Recently, the Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Social Sciences Literature Publishing House jointly released the "China Sleep Research Report (2022)". The report pointed out that the mainland people do not sleep enough, with an average sleep time of 7.06 hours per day, which is nearly 1.5 hours shorter than that of ten years ago, and the time to fall asleep is more than two hours late.
As the saying goes, spring sleepiness and autumn fatigue, in the past it was easy to fall asleep in the spring, and now it is impossible to wake up every day of the year, sleep for a long time, dream, easy to wake up, refuse to fall asleep... Modern people always inevitably have all kinds of sleep problems.
"Too long to look" version
1. There are six typical symptoms of insomnia, namely difficulty falling asleep (falling asleep for more than 30 minutes), waking up early, waking up easily in the middle, dreaming a lot, shallow sleep, and getting up with dizziness and physical discomfort;
2. To judge whether you have a good sleep standard, do not compare with other people's sleep time, if you sleep all night, the next day physical strength is very good, energetic, happy mood, then this is high-quality sleep, on the contrary, the sleep quality is not good, need to adjust;
3. Evidence shows that good sleep supplementation can reverse the overall effect of occasional sleep deprivation on cognitive impairment. However, for chronic partial sleep loss caused by continuous staying up late, the process of restoring cognitive function seems to take longer.
4. At the end of the article, you can get a dedicated one-on-one sleep management method.
How to tell if your sleep is qualified?
Daniel J. Buysse, Ph.D., Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, published an article in Sleep magazine in 2014 titled Sleep Health: Can We Define It? According to Does It Matter?, sleep health is characterized by subjective satisfaction, proper timing, adequate length of time, high efficiency, and sustained attention when waking up.
But such a description has a strong subjective color, making it difficult for us to directly judge whether our sleep is qualified. We all know that sleepwalking and snoring are sleep disorders, and most people suffer from insomnia. According to the international classification standard, there are more than 90 kinds of sleep disorders, and insomnia is one of the most common sleep disorders.
(Source: Figureworm Creative)
According to Dr. Wang Jian, director of the Department of Psychological Sleep of Guang'anmen Hospital, in an interview with CCTV, there are six typical symptoms of insomnia, namely difficulty falling asleep (falling asleep for more than 30 minutes), waking up early, waking up easily in the middle of the way, dreaming a lot, shallow sleep, and getting up with dizziness and physical discomfort.
If you feel like you're always having trouble falling asleep, having trouble sleeping, or waking up early, and you're not sure if it's insomnia or if you're not sure of the severity of your insomnia, you can test this Insomnia Severity Index Scale (ISI), compiled by Professor Charles Moran and others in Canada and one of the most widely used insomnia assessment scales.
1. Rate how difficult you have been to fall asleep in the last two weeks:
None: 0
Mild: 1
Moderate: 2
Severity: 3
Very severe: 4
2. Rate how difficult you have recently had in maintaining sleep:
3. Rate the severity of your early awakening in the last two weeks:
4. Satisfaction with your current sleep patterns:
Very satisfied: 0
Satisfied: 1
Medium satisfied: 2
Dissatisfied: 3
Very dissatisfied: 4
5. To what extent does your insomnia problem affect or impair your quality of life compared to others?
None: 0
Slight: 1
Some: 2
More: 3
Lots: 4
6. To what extent do you think your sleep problems interfere with daytime functioning (e.g., daytime fatigue, ability to handle work/daily chores, attention, memory, mood, etc.)?
No interference: 0
Lots of interference: 4
7. How much worry or pain do you have about your current sleep problems?
No worries: 0
Many: 3
Very worried: 4
The questionnaire, which is often used to assess the nature, severity, and effects of insomnia, has a total score from 0 to 28, with scores interpreted as: no insomnia (0 –7); mild insomnia (8–14); moderate insomnia (15-21); Severe insomnia (22-28).
This scale score data is for reference only, if the individual's insomnia problem has seriously affected normal life and work, it is recommended to seek medical treatment as soon as possible, if it is only mild insomnia, you can try to change behavior to help improve sleep.
Do I have to sleep 8 hours a night?
We often say that staying up late hurts the body, because most people will stay up late and lead to lack of sleep, long-term sleep deprivation of damage to the body is all-round, it affects all levels of the body, not only will make people feel tired, sleepy, but also increase the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, depression, diabetes and obesity, damage cognitive function, memory and immune system.
What is more obvious is that sleep deprivation can make people more and more ugly, and studies have shown that if you sleep less than 2 hours a day for a week, new wrinkles and even spots will grow on your face. In addition, lack of sleep can also lead to edema, intestinal flora disorders, if you can't sleep at night and like to eat some supper, obesity problems will also follow.
But it is not that sleeping less than 8 hours is sleep deprivation, different people's needs for sleep are not the same, the data show that women need to sleep longer than men, 80% of people sleep 7 to 9 hours a day, and about 0.1% of people sleep 4 hours a day is enough.
So to judge whether you sleep standard, do not compare with other people's sleep time, if you sleep a night, the next day physical strength is very good, energetic, happy mood, then this is high-quality sleep, on the contrary, the quality of sleep is not good, need to adjust.
