I. What is insomnia?
Insomnia is a lack of sleep caused by various reasons, such as difficulty in falling asleep, not sleeping deeply and waking up early. Insomnia can be divided into: transient insomnia, short-term insomnia, chronic insomnia and persistent insomnia. The causes of insomnia are many. Sleep can be affected by unexpected situations, happiness, excitement and sadness before bedtime; physical illnesses such as coughing, body pain, itching and general uncomfortableness, when the human cerebral cortex cells are always in an excited state and cannot enter inhibition and lead to insomnia; changes in sleep habits and sleep environment can also make people sleep poorly; elderly people can also affect sleep due to aging of body organs.
The Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine emphasizes that the essence of life is based on yin and yang. According to traditional Chinese medicine theory, the normal sleep of human is dominated by the mind and the spirit, when Yang Qi turns from moving to static, it is the state of sleep, and vice versa when Yang Qi turns from static to moving, it is the state of wakefulness. The normal sleep mechanism of human is the result of the natural and regular transformation of yin and yang qi into each other, and if this rule is broken, insomnia will occur. The main cause of insomnia is the deficiency of qi and blood, unrestrained emotions, invasion of evil qi and disorder of internal organs.
In modern society, due to the fast pace of life, mental stress, changes in living habits, irregular work and rest time and other reasons, often lead to a decline in the quality of our sleep. In light cases, it is not easy to fall asleep or afraid of external interference, and cannot fall asleep again after waking up, while in heavy cases, people will toss and turn and have difficulty sleeping all night, which seriously affects people’s daily life. Long-term, it may also induce other psychological and mental disorders.
Second, the main factors causing insomnia.
From the modern medical point of view, the causes of insomnia can be divided according to the age, gender, physical condition, environment and psychological condition of the individual.
1, physiological factors: such as changing the original sleep habits. Business trips, night shifts, unfamiliar sleep environment.
2, disease factors: such as cerebral arteriosclerosis, neurasthenia, mental disorders, organic pain.
3, drug factors: some western drugs can cause sleep disorders, especially central excitatory drugs.
4, psychological factors: such as emotional anxiety, tension, fear, interpersonal conflicts, life frustration, loss. According to relevant data reported in chronic insomnia psychological or mental factors accounted for 46%.
Third, the common psychological misconceptions of insomniacs.
1. Fear of psychology
Many insomnia patients have “insomnia characteristic anxiety”, once they go to bed at night, they worry about not being able to sleep, or try their best to get to sleep, the results are counterproductive. The higher neural activity of the human cerebral cortex has an excitation and inhibition process. During the day, brain cells are in an excited state. After working all day, they need to rest and enter the sleep inhibition state, and then naturally turn awake after a night of rest. The excitation and inhibition of the cerebral cortex are coordinated with each other, alternating to form the rhythm of sleep from week to week. “Fear of insomnia, want to sleep”, the intention is to sleep, but the idea itself will make the brain cells excited, so the more afraid of insomnia, the more you want to sleep, the more excited the brain cells, so it is more difficult to fall asleep.
2, dreams harmful psychology
Many people who claim to have insomnia, can not correctly view dreams, that dreaming is a poor performance of sleep, harmful to the human body, and even some people mistakenly believe that more dreams is insomnia. These misconceptions often make people anxious, worried that they will dream again after going to sleep, and this vigilance often affects the quality of sleep. In fact, science has proved that everyone will dream, dreaming is not only a normal psychological phenomenon, and is a way of working of the brain, the dream itself is not harmful to the human body, the harmful is that “dreaming is harmful” psychological, so that they have a psychological burden.
3.Expectation psychology
Expecting to do something and worrying about oversleeping can lead to early awakening or inability to sleep. I often hear patients say “I’m coming to see a doctor today, so I won’t sleep well last night. A “three-shift” webmaster, due to the night shift (12:00 at night), often at 7:00 p.m. to sleep, because of fear of late, sleep is not solid, often only 1 to 2 hours of sleep on the wake.
4, conflict self-blame psychology
Some people feel guilty and blame themselves after a fault, replaying in their heads what happened, and regretting that they did not handle it properly. During the day, due to more things, blame and remorse is a little lighter, and at night, they are blamed, remorse entangled, unable to extricate themselves, sleep for a long time. Some people are stimulated by unexpected events, can not make the right response, at a loss, do not know what to do, so that at night when you go to bed also look ahead and back, thinking left and right, always in a dilemma, indecisive state of anxiety and excitement.
5.Multiple worries
Some people due to the loss of parents, intimidation, heavy punishment and other traumatic stimuli in childhood, the phenomenon of fear of the dark, unable to sleep. Although gradually improve with age, but after adulthood, they tend to think and worry a lot, once they receive some kind of traumatic stimulation similar to childhood, they will make the traumatic psychological reaction of childhood repressed in the subconscious reappear and repeat the phenomenon of insomnia in childhood.
