It's hard to fall asleep, what should I do? Treatment of insomnia by a doctor

Insomnia for a modern person, sleep disturbance in men, adolescents, women, including pregnant women, has acquired a persistent chronic form in recent years. How to normalize sleep and fall asleep quickly in order to feel alert and rested in the morning?

Insomnia - in English the word insomnia is translated as Insomnia - has various forms of sleep disturbances that occur for various reasons.

What to do if you have insomnia and can’t sleep? When you lie down in bed in the evening, you often feel like you want to sleep, and as soon as you touch your favorite pillow, wrap yourself in a warm blanket, you quickly fall into a sweet, serene sleep, sound sleep will be enough for the whole night to get a good night's sleep.

Razgadamus advises you to find out: How to choose the right direction for a restful sleep?

After lying for an hour, two, three, and sometimes until the morning, without closing your eyes all night (and when you don’t sleep, night time drags on slowly, seems endless), you realize that the dream has passed, numerous attempts to sleep have not been crowned with success, and you don’t know what to do with insomnia.

What is insomnia: characteristic symptoms

The cause of sleep disorders is often attributed to an uncomfortable pillow, a hard mattress on the bed, noise in the house, or annoying street sounds that interfere with falling asleep quickly. Disturbed sleep causes discomfort and loss of strength; a sleep-deprived person feels overwhelmed, it is difficult for him to assess the events happening around him, and a working day from lack of sleep turns out to be even more difficult than an anxious sleepless night.

Trouble falling asleep at night is often the cause of health problems and has characteristic symptoms. When a healthy person who leads a healthy lifestyle and follows the rules of nutrition and rest cannot sleep, staying up at night for several hours, which has become a habit, is alarming, especially if it causes irritability in the person.

How many hours should you sleep? Taking into account the physiological characteristics of people, it should be noted that people of different age groups need different durations of sleep, which have nothing to do with insomnia. People who are not naturally predisposed to long sleep need 5-6 hours to get a good night's sleep and still feel refreshed in the morning. Others are unable to rest, no matter how many hours they sleep at night and during the day.

Sleep disturbance in the modern world, associated with stress, physical inactivity and overwork, is becoming a common form of neurosis, affecting a decrease in performance, a depressed emotional state of a person, and chronic diseases arising from constant insomnia.

Read: Why you can’t take pictures of people sleeping?

Signs of insomnia:

waking up too early in the morning;
waking up several times during the night;
lack of sleep for no apparent reason;
constant sleepiness during the day, fatigue;
the need to use sleeping pills to fall asleep quickly and sleep soundly.

Insomnia is a state without sleep in which a person is deprived of proper rest. You can sleep 8-10 hours at night, the time a person needs for proper sleep, but during the day remain in an irritated state, feeling tired, lack of strength, and drowsiness. These are symptoms characteristic of insomnia, signs that you can get rid of yourself at home, if you have the desire and follow simple advice from psychologists, thanks to which you can quickly fall asleep.

Causes of insomnia

Doctors believe that the main causes of insomnia in people are stress, poor lifestyle, and bad habits. Insomnia has physiological and psychological causes of sleep disturbance.

Insomnia can be short-lived and last 1-2 days; the cause of restless sleep can be unfinished business, difficult problems at work, household chores, or worry about a sick loved one.

If insomnia torments you from time to time and is not constant, then you should not worry about a short-term lack of sleep, you should leave worries in the past, do not worry about the future in the name of proper rest, and then you will be able to quickly fall asleep.

It might be interesting: Why you can’t sleep in front of a mirror.

When a person is suffering and does not know what to do to fall asleep quickly, when people are unable to relax and fall asleep, doctors make a diagnosis of insomnia. The main cause of sleep disorders in most cases, according to medical indications, is the physical or mental condition of a person:

characteristic diseases: hyperthyroidism - increased function of the thyroid gland, diseases associated with kidney function, Parkinson's syndrome, allergies;
taking certain medications: medications for ARVI, painkillers, tablets containing caffeine or alcohol;
psychological state: constant stress, post-traumatic disorders, depression.