And staying up late is not based on what time you don't sleep is staying up late, if you know that your circadian rhythm will be destroyed, you know that you will soon face the risk of lack of sleep, knowing that you will be listless and physically and mentally exhausted the next day without sleeping, but still do not go to sleep for some reason, it can be counted as staying up late.
On the other hand, if you go to bed at 1 or 2 a.m. every day, get up at more than 10 a.m., and sleep quality is higher, indoor light is darker, the daytime spirit is better, and the biological clock is very regular, then it is also normal sleep.
Can sleep replenishment pay off the "debt" of staying up late?
Can repay a little bit
Sleep supplementation can mainly restore cognitive damage caused by lack of sleep. Studies have found that the sleep latency period of supplemental sleep is shorter (easier to fall asleep), sleep efficiency is higher, the number of REM sleep in deep sleep and dreaming increases, and the proportion of light sleep stages is lower than normal sleep.
Evidence suggests that a full sleep cycle can reverse the overall effects of occasional sleep deprivation on cognitive impairment. However, for chronic partial sleep loss caused by continuous staying up late, the process of restoring cognitive function seems to take longer.
That is to say, when we occasionally stay up late to watch the ball / chase / play games, if you make up for a good sleep the next day, you can get rid of the state of dizziness after waking up; but if it is a long-term lack of sleep, the sleep supplement will have little effect, there is always a feeling of being tired and not waking up.
A 2019 study published in Contemporary Biology showed that if you don't get enough sleep for a long time and rely on weekend sleep, then sleep supplementation can be harmful to your health.
The results of the study showed that long-term staying up late and sleeping on weekends led to a decrease in muscle and liver insulin sensitivity and a decrease in the ability to regulate blood sugar; and weekend sleep supplementation also disrupted the circadian rhythm, worsening the situation.
Therefore, it is best to maintain good sleep habits every day.
How to improve sleep?
If your insomnia has seriously affected your daily life, it is recommended to seek medical treatment as soon as possible. If you only have mild insomnia, you may wish to try the following methods
1. Create a good sleeping environment. Pillow quilt should be comfortable, the environment should be as quiet as possible, turn off the lights to keep dark (or leave a dim night light), the room should not be too hot, relatively cool is better;
2. Nap should not be too late, too long, otherwise it is easy to affect night sleep;
3. Drink less tea and coffee. Drink less tea (milk tea is also counted) and coffee 4-6 hours before going to bed, and avoid consuming too much caffeine to make it difficult to fall asleep with nervous excitement;
4. Use relaxation techniques. If you feel sleepy, but your brain is busy thinking, it is difficult to fall asleep, you can use some relaxation techniques, such as slow breathing, listening to light music and white noise (wind and rain) to help achieve mental relaxation;
5. Turn off electronic devices. Electronic devices such as cell phones, TVs, and tablets can make it difficult for your brain to rest and can interfere with your biological clock.
6. Try to get up at the same time. Getting up regularly ensures that you don't fall asleep at normal times of the night because of excessive sleep, while stabilizing your body clock.
If you are not sleepless and just "vindictive late" do not want to sleep, it is recommended that you can try these 3 points:
1. Do something to make yourself happy during the day, such as eating some afternoon tea, and even sneak a fish, don't let the mood during the day be too anxious, negative, and tired;
2. Expand the channels for obtaining pleasure, which can increase self-care methods such as reading, fitness, music, and interpersonal communication, enrich their own pleasure experience through multiple channels, and avoid limiting the source of positive feelings to mobile phones and networks;
3. Develop good sleep habits, such as meditation before going to bed, exercising moderately, not drinking strong tea, refusing to supper, taking a hot bath, keeping the bedroom dim... If you can, try not to play with electronics.
Finally, I wish everyone a good night's sleep, full of energy every day and no baldness, and a good night's sleep from tonight
Welfare time
The total sleep time is less than 6.5 hours, the time to fall asleep is more than 30 minutes, you can't sleep when you wake up in the middle of the night, you always wake up early, you dream more...
If you have these troubles, your sleep has turned on a "red light".
Brush your phone every day to promote sleep? Relying on alcohol to help you fall asleep? Eating melatonin improves insomnia?
Stop and stop, these methods are wrong!
If you want to improve your sleep, it's important to choose the right method for you!
Edit: Dr. Spring Rain
bibliography:
[1] People's Daily, no matter how many reasons there are, sleep deprivation is a problem, http://health.people.com.cn/n1/2022/0321/c14739-32379682.html
[2] Daniel J. Buysse,Sleep Health: Can We Define It? Does It Matter? Sleep. 2014 Jan 1; 37(1): 9–17. Published online 2014 Jan 1. doi: 10.5665/sleep.3298
Liu Xiaodi. Irregular sleep patterns are associated with metabolic disorders[J].Basic Medicine and Clinical,2020,40(02):228.
[4] Depner, Christopher M., et al. "Ad libitum weekend recovery sleep fails to prevent metabolic dysregulation during a repeating pattern of insufficient sleep and weekend recovery sleep." Current Biology 29.6 (2019): 957-967.