My dear, did you sleep well?

"The night is long and I can't sleep." Every time I think of this classic saying, I can't help but think of insomnia. People have other needs, but many people really want to sleep but can't. In the end, it leads to a series of consequences---irritability, bad temper, neurasthenia, and "panda eyes" every day. . . . . . .

Insomnia, hair loss and obesity have become three major topics of contemporary people. According to relevant statistics, about one-third of people worldwide have insomnia symptoms or sleep dysfunction. This phenomenon also exists in my country, where the insomnia rate is as high as about 20%. In recent years, insomnia has shown a trend of becoming younger. For example, studies have found that the proportion of insomnia patients aged 31-40 has increased significantly, even approaching the elderly group, and the age group with the highest incidence of sub-health insomnia is 20-29 years old [1].

It can be said that sleep problems have become an experience for many people today, and many people even suffer from persistent insomnia, which has greatly affected their physical health. Not only is their mental state poor, but the neuroendocrine disorders caused by sleep can also cause people to experience depression, anxiety, tension and other emotions. Long-term insomnia can also induce a series of diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease [2].

Therefore, insomnia is not just a source of frustration during the long nights, but also a health problem.

So what causes insomnia?

There are many studies on the causes of insomnia, which are generally believed to include the following factors:

1. Psychological factors, which may be a common factor leading to occasional insomnia, such as mood swings, difficulty in adapting to an unfamiliar environment, or worries about sleep itself may lead to insomnia.

2. Disease factors. Many diseases can cause insomnia, such as chronic pain, hyperthyroidism, etc.

3. Chemical factors are mainly related to some factors that stimulate sleep, such as drugs, caffeine, nicotine and alcohol, which can affect sleep.

4. Physical factors, the most common of which is noise [2].

In fact, the 123 reasons above are all difficult to deal with. Generally, they require special adjustments or even help from doctors. After all, psychological problems are very subjective. There are also a lot of related research, and it would probably take a monograph to write them all.

So this article will focus on the weak point of noise. After all, physical factors like noise are environmental factors that are easier to solve.

The reason why noise can affect sleep is mainly because of the stimulation to the auditory sense. The brain will continue to be excited to receive auditory signals and therefore it is difficult to calm down.

Therefore, solving the noise problem can effectively solve the sleep problem.

How to solve the noise problem?

The simplest solution is isolation. As long as the noise decibel level can be reduced well, this problem can be solved.

For example, installing soundproof windows can effectively reduce outdoor noise. Of course, another highly recommended product is soundproof earplugs.

Inserting the noise-isolating earplugs into the ear canal can block out most of the noise. It is simple and convenient, and is a product that many people strongly recommend.

However, for some people, noise-isolating earplugs may not be suitable.

On the one hand, noise-isolating earplugs need to go deep into the ear canal, and some people may find this intrusion uncomfortable.

On the other hand, the noise-isolating earplugs themselves can also cause changes in ear pressure, causing many people to feel uncomfortable.

In addition, noise-isolating earplugs are not a good choice for people with ear canal inflammation.

How to deal with the constant noise?

In fact, you might as well try the method of auditory masking, which is to use one sound to cover up another sound to affect the human ear's perception of sound.

A typical example is white noise, which refers to random sounds with a power spectrum density evenly distributed throughout the frequency domain. Some continuous natural sounds we hear in daily life are white noise, such as rain, wind, water flow, ocean, etc.

The effect of white noise on sleep was first discovered in the process of helping infants sleep. Early researchers found that giving infants white noise could reduce the crying time of clinically ill infants, thereby increasing their sleep time. Subsequent experiments on more infants showed that white noise can indeed effectively alleviate the problem of poor sleep at night for infants and improve their sleep. Studies on adult groups also show that white noise can alleviate sleep problems to a certain extent.

So why can white noise help people sleep? Studies have found that white noise can induce the brain's alpha waves and weaken the brain's beta waves, which are common waves during sleep. This can reduce mental agitation and help people fall asleep. The reason behind this may be that white noise, a natural sound, is an important environmental factor that human ancestors have been exposed to since then. As a process of evolutionary adaptation, we will gradually get used to lowering our vigilance against this sound, and even get used to it. Therefore, white noise plays a role in helping people sleep [3].

There are already products on the market that use white noise to aid sleep, and the effects are very good. I won’t go into detail here. Friends who are interested can check it out on their own or leave a message for consultation.

Finally, I hope everyone can sleep well every day!

1. He Sichen. Analysis of risk factors for young and middle-aged patients with insomnia and discussion on the distribution of TCM syndrome types[D]. Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, 2015.

2 Ohayon, Maurice M. "Epidemiology of insomnia: what we know and what we still need to learn." Sleep medicine reviews 6.2 (2002): 97-111.

3 Sezici E, Yigit D. Comparison between swinging and playing of white noise among colicky

babies: A paired randomized controlled trial[J]. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 2018, 27(3-4):

593-600.