Before you begin treatment for insomnia, you should identify the causes of the disease. In the absence of visible causes - anxiety, constant stress, regular pain due to chronic illnesses - or if the symptoms appeared against the background of a bad mood, it will be possible to determine why insomnia appeared and find an effective treatment or a quick way to get rid of sleep disturbances.

Doctors, psychologists and somnologists - specialists who study sleep disorders in humans, doctors who treat pathologies associated with a popular illness among women, men, children - help treat severe forms of the disease in pregnant women, successfully put into practice effective methods for getting rid of insomnia in advanced cases.

You can cope with lack of sleep yourself at home. We offer 5 effective ways to solve the problem, helping to establish disturbed sleep patterns, forget about daytime problems at night, quickly relax and fall asleep:

#1: Sleep at least 8 hours.

This is the first rule and the number of hours allotted to the human body for recuperation, proper rest and sleep. 8 hours of sleep is considered optimal for maintaining good physical health and youth. You should not expect to get enough sleep over the weekend; in two days it is impossible to compensate for a week’s lack of sleep; you need to sleep normally every day.

The easiest and most effective way to combat insomnia is self-massage. You can do a massage yourself before going to bed, or while lying in bed when you can’t sleep. Do a facial massage, knead your palms with your hands, massage your fingertips. A massage will relax your body, simple exercises for 5 minutes will help you fall asleep faster.

#2: Avoid TV and computer before going to bed.

You should not watch horror films, science fiction films, or read negative news at night. The list of prohibited films includes comedies, romantic series that evoke compassion, tears and emotions. To relax, it is better to read a book with calm content.

An effective way to fall asleep quickly is to eat, but, of course, not a stack of homemade pancakes. Often, when you can’t sleep, you want to eat. Don't force yourself to fall asleep. Tossing and turning in bed for hours can only aggravate the situation and cause even greater anxiety.

Get out of bed, go to the kitchen and drink a glass of warm milk or eat a piece of cheese, a banana, or brew a cup of herbal tea. Play a quiet, soothing tune. When you feel sleep returning, go back to bed.

Foods such as bananas, dates, milk and cheese contain tryptophan. The amino acid tryptophan promotes the production of serotonin in the human body, a hormone that causes a feeling of emotional calm, a sense of well-being and relaxation.

A proper dinner in the evening should consist of carbohydrates that calm the nervous system: a piece of homemade cookie cake, a small portion of sweet porridge - this menu is considered an effective sleep aid.

#3: A useful awakening.

Somnologists believe that waking a person during the slow-wave sleep phase is harmful. It will be difficult for him to get up in the morning and during the day he will feel tired. On the contrary, waking up from REM sleep is easier, even if you managed to sleep less than usual. Scientists have found that the full sleep cycle begins with the slow phase and ends with the fast phase; the duration of the full sleep cycle is one and a half hours. It turns out that if a person has fallen asleep, then you cannot wake him up for an hour and a half.

Read: What is polyphasic sleep - sleep phases.

A short walk before bedtime helps you fall asleep quickly and wake up easily - one of the ways to combat insomnia.

#4: Exercise no later than 6 hours before bedtime.

Sports and increased physical activity in the evening, stimulating the nervous system, cause sleep problems in a person. In the evening, sports training and exercise should be abandoned; sports should be completed no later than 6 hours before bedtime.

But if you couldn’t stick to your training schedule, be sure to relieve stress at home by taking a warm, relaxing bath with herbs. You can take a fragrant bath no earlier than an hour after dinner. It is recommended to take a relaxing bath for 20 minutes, the water temperature should be at around 37-38 degrees. For a herbal soothing bath, it is better to take a mixture of fragrant herbs. The bath recipe includes an infusion of herbs in equal quantities - lemon balm, oregano, calendula - 50 grams of each herb.

