"Oh, I just can't sleep."
This sentence is a helpless sigh issued by Uncle Wang after lying on the bed for half an hour, still without the slightest sleepiness. 56-year-old Uncle Wang, in fact, often can not sleep, for him, until two or three o'clock in the morning still can not fall asleep is a very common thing, sometimes even if you know that you should sleep, but after lying down, but tossing and turning is not sleepy.
In modern society, in fact, there are too many people like Uncle Wang who often can't sleep, and when it is time to fall asleep, they become more and more awake, which is actually a sleep disorder. People with sleep disorders, if effective measures are not taken as early as possible, over time, this symptom will become more and more serious.
For example, middle-aged and elderly people like Uncle Wang, even if the needs of middle-aged and elderly people for sleep have become less, but they can't sleep at two or three o'clock in the morning, and they wake up automatically at five or six o'clock in the morning. So often can't sleep, what harm will it bring to everyone?
What are the dangers of frequently not being able to sleep?
Frequent failure to sleep as a sleep disorder is clinically known as difficulty falling asleep. After adults go to bed, if they can't sleep after closing their eyes for more than 20 minutes, it is difficult to fall asleep. The time of middle-aged and elderly people will be appropriately extended, and they will not fall asleep for more than 30 minutes before falling asleep. If people are in a long-term situation of difficulty falling asleep, it will bring great harm to the body.
People who often can't sleep, the slightest harm is lack of energy, showing that people have not slept enough, and they look tired and can fall asleep again at any time. Sometimes it is accompanied by symptoms such as headaches and dizziness. And long-term lack of energy will also lead to a decline in the body's ability to resist foreign germs, which is what we call a decline in immunity, and it is easier to suffer from other diseases.
Secondly, metabolic disorders are also a hazard brought about by frequent sleeplessness, and may also be accompanied by obesity. Because of the long-term biological clock disorder, not only will the body's basal metabolic rate be affected, and the human body will secrete a kind of leptin at night, will also begin to reduce secretion, long-term, the human intake is much greater than the amount of metabolism, people will naturally gradually become obese.
And often can not sleep, but also may affect the cardiovascular health of people. In many foreign studies, it has been shown that insomnia is one of the high-risk predisposing factors for cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, heart failure, arrhythmia, etc., because insomnia will change the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, so that endocrine and metabolism become disordered, thereby promoting the inflammatory response to increase the possibility of cardiovascular disease.
Finally, memory loss is also a symptom often seen in people who often can't sleep. This is because in the process of sleep, people will reduce blood flow in the brain, increase cerebral effusion, self-clean up the brain, and remove some harmful proteins in time. Difficulty falling asleep affects this process, which will cause a decline in brain function, and at the same time show symptoms of decreased human memory, and sometimes accompanied by a decline in cognition.
These points are the most important points of harm brought to people by difficulty falling asleep, of course, there are more hazards, such as dull skin color, accelerated aging, palpitations, palpitations, limb numbness, etc., which seriously endanger human health, so everyone should take timely measures in the face of difficulty falling asleep. But before taking targeted measures, you need to understand which factors can cause difficulty falling asleep.
What factors can cause difficulty falling asleep?
In today's society, too many people face the problem of difficulty falling asleep. The reason why this situation is caused by various aspects has certain reasons, so if you want to solve the problem, you must first understand what factors will cause everyone to fall asleep?
The first is poor sleep habits, which is the main reason why modern people have difficulty falling asleep. Now there are a large number of people, after leaving work at six or seven o'clock, because most of the day is spent on work, so they cherish the time from work to before going to sleep, some are used to play mobile phones, some are used to chat with friends, some are used for sports, so they continue to postpone the time to fall asleep.
But behaviors such as talking for a long time before going to bed, playing with mobile phones, and strenuous exercise will put the brain in a state of excitement. After the central nervous system becomes active, even if everyone realizes that the time is late and it is time to go to bed, it will become particularly difficult to fall asleep at this time.
Therefore, if you want to improve the quality of sleep, you must first change these bad habits before going to bed. For example, play mobile phones, try not to play in bed, you can play enough on the sofa or seat, and then go to bed, so that the bed becomes a single sleeping place, which can help everyone develop the habit of lying in bed and sleeping in the long run.
The second is emotional and psychological fluctuations, which can also cause difficulties in falling asleep. The reasons for this, including work and study pressure, thinking problems, anxiety and depression in life, etc., in the period before falling asleep, these emotional and psychological fluctuations will be amplified, occupying the whole brain and making the brain active, thus affecting the quality of sleep.
This requires everyone to try to do something that can relax themselves before going to bed, such as listening to music, taking a hot bath, doing massage, etc., so that the brain and mood can be soothed, temporarily avoiding these emotional and psychological fluctuations, so as to help everyone enter sleep faster.
