Sleep Health Tips

Don't use a general template. First figure out what kind of "bad sleeper" you are, and then make targeted adjustments. It works better than anything else.

Not long ago, I had a best friend who worked in operations. She lay with her eyes open until after two o'clock for most of a month. I saw a blogger saying that she soaked her feet before going to bed and drank hot milk to help her sleep. After trying it for half a month, she became more energetic while lying down. After going to a sleep clinic for a full set of tests, I found out that she has "neuroexcitatory insomnia". Doing these ritualistic things before going to bed will put the brain into a "waiting for activation" state, which is equivalent to reminding it that "the important task of sleep must be completed next", making it even more tense and unable to sleep.

Speaking of which, I have to mention that there are actually two mainstream views on sleep adjustment. Each has its own opinion. You don’t have to worry about whose opinion you should listen to, as long as it suits you. For example, the internationally recognized cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT-I) recommends that if you lie down for 20 minutes and you are still not sleepy at all, get out of bed immediately and go to a dimly lit area to do something mindless, such as flipping through two pages of a paper book or folding clothes, and then go back to bed when you feel sleepy to avoid establishing an "awake-anxiety" association in bed. ； But the view of traditional Chinese medicine is just the opposite. Even if you can't sleep, don't get out of bed and toss around. It can easily disturb the yang energy. Just lie quietly with your eyes closed. Resting your mind can be considered a rest. On the contrary, it can save more energy than tossing back and forth. I have tried both methods myself. If my mind is still thinking about the unfinished work during the day, I will get up and write down what I need to do on a note on the bedside. After writing it, it is equivalent to "handing over" the matter from the brain's to-do list. I will fall asleep quickly when I lie back down. If I am just energetic, I can just close my eyes and think about useless things. I can fall asleep after lying down for half an hour. There is no need to adhere to the requirements of a certain faction.

There are also many people who have obviously slept for seven or eight hours, but still feel groggy when they wake up, and cannot even drink two cups of coffee. Most of this is not because they don't sleep enough, but because their sleep is too fragmented. The house I rented before faced the street, and there were always electric cars of takeaway guys passing by in the early morning. I felt like I didn't wake up all night. Later, I found out after wearing a sleep monitoring bracelet that the deep sleep period was interrupted by a sound every 10 minutes, seven or eight times a night, which meant that I had never entered an effective deep sleep at all. In this case, there is no need to plug in earplugs right away. Many people have sensitive ear canals. After wearing them for two hours, they will swell and hurt and they will not be able to sleep well. You can first try changing the bedroom curtains to thick ones with a shading rate of more than 90%, and adjust the air conditioner to 22-24℃ and the humidity to 4 before going to bed. 0%-60% - This range is clearly recommended by the Chinese Sleep Research Association and is the environment that best meets the needs of deep sleep. I changed the curtains and added a humidifier without wearing earplugs. The duration of deep sleep increased by one and a half hours, and I woke up refreshed.

Oh, by the way, there is really no need to adhere to the standard of "you must sleep 8 hours a day". Everyone's sleep needs are naturally different. My dad is over 50 years old. He sleeps at 11 a.m. and starts at 6 a.m. for 7 hours every day.

Speaking of circadian rhythm, the biggest pitfall I have encountered is catching up on sleep on weekends. I wake up at 7 o'clock every day on weekdays, and sleep until one or two o'clock in the afternoon on weekends. I feel top-heavy when I get up, and I can't sleep until two or three o'clock at night. When I go to work on Monday, I am completely confused. I found out later. He said that this kind of catch-up sleep is equivalent to forcing a two or three-hour jet lag on oneself, which will disrupt the biological clock. Now I sleep up to one hour more than usual on weekends. I get up to have a hot breakfast and go to the morning market near my home. The whole day is more comfortable than sleeping until the afternoon.

Another detail that many people don’t take seriously is caffeine intake in the afternoon. I always thought that I had a fast metabolism and could still fall asleep at night after drinking a cup of American coffee at 4 pm. It wasn’t until I read the popular science of clinical nutrition that I learned that the half-life of caffeine is generally about 6 hours. If you drink it at 4 pm The coffee you ordered will still have half of the caffeine in your body by ten o'clock in the evening. Even if you can fall asleep successfully, the duration of deep sleep will be more than 30% shorter than when you don't drink it. During that time, I changed my afternoon coffee to barley tea. After I woke up, my face was less swollen and I felt much less sleepy.

In fact, after all, there is really no need to be too anxious about sleep. The more you focus on "will I have insomnia today" and "whether I slept for enough hours", the more likely you will be nervous and unable to sleep well. The effective methods used by others may have the opposite effect on you. Just try two more and find a rhythm that is comfortable to you. If you really can't fall asleep after lying down for more than an hour for more than two weeks in a row, or you can only sleep three or four hours a day, don't force yourself to do it or buy health care products blindly. Go to the sleep clinic of a regular hospital to register. It will be more effective than any other folk remedies.