About one-third of our life is spent in sleep, and sleep can be considered a very important thing in life. According to research findings, people can live 20 days without eating, 7 days without drinking water, and only 5 days without sleeping. If there is a sleep disorder, it will not only affect the mood and work status of the next day, but will also pose a threat to physical and mental health. Long-term insomnia will induce diseases in several body systems. Hippocrates once said, “Either wakefulness or sleep, either of which is inappropriate, will lead to disease.”
Question 1: How much sleep is good?
The amount of sleep is determined by many factors, such as age, individual differences, and seasonal factors. For example, if the night is long in winter, there will be more sleep, etc. Too much or too little sleep can have an impact on human health.
Generally speaking, the human body needs 20 hours of sleep for newborns, 14-15 hours for infants, 12 hours for preschoolers, 10 hours for elementary school students, 9 hours for high school students, 8 hours for college students, 8 hours for adults, and 6-7 hours for the elderly. From the results of the study, adults who sleep 7-8 hours a day have the lowest risk of death and the longest life.
Nowadays, many young people usually work due to lack of sleep, and like to sleep hard on weekends, which is actually not good for health. If you compare sleep to a bank, you must deposit it every day, but you cannot accumulate it to use it later; you can overdraw it normally, but the interest (which means the harm to health) will start immediately, and the accumulation will be life-threatening to a certain extent.
Question 2: Why do you always have trouble sleeping? What are the reasons?
According to epidemiological statistics, about 30% of the global population has sleep disorders and about 10% of the global population has chronic insomnia, which makes it difficult to either fall asleep or stay asleep. A recent statistical result in China shows that the proportion of sleep disorders can reach up to 40% or more, which may be related to the mental stress and competitive pressure brought by rapid economic development. Japan, on the other hand, has a lower rate of insomnia (20%), but is the world’s leading user of antidepressants.
The reasons for this include several aspects, such as the increasing number of people working and traveling at night (shift work, truck drivers, medical workers, global stock market), the increasing number of young people who prefer to stay up late leading to sleep deprivation and becoming chronically sleep deprived; the use of central stimulant drugs, tea, coffee, or sudden interruptions after long-term use of sleeping pills; suffering from major mental disorders, schizophrenia, etc.; and especially depression The insomnia brought about by the increased incidence of depression is more obvious.
According to the survey, insomnia in depression is as high as 98%, that is, almost all depressed patients have sleep problems. Insomnia caused by depression accounts for a large proportion of the composition of sleep disorders.
And there are various common clinical sleep disorders, including excessive sleep, such as episodic sleeping sickness, which can fall asleep anytime and anywhere no matter what the occasion is; restless legs syndrome, which leads to reduced sleep because the legs do not know how to put them when sleeping because of disobedience; for example, insomnia, sleep disturbance, increased number of turning awake, early awakening, sleeplessness, nightmares (ghostly possession), sleep terrors, sleep walking sickness (sleepwalking sickness, neurosis). Subjective insomnia, which means that one feels no sense of sleep, but the amount of sleep is not actually reduced, may be caused by psychological factors.
Question 3: How can I adjust my insomnia without medication?
Stimulus control therapy tends to be more effective, which means going to bed only when you feel sleepy and want to sleep, getting up if you can’t fall asleep quickly (within 15 minutes), and repeating the two steps above. Don’t stay in bed too long, do something monotonous when you can’t fall asleep, get up on time every morning regardless of how well you sleep at night, and avoid napping or taking a lunch break during the day.
Also, relaxation therapy can be used to gradually relax different muscle groups throughout the body internally. This method is very effective for insomniacs who remain highly alert every day.
Pay attention to sleep hygiene is especially important, there should be regular bedtime and wake up; do not stay in bed too long, especially do not read and watch TV; do not put the table in the bedroom; distract attention, do not form expectant insomnia, always thinking that I will not insomnia again today, as a result of insomnia more serious; avoid coffee, tobacco and alcohol before going to bed; reasonable arrangement of working hours; cultivate hobbies, enrich life; comfortable bedroom environment, the Proper temperature, good ventilation and tidy bedding; do not drink too much water before going to bed to prevent excessive toileting at night, which may affect sleep.
Question 4: In what cases do I need medication?
Insomnia is mainly divided into transient insomnia, short-term insomnia and chronic insomnia. Transient insomnia does not require treatment and lasts for a few days at most. It is often caused by sudden stress or environmental changes, such as unfamiliar sleep environments, travel across time zones, drug effects, caffeine, alcohol, work shift changes, etc.
Short-term insomnia lasts up to 3 weeks and is often caused by more serious factors, such as loss of spouse, hospitalization, emotional trauma, pain; greater life stress, such as marriage, relocation, divorce, etc. Medication is generally not recommended and can only be used for short periods of time when needed. Chronic insomnia, on the other hand, should be treated by a doctor, often related to organic or emotional disorders, while the condition of firing-induced annoyance is a prolonging factor.
Mainly the following two conditions require drug treatment.
1, persistent insomnia that cannot be improved by their own adjustment for a long time.
2.Insomnia caused by disease factors, including somatic diseases and psychological problems, etc.
Medication is mainly to treat the primary disease of insomnia, and short-term, small doses of intermittent use of hypnotic drugs to improve the symptoms.
When medication is used to treat insomnia, it should be noted that anti-psychotic drugs cannot be used for simple insomnia; antidepressants are effective for many insomnia, especially for improving anxiety and depression brought on by insomnia; anti-anxiety drugs are more effective for improving insomnia, but attention should be paid to the corresponding indications, as well as the tolerability and addiction of benzodiazepines; third-generation sedative drugs such as zaleplon, zopiclone, etc. are more suitable for people who need to accelerate sleep and improve sleep quality.