What if all the elephants are counted, all the patterns on the wallpaper are studied as a keepsake, and the long-awaited dream never came? We are used to complaining to our friends about insomnia, making excuses that we begin to yawn already at the beginning of the working day. But it’s one thing to fall asleep with difficulty or to wake up several times a night, and another thing is not to sleep at all for several days in a row …
Causes and effects
Insomnia (or insomnia) is a sleep disorder characterized by the inability to fall asleep for a long period of time at night.
It can periodically be observed in people without health problems for various reasons: emotional stress, overwork, overeating, noise, etc. But most often, insomnia is an alarming symptom of many diseases (from chronic fatigue syndrome, depressive states to alcoholic psychosis). For the most part, women are exposed to it.
The diagnosis of chronic insomnia is made if the condition of “inability to fall asleep” lasts several nights in a row.
The main signs of chronic insomnia are considered:
- complaints of poor falling asleep
- poor sleep quality;
- the frequency of sleep disturbances (up to 3 times a week for a month);
- persistent feeling of anxiety about lack of sleep (at night and during the day);
- general malaise
- the inability to do normal activities (to study, go to work, etc.) due to the constant feeling of lack of sleep
In the presence of the above symptoms, an urgent consultation with a psychotherapist is necessary .
An adult needs to sleep from 6 to 8 hours a day for normal life. Reducing the amount of sleep accelerates the aging mechanisms in the body. In a day without sleep in the brain, chemical processes begin, leading to the suppression of the psyche. After two days without sleep, the hormonal background changes, the suppression of the psyche intensifies, neural connections in the cerebral cortex are broken. And from 3 or more days without sleep, the brain cells begin to break down, the load on all internal organs increases, primarily on the heart. The insomnia record belongs to the American Robert McDonalds, who lasted 453 hours without sleep (almost 19 days) in order to get into the Guinness Book of Records. But it took him years and considerable money to restore his health after this dubious experiment …
Everything is in our hands
Fortunately, in 90% of cases of so-called transient insomnia, we are to blame for ourselves, which means that it is worth normalizing our lifestyle, and insomnia will recede. So how to fall asleep quickly?
1. Do not abuse drinks containing caffeine during the day (coffee, tea, energy tones, cola, chocolate)
2. Make it a rule that the last meal is no later than 3 hours before bedtime (while avoiding oily and spicy foods)
3. If you work in an office and lead a sedentary lifestyle, be sure to take a half-hour walk in the fresh air before going to bed (if for some reason this is not possible, at least go to the balcony)
4. Properly organize your sleeping place: you should not be too hot or too cold in bed, choose bed linens from natural materials of soft colors.
5. Do not watch aggressive films (horror films, thrillers, horror films) 1 hour before bedtime, do not play computer games.
6. Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time.
7. Going to bed, make sure that the room is dark and quiet (it is in the dark that melatonin , a natural sleeping pill, is intensely produced in the body )
8. Do not replace the absence of night sleep with long sleep in the middle of the day (it does not give the body the relaxation that occurs during sleep at night)
9. Do not take a hot shower or bath at night (they have a tonic effect and prevent falling asleep) – the water temperature should be 37-38 degrees, you can add a few drops of soothing essential oils (lavender, bergamot, lemon, etc.) to it.
10. Take natural calming infusions 30 minutes before bedtime: herbal teas with mint, lemon balm, valerian, motherwort or warm milk with a spoon of natural honey.
Categorically not:
- regularly use alcohol as sleeping pills (waking up will be difficult, can lead to alcohol dependence)
- prescribe sleeping pills for yourself (they may not give the desired result, but only harm)