Adequate sleep is of great importance for a person. If you neglect this important factor for a long time, you can seriously undermine your own health. Insomnia sometimes occurs in response to any stressful situations, depression, psychological trauma, etc. In such a situation, there is no need to talk about good health, so it is important to know the rules and means of combating this phenomenon.
The importance of rest
It turns out that not only children need the right regime. Adults constantly suffer from lack of sleep; formed conditioned reflexes begin to be disrupted, which increases the period of falling asleep.
Formed insomnia does not contribute to the ability to make good use of time, which is intended for proper rest.
The optimal duration of rest is different for all people, and it is influenced by the individual characteristics of the body. Nature dictates that you need to go to bed at about 10 p.m. When there is no natural light, the body begins to produce melatonin, a sleep hormone, which ensures quick sleep and further healthy rest.
In the hustle and bustle of modern life, it is not always possible to afford to go to bed early; even doctors are forced to agree with the conditional division of people into “larks” and “night owls.”
Medicine has clearly proven that if you regularly go to bed later than 11 pm (this is the time when melatonin levels reach their maximum), the development of insomnia is inevitable . After two o'clock in the morning, the concentration of melatonin begins to decrease, and by morning sleep becomes more sensitive.
Similar dreams
- Dizziness after sleep in the morning
- Blood pressure in the morning after sleep
- Headache after a long sleep
- Neck hurts after sleep what to do
- Lower back hurts after sleeping on stomach
- Back of head hurts after sleep
- Stiff neck after sleep, what to do
- Smell in the room after sleep
- Trendsetter for afternoon naps
- Headache after evening sleep
- Leg pain after sleep
- Eyes hurt after sleep
- Seeing yourself after surgery in a dream
- Why do you dream about a house after a fire?
- Ribs hurt after sleeping
What should a dream be like?
A lot of research has been done to determine the amount of time a person needs to get a good night’s sleep every day. Scientists have concluded that an adult needs approximately 8 hours. Depending on individual characteristics, this value may fluctuate by plus or minus an hour.
Normally, during the period when a person sleeps, five cycles lasting 90-100 minutes should occur. If divided by 60 minutes, it equals approximately 8 hours . Doctors say that a person lives longer if he sleeps like this every day.
The optimal period for night rest is considered to be from 23 to 7 am; it allows you to get enough sleep and stay awake during the day without the desire to lie down.
Nature itself has developed the following routine:
- By 10 pm, the body prepares itself for sleep.
- In the period from 23 to 1 a.m., material metabolism slows down, body temperature drops, and heart rate decreases. The maximum level of melatonin accumulates.
- Until three in the morning, chemical reactions are greatly inhibited and hormones cease to be produced.
- From 4 am, cortisol begins to be produced - a stress hormone, responsible for waking a person.
- At 5-6 o'clock the metabolism accelerates, the amount of sugar and amino acids in the human blood increases.
- By 7 am the body begins to wake up after rest, it is ready for new physical activity. The organs of the digestive system begin to work.
There are exceptions to the rules in the system: some people fall asleep at 8-9 pm, get up at 4-5 am and feel completely rested. This regime is healthier than the option from 2 am to 10-11 am.
Unusual polyphasic sleep
In addition to single-phase sleep (once a day), there is biphasic sleep. It is formed at the biological level, consisting of rest and wakefulness. The polyphase regime has been preserved since ancient times, when there was no artificial lighting. It was a kind of protective reaction of the body.
For many, this has survived into modern times. After a certain period of wakefulness, a person becomes lethargic, he needs rest for 2-3 hours, then a period of wakefulness begins. At night, the body requires restoration.
Don't sleep too long during the day
Taking a nap during the day can be very beneficial for your health. The main rule is to sleep less than twenty-five minutes, and a quarter of an hour is best. Sleep goes through several stages that repeat cyclically. The stages include sleep transition, light sleep, deep sleep, and rapid eye movement stage. The first cycle usually takes between seventy and one hundred minutes. The worst thing you can do is go into deep sleep and then wake up in the middle of your sleep cycle. You will feel much worse than before you went to bed! Understanding cycles will also help you with experiments, you will be able to set the alarm according to them, and not just by the hour. Install an application that analyzes your sleep - it will wake you up when it is most useful for you.
