration of insomnia is too long or disproportionate to the objective event or situation and impairs somatic, psychological, and social functions, it meets the symptom criteria of the diagnostic criteria for insomnia disorders, the severity of the condition meets the severity criteria of the diagnostic criteria, and the length and frequency of the disease meet the criteria of the disease course.
Secondary insomnia: If insomnia is secondary to a primary illness such as a somatic disease or other mental disorder, it is called secondary insomnia. The relationship between secondary insomnia and the primary disease can be sparse and dense, for example, insomnia can be one of the core symptoms of depression syndrome during depressive episodes; another example is the clinical manifestation of anxiety and insomnia during hypertensive disease, that is, it can be secondary to anxiety and insomnia caused by hypertensive disease, or it can cause hypertension due to long-term anxiety and insomnia, or even primary hypertensive disease (therefore primary hypertensive disease is considered a psychosomatic disease) or aggravate the original hypertension.
Primary insomnia: If insomnia is induced by certain psycho-social factors only, and there is no obvious cause as the direct cause of the disease, it is called primary insomnia.
Third, the diagnostic criteria of insomnia:
1.Insomnia
It includes difficulty in falling asleep (unable to fall asleep after 30 minutes), easy waking (more than 2 times/night), excessive dreaming, early waking or difficulty in falling asleep after waking (unable to fall asleep again after 30 minutes), etc.
2. Impaired social function
Daytime dizziness, fatigue and sleepiness, inattentiveness, and reduced work ability.
3.Duration
The above symptoms appear more than 3 times a week and last for at least 1 month.
4.Laboratory tests
Polysomnography indicates sleep latency greater than 30 minutes, nighttime awakening time more than 30 minutes, total sleep time less than 6 hours/night.
IV. Risk factors that may lead to insomnia:
1.Health and health care
Including mental illness, physical illness, use of therapeutic drugs, use of addictive drugs, health care problems, etc.
2.Study and education
Such as poor examinations, promotion, transfer, school failure, etc.
3.Career and work
Such as poor examinations, failed promotions, layoffs, unemployment, etc.
4.Living and Housing
Such as buying a house, selling a house, housing environment problems, etc.
5.Economic problems
Such as borrowing problems, poor income, etc.
6.Administrative or legal events
Such as being disciplined, detained, imprisoned, etc.
7.Marriage, love and family
Such as poor family support, childbirth and child rearing problems, birth and death of family members, quarrels and fights within the family, etc.
8.Interpersonal relationship, social support
Such as insurance problems, colleagues and leadership support problems, etc.
9.Natural environment problems
Such as fire, disaster, etc.
10.Social changes
Such as quarrels and fights outside the family, accidents, stolen, robbed, attacked, tortured, immigration, war, difficulties during the journey, etc.
11.Culture-related
Such as religious belief problems, sports / qigong / folk fitness art problems, folklore problems, superstitious witchcraft, etc.
12.Positive factors
Sometimes certain factors that seem to be good can also cause insomnia. For example, good things in learning and education (such as good examination results, promotion, etc.), good things in career and work (such as good examination, promotion, induction, employment, etc.), good things in residence and housing, good things in economy (such as processing capital, winning a prize, winning the first lottery, etc.), good things in marriage and love, good things in having children, etc., can also lead to insomnia, or even insomnia.
Five, the principle of insomnia treatment
The treatment of insomnia certificate includes medication, psychotherapy, cognitive therapy, behavioral therapy, insomnia restriction therapy, sleep stimulation control therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, etc., which need to be carried out under the guidance of professionals. The following contents mainly focus on the development of habits in daily life, psychological balance, physical and mental relaxation, scientific diet and exercise for insomniacs to give advice and method description.
1.Cause treatment
Insomnia is a chronic disease with high recurrence rate and obvious impairment of somatic, psychological and social functions. Prevention and treatment should first be addressed from the etiology of the problem. Insomnia caused by various diseases, it is imperative to ask a specialist to cure the cause of the disease.
2.Sleep hygiene
Pay attention to sleep hygiene and develop good sleep habits. To develop a good sleep habits and rest patterns for the treatment of insomnia has considerable benefit. Specific practices are as follows.
(1) Wake up on time every day (including holidays).
(2) Limit the time you spend in bed, even if you have insomnia, don’t keep lying in bed, get up when it’s time to get up.
(3)Do some physical exercise slightly after waking up.
(4) Eat at regular intervals, and dinner should not be too full.
(5) After dusk, try to avoid eating and drinking food, drinks and drugs with excitatory effects on the central nervous system.
(6) Avoid reading stimulating books, newspapers and magazines and watching stimulating TV programs before going to sleep.
(7) Before going to sleep, it is best to take a warm shower, tub or foot bath when possible.
(8) before going to sleep to do some relaxation activities, such as massage, massage, qigong, meditation, etc.
(9) bedroom environment to be comfortable, avoid bright light, noise. The temperature is appropriate (18-200C).
3.Self-adjustment
To adjust emotions, learn to manage stress, mental balance and physical and mental relaxation is the basis of sleep quality. There are three main types of tension that trigger insomnia: psychological tension, muscle tension and sympathetic excitement.
Psychological tension mainly manifests itself in anxiety and worry, many thoughts going through the mind, feeling particularly nervous, acting neurotic and easily agitated.
Muscle tension manifests itself in certain parts of the body. If you grind your teeth, have stiff muscles, pace back and forth, or keep tapping your fingers or feet, then it may be muscle tension
Sympathetic arousal manifests itself as your sympathetic nervous system being tense and your body producing more adrenaline than usual at this time. The sympathetic nervous system controls the heartbeat, breathing and other automatic activities of the body. If the sympathetic nervous system is triggered, your hands and fingers will feel cold and you will feel excited or hopeful.
These three types of tension sometimes occur together, but sometimes they do not. Some insomniacs are mentally tense but not muscularly tense; others are muscularly tense but very mentally calm. Most people with insomnia are highly aroused, which means that they are in a highly functioning state, both physically and mentally. The whole person’s muscle tension, metabolism and brain activity are at high intensity, both at night and during the day. Either type of tension can be relieved by relaxation training
4.Medication
The last is to take medication, Chinese and Western medicine need to be selected according to the specific circumstances, the use of Valium-type sleep drugs is not terrible, insomnia drugs cause far less harm than insomnia itself to the body, but remember! Drug use must be carried out under the guidance of professionals.