Infusions of wormwood, tincture of valerian and dill tea are popularly considered to be effective sedatives. The beneficial properties of dill have been known since ancient times: fresh herbs and dried seeds of the garden plant are used in folk medicine to treat a number of diseases, including insomnia. Dill tea recipe: 1 tablespoon of seeds is poured into a glass of boiling water, the tea is infused for an hour. You should take dill tea before bed – drink it warm.

#5: Arranging a sleeping area.

A properly equipped bed and sleeping place is the key to a restful sleep. When choosing bed linen, give preference to natural fabrics. For long, sound sleep, it is better to choose cotton bed linen.

You should give up a down pillow in favor of bamboo or wool filling. To quickly fall asleep, you can put a gauze bag with herbs in the pillow or near the pillow at the head of the bed: chamomile, hop cones, pine needles. Plants containing essential oils are the best sleeping pills, harmless and having a soporific effect.

The bed should have a comfortable mattress; It is important that the bed allows air to pass through. You cannot read in bed; the sleeping place should only remind you of sleep.

How to prevent insomnia

create comfortable sleeping conditions in the bedroom;
do not overeat at night, do not drink strong tea, coffee and alcohol in the evening;
try to adhere to a rest regime - go to bed and wake up at the same time;
go to bed with the lights off.

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What is insomnia and what symptoms does it accompany?

Sleep disorders are a fairly popular neurosis that affects a person’s emotional state, energy, health and performance. Chronic insomnia is often the cause of serious health problems. However, small changes in your life and certain exercises can save you from anxious nights.

Signs of insomnia:

difficulty falling asleep;
early awakening;
needing alcohol or sleeping pills to sleep soundly;
fatigue, daytime sleepiness, irritability or inability to focus on work;
periodic awakenings at night.

Insomnia is a sleep disorder when a person is unable to fully rest. As a result, he feels tired and irritable in the morning. Keep in mind that people need different amounts of sleep. The extent of the disease is determined by the quality of sleep, how you feel in the morning and the time it takes to fall asleep. You can even sleep the required 8 hours at night, but if you then feel tired and drowsy during the day, then you may already be diagnosed with insomnia.

Causes of insomnia

Insomnia can also be a consequence of an unhealthy lifestyle or bad habits. For example, this applies to caffeine lovers or those people who experience stress on a daily basis.

Still, there is great news - most often, sleep disorders can be cured! This can be done without taking medications.

Physiological and psychological reasons

Sometimes sleep disturbance is temporary (just a couple of days). In such situations, a person also experiences temporary negative factors - stress or strong anxiety before an upcoming event. At other times, insomnia is a persistent phenomenon that needs to be eliminated.

Sometimes the main problem with the appearance of symptoms of sleep disturbance concerns a person’s mental or physical activity:

Psychological factors that cause unpleasant symptoms: recurrent depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, bipolar disorder, constant stress.
Medications that negatively affect sleep: medications for flu or colds, including painkillers, alcohol, caffeine, corticosteroids.
Some diseases: Parkinson's syndrome, increased thyroid function, renal pathology, reflux (acid), allergic reactions, severe constant pain, asthma, cancer.

Chronic insomnia: main factors

Before starting treatment for this disease, it is necessary to analyze the possible causes of its occurrence. Factors such as constant anxiety, stress, depression, bad habits, etc. have a negative effect on sleep. Once you can determine for yourself why you have insomnia, you can find the most effective treatment.

Do you have regular stress?
Is there constant depression or just a bad mood?
Don't have the strength to fight a chronic feeling of extreme excitement or anxiety?
Perhaps you are using medications that can disrupt sound sleep?
Do you have a medical condition that affects your sleep?
Does the atmosphere in the house contribute to a comfortable and relaxing holiday?
Do you spend enough time daily walking in the fresh air?
Do you have a stable sleep schedule (do you fall asleep at the same time)?

