"I haven't had a good sleep yet, so take a few sleeping pills as soon as possible." "Drinking more alcohol before going to bed will make you sleep more soundly." "Melatonin is safe and effective, and is specialized in treating insomnia." "I can't sleep at night, and make up for your sleep during the day"... …I regret to tell you that these are sleep misunderstandings. Most insomnia starts with adjusting lifestyles, and quickly learn "sleep-assistance methods" from experts.
From November 20 to November 24, 2019, the 5th Sleep Medicine Tsinghua Forum and the 5th Advanced Training Class for Sleep Breathing Disorder Diagnosis and Treatment, hosted by Beijing Tsinghua Chang Gung Hospital, an affiliated to Tsinghua University, was held in Beijing. Experts from home and abroad discussed several topics such as sleep breathing disorder in children, sleep breathing disorder in adults, sleep disorder in and age.
Take medicine to deal with insomnia is just a bad idea
The World Health Organization survey found that about 27% of people have sleep problems. The 2015 "China Sleep Index Report" shows that about 31.2% of people in my country have serious sleep problems. The 2018 report shows that about 16% of people sleep less than 6 hours at night, and as many as 83.81% are often troubled by sleep problems. The incidence of insomnia in adults is as high as 38.2%, and the prevalence of sleep apnea in people aged 30 to 69 is 23.6%.
According to the latest international sleep disease classification catalog, there are nearly 100 types of sleep disorders that have been identified. Among them, the sleep disorders with the highest incidence and greatest harm mainly include two categories. One is "can't sleep", including various insomnia. Or biological rhythmic waking sleep disorders, one type is "bad sleep", represented by sleep breathing disorders.
Tsinghua Chang Gung Hospital Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Director Ye Jingying, introduced that many patients who seem to have insomnia do not actually have insomnia, but are disorders in sleep when they wake up due to biological rhythm disorders. Every cell in our body has a clock-like structure inside, and there is also a "clock" center in the brain. These structures control all physiological activities of the human body, including sleep. When these biological clocks do not match the day and night rhythms generated by the earth's rotation, they become unmatched. At that time, symptoms similar to "insomnia" will appear, such as being unable to fall asleep at night and lack of energy during the day.
If these patients are treated as insomnia, they will have the effect of half the result with twice the effort and are prone to induce potential complications. Therefore, when you are unable to sleep, you must not simply buy some "sleeping pills", and it is not recommended to take large amounts of sleeping pills. Instead, you should treat them in a targeted manner under the evaluation and guidance of professional doctors.
In addition, some patients use alcohol to assist sleep, which is not a good choice. Although alcohol can shorten the time to fall asleep, it can affect the structure of sleep, so it is not recommended to use this method for a long time.
Experts teach you how to learn "sleep-assisting method"
Director Ye Jingying introduced that in terms of cause, most insomnia is related to factors such as lifestyle, surrounding environment, and social environment. Therefore, the most reasonable treatment for insomnia should first focus on lifestyle adjustments, etc., which is also currently recognized as the first-line treatment for insomnia, which is called "cognitive behavioral treatment" in medicine.
When insomnia occurs, you should avoid excessive attention to insomnia and avoid anxiety and other emotions. Experts recommend cognitive behavioral treatment under the guidance of professionals, including recording sleep status and determining the average sleep time; setting a sleep schedule based on the average sleep time; and adjusting the sleep time every week until the daytime function returns to normal or can Acceptance level.
In addition to this, you can try the following 9 methods:
1. Avoid smoking, alcohol, greasy diet, and a lot of exercise within three hours before going to bed;
2. Avoid strong lighting, noise and other stimulation, and do not do it before going to bed It is best not to look at your phone and wait for activities that make you excited;
3. No matter how long you sleep at night, get up on time every day;
4. Don’t sleep for a long time during the day;
5. Leave the bed after waking up;
6. You are sleepy at night Don't go to bed too early.Because the melatonin in our body will be released slowly two to three hours before going to bed;
7. If you wake up for more than 20 minutes at night or start to feel frustrated with sleep, you must get up and leave the bedroom until you are sleepy again and then go back. Go to bed;
8. Receive enough sunlight outdoors during the day to increase the amount of exercise during the day, which can help the body secrete melatonin that can maintain sleep;
9. The ambient temperature during sleep is also very important, and it is more suitable for around 20℃. , be careful not to overheat.
Melatonin is not reliable in treating insomnia
Melatonin is an amine hormone produced by the pineal glands of mammals and humans. It has the effect of regulating sleep rhythm. At present, there are a wide range of melatonin in different dosages and dosage forms, and can be easily purchased on major e-commerce websites and purchasing agent platforms. In addition, merchants often advocate that they are "highly safe, good quality, low price, and no dependence after use", and are favored by many "pressure" white-collar workers. Many people even take it as a sleep-aid health product for a long time.
Can melatonin cure insomnia? Is it safe to "prescribe medicine" for yourself? For some patients taking melatonin to treat insomnia, at the forum, Phyllis Zee, tenured professor of Neurology at Northwestern University, and Professor Lu Lin, dean of , Peking University Sixth Hospital, agreed that there is currently no sufficient data to show that melatonin can be effectively treated. Insomnia.
According to reports, melatonin is a signal of human biological rhythm . For patients with rhythm disorders and people with inverse jet lag, long-term sustained release melatonin preparations can help form a good sleep rhythm. However, there are currently no such preparations on the market in China.
It is worth noting that there is currently no control by the melatonin preparations in the drug management department, and their safety, including the purity, concentration and toxicity of the drug, also have hidden dangers.
Experts say that taking melatonin in the short term is relatively safe, but in the long term, there is a risk of endocrine system disorders. Therefore, it is not recommended that people take melatonin for a long time.
"snoring" is too serious and see a doctor.
"bad sleep" is caused by various reasons, which leads to sleep dysfunction. The most common form is sleep breathing disorder. Sleep breathing disorder refers to respiratory disorders caused by stenosis of upper airways or abnormal respiratory driving during sleep. Among them, obstructive sleep apnea (commonly known as snoring) is the most common. In clinical practice, it can be monitored based on the patient's symptoms and polysomnography ( PSG) to diagnose this type of disease.
study shows that the mortality rate of untreated severe snoring patients is 3.8 times higher than that of the general population, and the cardiovascular disease-related mortality rate is 5.2 times higher than that of the general population. Due to frequent apnea or insufficient ventilation during sleep, the oxygen content in the blood is reduced, which causes frequent awakening during sleep, which destroys the sleep structure, causing to sleep during the day, and secondary causes damage to the systemic system, inducing It may aggravate various diseases such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, arrhythmia, cerebrovascular disease, cognitive dysfunction, , type 2 diabetes, etc.
Director Ye Jingying reminds that when adults experience severe night snoring, irregular snoring or the patient consciously holds his breath, headaches in the morning, dry mouth, and inexplicable daytime sleepiness, etc., the patient is obese and has obvious abdominal obesity. When the neck is thick and short, the jaw is small or retracted, you should pay full attention to it and consider the possibility of sleep apnea hypoventilation syndrome. At this time, you should consult a professional doctor in the hospital to see if there is any need for multisomnography monitoring, diagnose and treat as early as possible, which can not only improve sleep quality, improve life, work and study status, but also effectively prevent or slow down the whole body. The occurrence and development process of multi-system damage to improve the quality of life. Text/Reporter Li Jie of this newspaper
Editor: Sha Qiong
