Can't sleep! Can't sleep well! Can't wake up! Is that you?

There are 24 hours in a day. If we calculate based on the most commonly mentioned eight hours of sleep, then we spend nearly 1/3 of our lives sleeping. Sleep is also an essential physiological process for maintaining body health and the normal functioning of the central nervous system.

However, with the accelerated pace of life and increased pressure in recent years, more and more people have developed sleep disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, restless legs syndrome, sleepwalking, etc. The most common of these is insomnia.

#1What is considered insomnia?

Many factors can affect our sleep, such as physiological, psychological, and environmental reasons, but occasionally not sleeping well does not mean insomnia. However, if you have the following situations, you should be careful.

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1. It takes more than 30 minutes to fall asleep, wakes up ≥2 times at night, wakes up early, sleep quality decreases and total sleep time is reduced, usually less than 6 hours, or there is no sense of recovery after waking up in the morning during normal sleep.

2. The above symptoms still occur even when the conditions for sleeping are met and the environment is suitable for sleeping.

3. The presence of one of the following sleep-related daytime functional impairments: fatigue or general malaise; decreased concentration, attention maintenance or memory; decreased learning, work and/or social skills; mood swings or irritability; daytime sleepiness; decreased interest and energy; increased tendency to make mistakes during work or driving; tension, headache, dizziness, or other physical symptoms related to sleep loss; excessive concern about sleep.

To sum up, insomnia is the subjective feeling of not sleeping well, plus the objective fact that it affects your daytime life and work. So falling asleep does not mean you don’t have insomnia, and a short sleep time does not mean insomnia. But if you feel that you have not rested well for a period of time and it affects your daytime work and life, you should pay attention.

#2What are the dangers of poor sleep?

The most direct manifestation of poor sleep is that you can't get up in spirit the next day, your ability to work and study declines, and you always doze off. Sleep is the time for energy and physical strength to recover. If you don't get a good rest for a long time, your body will definitely have problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, memory loss, endocrine dysfunction, and decreased immune function.

Therefore, don’t think that poor sleep is a trivial matter. If it continues for a long time, it will have a huge impact on our physical health.

#3What is the scientific amount of sleep?

In fact, there is currently no clear evidence to show how many hours and minutes of sleep a person needs a day, but according to the latest recommendations of the US NSF (National Sleep Foundation), different age groups have their own optimal sleep duration as a reference.

Newborns: Babies aged 0-3 months need 14-17 hours of sleep (including daytime sleep, because newborns almost never get a full night's sleep like adults). Older babies (4-11 months) need about 12-15 hours of sleep a day.

Toddlers: Toddlers aged 1-2 years need 11-14 hours of sleep per night.

Children: Preschoolers (3-5 years) should get 10-13 hours of sleep, and school-age children (6-13 years) should aim for 9-11 hours of sleep at night.

Teenagers: As they age, the amount of sleep they need decreases slightly, with teenagers aged 14-17 needing about 8-10 hours of sleep at night.

Adults: Adults aged 18-64 should get 7-9 hours of sleep a night. People over 65 may need less, 7-8 hours.

#4 What does it mean to sleep well?

Now that we know the scientific length of sleep, what does it mean to have good sleep quality?

Regarding the assessment of sleep quality, the most commonly used one is the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, which consists of seven parts: subjective sleep quality, time to fall asleep, sleep time, sleep efficiency, sleep disorders, hypnotic drugs, and daytime dysfunction.

Generally speaking, the shorter the time it takes to fall asleep and the longer the sleep time is, without medication, the better the sleep quality will be. As for sleep efficiency, it is equivalent to the time actually asleep/time in bed. The higher the percentage, the better the sleep quality.

There are too many factors that affect sleep quality, from psychological to physiological, from objective to subjective, all of which may affect our sleep. For example, people with normal weight tend to sleep better than obese people, and people with mental health have higher sleep quality, etc.

At this point, I have to say that many people think it is normal for the elderly to have trouble sleeping, but this is not true. There is no evidence that age is strongly correlated with sleep quality. The elderly may need less sleep, but this does not mean poor sleep quality. Therefore, if the elderly in your family have a significant decline in sleep quality, you should be careful because it is likely caused by problems in other body systems. It is best to go to the hospital for a check-up.

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#5How to improve sleep quality?

1. Maintain a regular schedule, including weekends.

2. Create a suitable sleeping environment, such as a bedroom temperature of 15-20℃, dim and quiet environment, comfortable pillows, etc.

3. Avoid eating 2-3 hours before bedtime.

4. Exercise regularly. This applies to both young and old people. Evidence-based medicine has shown that elderly people with moderate sleep problems can improve their self-rated sleep quality by exercising at moderate intensity on a regular basis. However, avoid strenuous exercise 2-3 hours before bedtime.

5. Avoid alcohol and caffeine. Caffeine is of course self-explanatory, but when it comes to alcohol, many people may say that drinking alcohol helps you sleep better. However, studies have shown that alcohol actually reduces sleep quality and causes sleep disorders, so drinking alcohol does not really have much effect on sleep.

6. Try not to play with electronic devices before going to bed. Untreated artificial light (such as mobile phone screens) contains blue light (wavelength 400nm to 450nm) that is harmful to our body. Exposure to this blue light is not only harmful to vision, but also affects the secretion of hormones in the body, leading to physiological circadian rhythm disorders, thus causing low-quality sleep, sleep loss and other problems.

Finally, I would like to remind everyone that if you feel that your sleep quality is not improving, you must seek medical attention in time, follow the doctor's advice, and cooperate with the treatment. Finally, I wish everyone can sleep soundly every day and say goodbye to insomnia.

Source: Chongqing Science and Technology Museum

Author: Wu Bucai, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Review experts: Huang He, Li Chunli, Chen Tao, Xu Xiaoping

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