Treatment methods for insomnia

Before you begin treatment, be aware that some of the things you do to manage your illness may make you feel worse. For example, we are talking about alcoholic beverages or strong sleeping pills - this is not a method of restoring healthy sleep. You should also pay attention to the amount of coffee consumed during the day. It happens that it is enough for a person to correct his negative habits, get rid of them, and healthy and sound sleep returns to them.

Instead of bad habits, you need to introduce new ones into your life that will promote sound and healthy sleep:

Make sure your bedroom is cool, quiet and dark. Increased air temperature, harsh light or the slightest rustle can be serious reasons for lack of sleep. Then you can use earplugs, a sleep mask or light-blocking curtains, or a fan.
Set up the correct rhythm of wakefulness and sleep - try to fall asleep and wake up at the same time. This also applies to weekends.
Short naps should be avoided during the day. Push yourself more.
Avoid excitement or stress before bed. This includes physical exercise, conflicts or discussions, television, video games, and the computer.
Avoid using brightly lit gadgets before bed.
Try to eliminate or limit to a minimum your intake of caffeine, alcohol or nicotine.

Keeping a diary to identify bad habits is a condition for defeating insomnia

Sometimes a person gets so used to certain actions that he completely ceases to attach any significance to them. In other words, he has no idea that this action could negatively affect his health.

Perhaps the quality of your sleep is affected by a small cup of your favorite coffee every day. On the other hand, maybe you are just used to watching TV until late at night and your body has already developed its own sleep and wakefulness schedule. To identify hidden habits, it is best to keep a diary.

All you have to do is write down all the details about your daily habits. sleep rhythms, symptoms and about insomnia. Such details include the time and place you fall asleep, the time you wake up, what you like to drink and eat, and so on.

Preparing the body for night mode

At night, certain structures of the brain synthesize melatonin, which helps the body regulate the correct sleep-wake rhythm. Because melatonin is controlled by light, a lack of natural light during the day can make you sleepy, while too much dim lighting at night can suppress melatonin production and cause sleep disturbances.

To eliminate such problems, follow these tips:

Increase your time in nature. Spend breaks between work outside in sunlight, try not to wear sunglasses over your eyes, and open blinds and curtains during the day.
Limit artificial light at night. To increase melatonin production, turn on dim lamps, cover the windows in your bedroom, avoid harsh light and turn off television, smartphones and monitors. If it is not possible to darken the room, you can use a special eye mask.

What to do about lack of sleep?

“I’m tormented by insomnia, what should I do?” - we hear this question from our clients more and more often. Of course, the more difficulty you have with sleep, the more it begins to intrude on your thoughts. You may be afraid to fall asleep because you are simply sure that you will have restless sleep for many hours. Perhaps you're worried because you have a tough day ahead of you tomorrow, and if you don't get your eight hours of sleep, you're sure you'll blow an important presentation at work. Expecting difficulties with sleep only aggravates the situation with insomnia; excitement fills your body with adrenaline, and while you are thinking about it, you cannot fall asleep.

How can you learn to identify your bed not with insomnia, but with good sleep and rest?

If concerns are interfering with your ability to relax at night, there are some techniques that can help.

You need to adhere to some requirements:

The bedroom is intended exclusively for sleeping. Don't watch TV, don't work, don't use gadgets. The goal is that you should establish clear associations of your bedroom with relaxation and sleep.
If sleep doesn't come to you, don't stay in bed. Don't try to force yourself to sleep. Tossing and turning can only increase anxiety. Get up, go to another room and, for example, read a book, drink a cup of warm, weak tea, take a bath, or turn on soothing music. When you feel that sleep is returning to you, return to bed.
Remove the room clock from view. You will be upset, nervous and worried even more when you see how minutes pass without sleep. Everything must be done to eliminate anxiety conditions.

The fight against insomnia is doomed to failure if you constantly feed it with your negative thoughts.

How to cope with a shift work schedule?

