What to do if a 45-year-old woman suffers from insomnia

Insomnia is a health problem that many people will encounter, especially among middle-aged women. Many people suffer from insomnia due to menopausal problems or excessive stress. If insomnia is not serious and only occurs occasionally, there is no need to worry too much. However, if it is long-term insomnia, it needs timely treatment. Below, I will introduce to you several methods that can treat insomnia!

1. Intervention Methods

Intervention measures for insomnia mainly include drug treatment and non-drug treatment. For patients with acute insomnia, early drug treatment is recommended. For patients with subacute or chronic insomnia, whether primary or secondary, psychological and behavioral treatment should be used in addition to drug treatment, even for those insomnia patients who have been taking sedatives and hypnotics for a long time. The main effective psychological and behavioral treatment for insomnia is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT-I).

At present, there is a relative shortage of professional resources in China capable of engaging in psychological behavioral therapy, and there are not many people with professional certification in this area. The use of CBT-I alone will also face compliance issues, so drug intervention still dominates the treatment of insomnia. Other non-drug treatments other than psychological and behavioral therapy, such as diet therapy, aromatherapy, massage, homeopathy, light therapy, etc., lack convincing large-sample controlled studies. Traditional Chinese medicine has a long history of treating insomnia, but due to its unique individualized medical model, it is difficult to evaluate using the modern evidence-based medicine model. The importance of sleep health education should be emphasized, that is, psychological behavioral therapy, drug therapy and traditional medicine treatment should be carried out on the basis of establishing good sleep hygiene habits.

2. Drug treatment for insomnia

Although there are many types of drugs with hypnotic effects, the primary use of most of these drugs is not to treat insomnia. Although antihistamines, melatonin, and valerian extract have hypnotic effects, existing clinical research evidence is limited and they should not be used as routine medications for insomnia. Non-benzodiazepine drugs are recommended for general treatment, such as eszopiclone, zolpidem, zolpidem controlled-release, zopiclone, etc.; benzodiazepine drugs for the treatment of insomnia are complex and numerous, including: estazolam, flurazepam, quazepam, temazepam, triazolam, alprazolam, chlordiazepoxide, diazepam, lorazepam, midazolam, etc., but because of the possibility of dependence on these drugs, long-term use is generally not recommended.

3. Physical therapy

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation is a new non-drug treatment for insomnia. It is a new technology that provides repeated magnetic stimulation to specific parts of the human skull. Repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation can affect the local and functionally related remote cortical functions, achieve regional reconstruction of cortical functions, and has a significant effect on neurotransmitters and their transmission in the brain, multiple receptors in different brain regions including 5-hydroxytryptamine receptors, and gene expression that regulates neuronal excitability. It can be combined with drug treatment to quickly block the occurrence of insomnia. It is particularly suitable for the treatment of insomnia in women during breastfeeding, especially insomnia caused by postpartum depression.