Causes of sleep failure
Some people fall asleep immediately, others suffer from insomnia. It happens that a person cannot sleep for a long time. It is worth understanding the causes of sleep disturbances and finding out how to establish a routine.
The following factors are considered provocateurs of violations:
- Excessive coffee consumption.
- Snore.
- Disorders of the digestive tract.
- The period of bearing a child in women.
- Diseases of a mental nature (nervous system).
- Pathologies with accompanying high temperature.
Before changing the mode, it is necessary to determine the exact cause of the failure. If you always want to sleep or, on the contrary, are bothered by insomnia, it is recommended to consult a doctor. It will identify factors that violate the regime. This will make it possible to avoid unpleasant health consequences.
Alcohol and caffeine
It is generally not recommended to use these substances, especially before bedtime. Alcohol immediately after consumption induces sleep and relaxation, but after some time it causes strong arousal. As for caffeine, it is best to avoid drinking drinks containing it in the afternoon. It is important to note that caffeine is not only found in coffee. It is also found in tea, chocolate, cola and many painkillers. There are people who fall asleep well after coffee or tea, but this is a rare exception.
It will be much more beneficial to drink a soothing herbal tea before bed. Herbs such as chamomile, mint, hops, lemon balm, and valerian are perfect for these purposes. It has long been believed that a glass of heated milk with a tablespoon of honey dissolved in it helps to sleep well. This may be true, but milk, in terms of its calorie content, is more of a food than a drink. We have already discussed what to do with food in the evening.
What to do if your sleep pattern is out of whack
In order to level out and return to normal the rest and wakefulness regime, you need to develop the habit of living according to a schedule; this can really be done within three weeks. First of all, you need to determine the most convenient individual schedule for sleep, rest and wakefulness; each period should normally be 8 hours.
A number of recommendations have been identified to speed up the adaptation to a clear routine:
- Set the standard of sleep your body needs.
- Take your last meal three hours before going to bed.
- Try to go to bed at approximately the same time, set an alarm clock with your favorite melody.
- Do not drink coffee or energy drinks in the evening.
- During the day, provide the body with sufficient physical and mental activity, gradually reducing it in the evening.
- During sleep, it is recommended to turn off all devices that provide artificial lighting.
- Avoid watching TV or using any gadgets before bed. Taking a warm bath, reading a book, or listening to calm music has a beneficial effect.
- Ensure bedroom ventilation.
- Eliminate thoughts about the past and the next day, do not make plans for the future.
- It is recommended to completely relax and enjoy your vacation.
- Don't stay in bed after waking up. In this case, there is a high probability of falling back into slumber, which will be wasted time. Gradually you need to get used to the fact that after waking up a new day begins, it’s time to get up.
You should not expect that the condition will normalize immediately; the body must get used to the changes that are favorable for it and enter a normal mode. The half-asleep passes, the person begins to get enough sleep, and the constant lethargy recedes.
If you succeed in restructuring the regime, the body begins to wake up on its own at the appointed time without the help of an alarm clock.
Food
Remember the saying: “We are what we eat”? In this case, it can be paraphrased: “We sleep the way we eat”! Some foods help to significantly improve the quality of sleep, and there are others that can prevent you from falling asleep quickly. So the menu, especially the evening one, cannot be ignored either.
Keeping in mind that dinner should be light and finish 1.5-2 hours before bedtime, try introducing foods that improve sleep into your diet:
But what foods should be limited in the daily diet for people who care about the quality of their sleep: spicy seasonings, sugar, coffee, black tea, chocolate, carbonated drinks, pickles and smoked foods, too sweet or sour fruits, starchy vegetables.
For such an adjustment, your body will especially thank you for a significant improvement in overall well-being, and, possibly, weight loss.
Is long sleep beneficial?
Excessive rest (exceeding 10 hours) is unfavorable for the body. A person produces too much melatonin, which leads to rapid fatigue.
This phenomenon is observed when biological rhythms are disturbed, since there is a change in the amount of hormones that ensure normal wakefulness. As a result, a person is haunted by laziness, apathy and lack of strength .