Night work or an unstable schedule can ruin your sleep. But you can limit the negative impact by practicing a healthy lifestyle and following the tips below:

Adjust your sleep-wake rhythm - turn on bright electric lamps or fluorescent lamps in your work environment, and when returning home, put on high-quality sunglasses to protect your eyes from the sun's rays.
Spend less time commuting to your work office - it takes away hours of your sleep. The more time you spend commuting home, the harder it will be to force yourself to fall asleep after work.
Avoid frequent changes to your work shift schedule.
Make your bedroom light—and noise—proof. Use special curtains or an eye mask, turn off your phone, and play soothing music during your nap.

General strategy for combating chronic insomnia

Do you lie awake at night with your eyes open, thinking “what if?” and come up with worst case scenarios? Chronic worrying is a mental habit that you can overcome if you learn about it.

Negative thoughts that need to be abandoned and replaced with correct ones

Unrealistic expectations: “I must sleep at night like a normal person”;
Solution: “Many people have trouble falling asleep from time to time. I need to practice more";

Exaggeration: “Another night of sleepless suffering”;
Solution: “It’s not the same every night. Sometimes I sleep better than usual";

Catastrophizing: “If I don’t sleep, I’ll ruin the presentation and jeopardize my job”;
Solution: “I can go to the presentation even if I’m tired. I can still relax and rest even if I can’t sleep”;

Despair: “I will never be able to sleep properly. It's out of my control";
Solution: “Insomnia will soon disappear. As soon as I stop worrying, I can focus on doing the right things and I can overcome this illness”;

Fortune telling: “It will take me at least an hour to fall asleep at night. I know this for sure”;
Solution: “I don’t know what’s going to happen tonight. Perhaps I will be able to fall asleep quickly if I use the practices I read about”;

Remember, replacing harmful thoughts with true ones takes a lot of time and practice. You can create your own list of negative thoughts that interfere with falling asleep, and also come up with answers to them.

Using relaxation to combat insomnia

Relaxation techniques such as meditation, deep breathing, yoga and tai chi can help calm your mind and reduce stress. And this without the side effects of sleep medication!

These methods are in addition to the main methods of relaxation, but the effect can be quite noticeable. You can use them regularly, applying them every time before going to bed or when you wake up in the middle of the night:

Progressive relaxation of all muscles of the body. Make yourself comfortable in a lying position. You need to start with your feet - tense your muscles as hard as possible. Hold for a count of 10 and then relax. Do the exercise for all muscle groups separately, following the direction from the legs to the head. See more details here.
Diaphragmatic breathing. Many people don’t even know that breathing correctly means taking deep breaths. When we breathe deeply, it helps the body relax as much as possible. Do the exercise slowly and with your eyes closed. We exhale through the mouth and inhale through the nose.

To develop relaxation skills, you need to regularly practice these methods. The technique pays off, because as a result you gain power over your own body. You can use these techniques constantly.

Vicious circle of insomnia

Poor sleep, as a rule, leads to stress and gives rise to anxious thoughts about the impossibility of sleep. This in turn leads to constant tension and the negative habit of falling asleep with the help of sleeping pills or alcohol, and also develops the habit of dozing during the day in order to make up for lost sleep time at night. This leads to further worsening of the insomnia problem. This is the so-called “vicious circle of insomnia.”

Techniques for dealing with negative thoughts that interfere with falling asleep, as well as relaxation exercises, are the main components of the so-called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), one of the effective areas of modern psychotherapy. CBT focuses on not only creating positive habits, but also promoting changes in thoughts and attitudes towards sleep, which can also help relieve insomnia, reduce stress and stop the vicious cycle of insomnia.

At the same time, psychotherapy can be much safer and more effective in combating rest disorders than sleeping pills. However, it is not an instant cure as it requires time and consistency.

Your condition may even get worse at first, especially if your therapist recommends sleep restriction therapy, which requires you to reduce the amount of rest you get.