Fourth, self-regulation of insomnia
Insomnia is a common disease, which generally manifests itself as difficulty in falling asleep, easy to wake up, unable to fall asleep again after waking up, and in serious cases, staying awake all night. Insomniacs often struggle with the difficulty of inducing themselves to sleep. Once insomnia, they often turn to doctors or take sleeping pills on their own, which, over time, can easily cause drug dependence. In fact, the early mild insomnia can be improved by self-conditioning. The first is to maintain a normal and natural state of mind. Insomnia does not have to worry too much, the more nervous, the more sleep is not good. Some people will be nervous and anxious about sleeping badly for several days in a row, thinking that the brain will not get rest will be sick and short life, this worry and anxiety has a great impact on the sleep itself. The ancients said “first sleep heart, then sleep eyes”, “no worries is to sleep side” physical and mental relaxation is beneficial to sleep. The second is to find and eliminate the causes of insomnia. In particular, there are many reasons for insomnia, such as environmental factors, sleep habits, time, sleeping equipment, etc. Some insomnia will be self-healing.
1.Cultivate good sleep habits
To get enough, deep, sound and sweet sleep, to lift the fatigue of the day and improve brain power, bedtime preparation is very necessary. For people who suffer from insomnia, bedtime preparation is even more important. The following points should generally be noted.
(1) do not bring worries to bed to the bedroom function of a single, it is just a place to sleep, before entering the bedroom, to think about what to think about, think about the bad cast aside, to know that the earth will not be because you think more than a little bit faster to turn. A smarter approach is to schedule a half hour during the day before work to make a list of the things that bother you and how to deal with them, and store it in your briefcase, not your heart. If you stay up late for work, do not turn off the computer on the nest, that will certainly not be able to sleep for a while; instead, take some time to indulge, such as going to bed to stretch your body or meditate for a few minutes, it is very helpful to sleep.
(2) Maintain a regular resting time. Half an hour before bedtime, you should stop working and studying, as well as watching TV, playing mahjong and other recreational activities. It is best to get up and go to the courtyard, or indoor activities, do gymnastics, practice a tai chi, etc., do not exert too much effort, should be natural, relaxed, so that the mind and body to calm, to lay the foundation for the upcoming sleep.
(3) a few hours before bedtime to avoid the use of excitatory substances, do not drink alcohol before bedtime, alcohol can interfere with sleep; do not eat too much or indigestible food before bedtime; before going to bed should be purified urine, and then sit quietly for a few moments after going to bed, the mind is settled, it is easy to enter the sweet dreamland.
(4) before going to bed with warm water soak feet, while using your hands to massage the feet, first the back of the feet after the heart of the feet, until hot. This can make the local blood vessel expansion, peripheral nerve excitement, blood circulation accelerated, metabolism enhanced. Those who have the conditions can take a warm bath, can be caused by the whole body vasodilation of the head relative anemia easy to sleep.
( 5 ) sleep advocate ” lying like a bow “, it is best to take the side lying position. Supine sleeper, hands should not be placed in front of the left chest, nor pressed under the body. Bedroom environment should be quiet, comfortable, light and temperature appropriate.
2, learn to self-adjustment, if necessary, seek the help of a psychiatrist.
(1) in the value of sleep should not be seen as very important. Sleep is the best way to let the brain and body rest, but physical work and exercise is also the other best way to let the body and mind relax, if you did not sleep well the night before, you can take a hot bath in the morning, go out and exercise, as energetic. Insomnia patients tend to think that sleep is the first important thing in life, and all they think about all day is how to get a good night’s sleep. He does not understand that sleep is for health, health is for work, and work is not for sleep, that is to say: sleep is not the goal of life. In addition, people only need 2-4 hours of deep sleep every day, the rest is dream sleep, if people really don’t sleep all night, 3 days can make people’s mental breakdown, but some people say they haven’t slept much for years, but his thinking is still normal, so his insomnia problem is not as serious as imagined, people should believe in their own vitality.
(2) Build confidence in sleep, get rid of pre-sleep fear and anxiety, and not be afraid of insomnia. Sleep is also a natural reaction of the human body, sleepy and want to sleep, do not artificially control it, the more you let yourself stop thinking about it, the more you rambling, can not stop, should take the attitude of going with the flow: let him go, I’m not going to sleep today! As a result, when you don’t control your emotions and thinking, you will naturally fall asleep. The same is true for fear and anxiety. Some people are especially afraid of not being able to sleep, some are always afraid of waking up in the middle of the night and having trouble sleeping, the more afraid they are the more awake they are, and the more nervous they are about their fears, resulting in a vicious circle. Normal people also wake up in the middle of the night for various reasons, the difference is that normal people do not have the idea of fear and rejection, do not reflect on and hate themselves, and completely accept their natural state, so that they can relax into the sleep state.
(3) Treat all kinds of dreams correctly and eliminate the pursuit of a dreamless state. All people have the experience of dreaming, which is a very normal physiological phenomenon. However, many insomnia patients have the psychology of fear of dreaming, think that dreaming is harmful to the body, and mistakenly believe that dreaming is insomnia, this misconception often makes people anxious, and is bound to affect the quality of sleep. Dreaming is a normal psychological phenomenon, and is a way of working of the brain, the dream itself is not harmful to the human body, the harmful is the existence of the psychological dreaming harmful, so that they have a psychological burden and insomnia. To eliminate the misconception that dreaming is insomnia.
(4) Many insomniacs always feel that they do not sleep enough at night, and when they have time to make up for it, the more they sleep during the day, the more they can not sleep at night, and they do not have the heart to participate in hobby activities. The correct approach should be to participate in outdoor physical activities, labor their muscles and bones to relax, should do some walking, stair climbing, rope skipping, laundry, mopping and other simple boring physical activities, feel tired, sleepy and then go to bed, and then to follow the natural state of relaxation, into sleep, psychological real, in order to sleep real.