Performance deteriorates, which can cause depression.
Folk remedies
Many people additionally strengthen their sleep with folk remedies. This is the easiest and safest way to make your night's rest better and longer.
The most popular method is herbal teas, which include chamomile, mint, hop cones, hawthorn, linden, pine buds and other beneficial plants. It is easier to buy ready-made preparations in pharmacies - their composition is carefully selected and balanced, and the quality of the raw materials is checked by specialists.
Water procedures have a relaxing effect on the body and a calming effect on the psyche: a warm shower or bath with the addition of essential oils or a decoction of herbs. A relaxing massage is useful, especially if it is performed by the hands of a loved one.
Sometimes a light impact on correctly selected acupuncture points is enough so that sound sleep does not take long to arrive.
An equally popular and effective way to improve sleep quality is aromatherapy. Essential oils of juniper, cedar, lavender, lemon balm, and mint will help you calm down and fall asleep faster. And the main thing is that all these methods will only bring health benefits and teach you to fall asleep on your own, without the use of medications.
Remember the old riddle: “What is the sweetest thing in the world”? Her answer, at first glance, is strange, but if you think about it, it’s the most obvious.
There is nothing sweeter than sleep, especially if you are tired and just falling off your feet. Would you be willing to trade it for chocolate or cake?
Nowadays, it is a rare person who can boast that he can sleep as much as he wants. We sacrifice sleep for many things: work, children, entertainment.
Although any specialist will tell you that it is better to neglect watching a movie or surfing the Internet than an hour of rest.
In addition, regular overexertion takes its revenge on us by the fact that even in those short hours of sleep, part of this time we toss and turn, simultaneously trying to stop the stream of consciousness and relax at least a little. This is why insomnia and lack of sleep are two of the most common problems in our society.
Remembering the topic of our conversation yesterday, we can say for sure: lack of sleep leads to a decrease in immunity, it interferes with the full functioning of the brain and can lead to nervous exhaustion. Today we will talk about how to improve your sleep and feel like a happy person.
How do Russians deal with insomnia? One of the most effective remedies, in our opinion, is to drink a glass of cognac in the evening.
However, we only have the illusion of sound sleep in this case. In fact, our body is busy processing the alcohol that enters it. To say that this is a healthy recovery is completely meaningless.
Often, you can achieve good and sound sleep even with serious disturbances using simple but effective methods. We'll talk about them.
Drawing conclusions
Normalizing sleep is a painstaking process in which not only the doctor, but also the patient should be interested. Sleeping pills will not help to completely get rid of insomnia; they provide only a short-term effect, in addition, they have a lot of side effects. It will be much more useful to take measures to stabilize your schedule and lifestyle, which will help you establish sound, high-quality and restorative sleep.
Sleep is the first source of well-being and positive mood. It is not for nothing that many famous people consider it the simplest but most effective medicine. And some ladies are sure that sleep, among other things, is also a source of beauty. This is a vital state of the brain, so it must also be strong. If a person sleeps restlessly, then his brain does not relax, and sleep does not bring the benefits it should. Having woken up in the morning, such a person does not want to do anything and spends the whole day waiting for the evening to fall asleep again.
Many people complain of insomnia and drink handfuls of sleep aids. You can fall asleep with them, but it’s unlikely to relax your brain. Therefore, you should not get used to such drugs. Moreover, there is an opportunity to make your rest the right natural way. Let's figure out how to normalize your sleep and feel a surge of energy again.
Pharmacological drugs
Drug treatment for insomnia should be prescribed by a specialist
The pharmaceutical market today offers a huge selection of drugs for insomnia. But using them on your own to restore sleep patterns is highly undesirable for the following reasons:
- such drugs are potent and are available only with a prescription;
- drugs can have not only a hypnotic effect, but also a number of side effects;
- uncontrolled use of drugs in this group can cause addiction and the need to switch to stronger drugs;
- sleep disorders do not always require the prescription of sleeping pills;
- insomnia in its pure form is extremely rare; only a specialist can recognize accompanying symptoms, for example, anxiety, obsessive states, tension after stress, and select the optimal drug.
