What are the sleep health products

The sleep health products we come into contact with every day cover many aspects such as monitoring sleep status, improving sleep environment, and regulating physical and mental status. They range from soundproof earplugs costing a few dollars to hospital-specific polysomnography monitors. They all fall into this category.

The first thing many people come into contact with may be monitoring products. Nowadays, mainstream smart watches and bracelets basically have sleep monitoring functions. There are also mattress-type sleep monitoring belts that do not need to be worn close to the body. They can be placed under the mattress to record nightly heart rate, blood oxygen, and the number of turns. There is a programmer next to me who snores all year round. He always felt drowsy when he woke up during the day. I bought a monitoring tape worth several hundred yuan and tested it for a week. I found that my blood oxygen dropped to below 80% at night. I quickly went to the hospital to register, and was finally diagnosed with mild sleep apnea. This kind of consumer-level monitoring product is definitely not as accurate as the professional equipment in hospitals, but it is more convenient for home screening. However, there have been different opinions in the industry. Some sleep doctors have mentioned that many people originally had no sleep problems, but after seeing the "insufficient deep sleep duration" and "low sleep score" displayed in the app, they were so anxious that they could not sleep all night, which actually aggravated their sleep problems.

In addition to monitoring products, what most people buy are products that improve the sleeping environment, such as memory pillows with zone support, slow rebound mattresses, vinyl curtains with 99% shading rate, small speakers that can emit rain sounds and white noise, and even specially designed for sleeping An anti-snoring pillow designed for people who snore and can automatically adjust the angle of the head. When I had an allergic rhinitis attack during the change of seasons, my nose would become stuffy and I could hold my breath while lying flat. I changed it to a smart pillow that can be adjusted manually. During that time, I did not wake up in the middle of the night because I was out of breath. There is also the sleep-aid red light lamp that has become popular in the past two years. It simulates the warm red light of sunset and can help regulate melatonin secretion when turned on for half an hour before going to bed. However, this product is also controversial. Some people think it is an IQ tax, saying that it can achieve the same effect by turning on the lamp and wearing an eye mask. The actual effectiveness depends on individual sensitivity. A girl in my department who is particularly sensitive to light felt uncomfortable when wearing silk eye masks before. After switching to the red light lamp, the measured time to fall asleep was about fifteen minutes shorter than before.

There is also a category of dietary supplement products for oral administration. The most familiar one is melatonin, as well as GABA gummies, jujube seed paste, and valerian tablets. I would like to mention here that individual differences in these products are very large. Some people take 1 mg of melatonin when they are jet lag. Melatonin can help you fall asleep quickly. Some people wake up as groggy as if they were hungover after taking 10 mg of melatonin. Moreover, there is no clear conclusion in the academic circles as to whether taking melatonin in large doses for a long time will interfere with one's own melatonin secretion. It is generally recommended to take it in small doses in the short term to avoid becoming dependent. For people who have been diagnosed with sleep disorders, some doctors will recommend medical-grade intervention products, such as transcranial magnetic stimulators for insomnia and CPAP machines for moderate to severe sleep apnea. These products must be used according to the doctor's advice. It is not recommended to buy them casually and try them out.

In fact, there is no unified standard answer for choosing sleep products. The house I rented before faced the street, and there were always cars honking their horns at night. I spent 9.9 yuan to buy a pair of sponge earplugs to solve the problem. I have also seen friends spend more than 30,000 to replace a whole set of smart beds, and they still suffered from insomnia all night because of work anxiety. The core thing is to find out the root cause of your poor sleep first, and don’t blindly follow the trend and buy a bunch of products to pile up dust at home.