Insomnia - you need to fight it correctly (about sedatives and sleeping pills)

If you can’t sleep at night, the simplest thing you can do is take a sleeping pill, but this is not a solution, since the medicine will not eliminate the cause of insomnia, and in some cases will only worsen the problem. In any case, before taking any measures, it is important to consult a doctor in this matter.

There are many different dietary and herbal supplements available to promote sleep. Some, such as herbal teas made from chamomile and lemon balm, are generally harmless, while others can have a host of side effects.

They may not work for everyone, but the two most popular supplements are:

Melatonin is a hormone that is naturally synthesized in the human body at night. Experience shows that this supplement can be effective when used for short periods of time to correct the “internal clock,” for example, when traveling. However, side effects may occur, one of them being drowsiness the next day.
Valerian is a mildly sedative herb that can help promote better sleep. However, the quality of valerian supplements varies significantly.

Over-the-counter sleeping pills

The main component of these medications is often an antihistamine, usually taken for allergies, hay fever and cold symptoms. Therefore, it is not recommended to use these drugs for a long period of time. In most cases, sleep experts oppose the use of sleeping pills, even questioning their effectiveness due to a number of side effects and a lack of safety information.

While an insomnia medication may provide temporary relief when sleep occurs, it is still best to use the drug only as a last resort and only in limited quantities. First, try changing your daily routine, your habits, and your attitude towards sleep. Experience shows that changing a person’s lifestyle and behavior gives the best and lasting effect in the fight against insomnia.

When should you seek professional treatment for insomnia?

If you've already tried the above-mentioned insomnia remedies and methods on your own and are still having trouble falling asleep, you need a psychologist or other sleep specialist who can help you. You should seek professional help in the following cases:

insomnia does not respond to self-help strategies;
sleep disturbance causes serious problems at home, work or school;
you experience severe symptoms such as chest pain or shortness of breath;
insomnia occurs almost every night and progresses.

Before contacting a psychologist, it is advisable to undergo a medical examination. Your doctor will either diagnose an organic disease, or it will be clear that we are talking about neurosis. In the second case, i.e. If insomnia is caused by a mental factor, you should start working with a competent psychologist or psychotherapist.

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I suffer from insomnia - when does it become dangerous?

Insomnia is a sleep disorder that often becomes chronic and causes exhaustion of the nervous system. This is a dangerous and debilitating condition that can lead to a psycho-emotional breakdown or cause constant drowsiness and decreased performance during the day. And this already creates a certain threat to a person’s life and health if he is engaged in work that requires extreme concentration and speed of reactions. In addition, constant lack of sleep has the most negative impact on a person’s health and well-being and can cause serious diseases associated with disruption of the heart, brain, and endocrine system.

Insomnia has many faces - it manifests itself in different forms. Some wake up from any rustle, others cannot fall asleep until dawn or sleep in fits and starts, as sleep is interrupted several times during the night. The result is the same - in the morning a person feels exhausted and so tired, as if he had never gone to bed at all. What to do if insomnia does not go away for a week and how to get back sound and healthy sleep? It is best to contact a specialist with your problem who will help you find out the reasons for this condition, because sleep disturbances can indicate serious health problems that manifest themselves in a similar way.

You will be diagnosed with insomnia if sleep disturbances occur three times a week and this condition continues for at least a month. At the same time, experts distinguish between short-term (when difficulties with sleep appear periodically) and chronic insomnia (when the problem occurs every night for a long time). What signs indicate the development of insomnia?

inability to fall asleep quickly even with severe physical fatigue;
superficial nature of sleep, a person can wake up from any rustle or faint noise;
sleep is interrupted several times during the night, a person sleeps in fits and starts and can wake up long before dawn, unable to fall asleep again;
Insomnia torments you all night and only goes away in the morning, when you need to get up for work or school.

If you have any of the above symptoms, then you are faced with a persistent sleep disorder. To understand how to deal with the problem, try to find out the reason that provokes this condition.