There are also many influences from environmental factors that can cause people to often not sleep. For example, the unaccustomed sleeping environment and the noise around may cause everyone to be unable to sleep. Especially for middle-aged and elderly people, their adaptability to the outside world is weak, and once the surrounding sleeping environment has changed greatly, it may be difficult to fall asleep.
Therefore, before falling asleep, we should try to create a comfortable and habitual sleeping environment for ourselves, such as the sound of mosquitoes outside in the summer is too large, you can bring earplugs to isolate the sound; If the summer is too hot to cause irritability, you can turn on the silent mode of the air conditioner and adjust it to a temperature that makes the human body feel comfortable; Outdoor street lamps with strong lighting, heavy curtains can be closed, and so on.
Finally, there are eating habits, and many people's eating habits can also lead to difficulty falling asleep. For example, eating too much before going to bed or not eating at all, in fact, these two ways are not correct. Eating too much before going to bed may lead to gastrointestinal indigestion, flatulence, abdominal pain and other conditions affecting sleep; Don't eat anything before going to bed, and being too hungry will make people always have the desire to eat, which will affect sleep.
Of course, the impact of diet on sleep quality is by no means limited to this, and eating too much of some foods before going to bed may also cause it difficult for everyone to fall asleep. That being the case, what are the foods that affect everyone's sleep?
People who often can't sleep, which four foods should be eaten as little as possible?
According to a "China Sleep Research Report 2022" released this year, the average sleep time of mainland residents was still 8.5 hours in 2012, but in 2021, it has been reduced to 7.06 hours, which shows that the number of people who have difficulty falling asleep is getting larger and larger. In this regard, some experts said that there are four common foods, if eaten before going to bed, it may cause everyone to have difficulty falling asleep.
- coffee
Before falling asleep, try not to drink coffee. Because coffee contains a kind of caffeine, it will cause excitement in the nervous system, and when you eat coffee before going to bed, the brain will always be active, and you will naturally be unable to sleep.
- tea
Tea also needs to be avoided before falling asleep. Because tea contains theophylline, theophylline will also cause brain cells to overexcite and make the brain into an active state. Moreover, theophylline will also cause the heart rate to accelerate and coronary arteries to contract, so that the amount of heart bleeding increases, resulting in an increase in blood pressure, in which case it is naturally difficult for people to enter a state of sleep.
- sugar
Before going to bed, you should also try to avoid foods that are too high in sugar, such as cakes, biscuits, ice cream and other desserts. Because desserts with high sugar content will stimulate the body to release too much insulin, which will reduce blood sugar, and at the same time release adrenal glands and cortisol, so that the body will produce a stress response, thereby reducing the quality of everyone's sleep, becoming easier to wake up and have nightmares.
- chili pepper
Spicy and irritating foods, do not eat them before sleep. Because spicy irritating foods can stimulate gastrointestinal function peristalsis, it may cause stress responses in the gastrointestinal tract, such as flatulence, pantothenic acid, etc., and eating spicy irritating foods will also lead to a rise in people's body temperature, thereby affecting people's sleep quality, resulting in everyone often unable to sleep.
The International Journal of Psychophysiology has also published such an experimental report, comparing the sleep quality of people eating spicy food before going to bed with not eating spicy food, and it was found that after eating spicy food, the subjects slept shorter and the quality of sleep was also reduced.
Therefore, people who often can't sleep, these four foods should be eaten as little as possible, starting from diet to improve, improve their sleep quality.
Final summary
If physical health is likened to a bank, then ensuring the quality of sleep is to ensure savings. Everyone is often unable to sleep, in fact, it is an overdraft of physical health. Because often can not sleep will be owed to the "bank" more and more huge interest, so that the body's liver function imbalance, eventually lead to bad consequences, resulting in the "bank" complete bankruptcy.
Therefore, we must pay attention to sleep problems, not only to avoid eating these foods that will affect sleep before going to bed, but also to take specific measures according to the specific reasons why they can't sleep. Only by improving the quality of sleep as soon as possible can we have a healthy and good body as soon as possible.
Resources:
[1] Hao Wei,Lu Lin. Psychiatry.8 edition,Beijing:People's Medical Publishing House.2018.195-204.204
[2] Li Yajin,Wang Guanying. Characteristic study of PSG sleep-related parameters in insomnia patients with difficulty falling asleep and insomnia patients with early awakening at night[J].Xinjiang Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine,2021,39(04):12-15.
[3] Chen Xin,Wang Xu,Jiang Tongzi. Effects of non-REM sleep disorder on cognitive function and correlation analysis of non-REM sleep in elderly patients with cerebrovascular disease[J].Chinese Journal of Geriatric Health Care,2021,19(05):43-46.