Why does insomnia occur: the main reasons

The most common factors causing sleep disturbances are:

Wrong lifestyle. The habit of eating a heavy meal at night, watching a new movie with a chase and shootouts, playing a computer game, brainstorming while doing homework or preparing for an exam - all this excites the nervous system and contributes to sleep disturbances.
Physical inactivity, sedentary work, lack of movement or, on the contrary, active evening life with visiting bars, clubs, dancing and new acquaintances, which evoke strong emotions and do not allow you to relax and fall asleep.
Nervous strain or chronic stress associated with problems at work and scrolling through certain negative situations in the head.
Change of habitual way of life. Often, sleep problems arise when spending the night in an unfamiliar place (on a tourist trip, visiting or on a business trip);
Poor sleeping conditions (heavy, stale indoor air, uncomfortable bed, heat in the summer, lantern light outside the window);
Bad habits. Abuse of stimulating drinks (strong tea, coffee, tonics), smoking, alcohol consumption. Another negative factor is overeating, eating fatty, spicy, high-calorie foods before bed.
Health problems. Chronic insomnia often accompanies various diseases and can signal neurological disorders, pathologies of the cardiovascular, digestive, and endocrine systems.
Pregnancy. While carrying a child, “hormonal storms” rage in a woman’s body, which can cause sleep problems. In the later stages of pregnancy, a large belly, pressure of the uterus and the movement of the baby interfere with sleep.

As you can see, there are many reasons that cause sleep disorders. What to do if insomnia at night affects your health and reduces your quality of life? First you need to understand the mechanism and adjust your rhythm and lifestyle accordingly.

How do we fall asleep and what are the consequences of insomnia?

Somnologists say that a state is considered normal when falling asleep is preceded by a process of internal inhibition. It is expressed in the fact that at the level of the subcortex in the human brain, the intensity of nerve impulses decreases, the activity of almost all subcortical cells slows down, and after a short time a state of drowsiness occurs. At the same time, the person feels very drowsy and wants to lie down and rest.

Those cells that remain in an uninhibited state are called “sentinel” cells and their ratio to inhibited neurons determines the depth of sleep. Accordingly, the more cells are involved in the inhibition process, the deeper our sleep. Gradually, from a state of drowsiness, we move into the second and third stages of sleep, when body temperature decreases slightly, muscles relax, breathing slows down and the sleep hormone melatonin is produced. At the fourth stage, a person falls into deep sleep, and at the fifth stage, he begins to dream. These are the stages of healthy sleep, which our body needs for normal functioning.

But when these processes are disrupted, a failure occurs at the physiological level and night insomnia occurs. As a result, the nervous system practically does not rest and the person becomes overly irritable, feels constant fatigue, drowsiness, and has problems with memory and concentration. The unpleasant consequences of poor sleep include decreased performance, physical and psychological discomfort, and an increased risk of diseases of the brain, heart and blood vessels. What to do with chronic insomnia and how to deal with sleep disorders?

Ways to combat insomnia

To cope with the problem yourself, first of all you need to reconsider your lifestyle and adjust your daily routine so that you fall asleep and wake up at the same time. It is believed that the optimal night's rest time should be at least 8 hours. Therefore, you need to follow this norm and not relax even on weekends, trying to get enough sleep for the whole week. Firstly, you will not be able to compensate for the lack of sleep that has been accumulating for a week in two days, and secondly, a violation of the regime will result in the fact that on the night from Sunday to Monday you will not be able to fall asleep at the usual time.

All physical activity, training, jogging and other sporting events must end before 7 pm. After this time, you should have a calm dinner (but not overeat) in a calm home environment, take a warm bath, to which you can add herbal decoctions with a sedative effect, ventilate the room and slowly get ready for bed. For some, quiet music or reading a book before bed has a soporific effect, others use psychological methods, discard disturbing thoughts, meditate and tune in to relaxation. You can drink a cup of warm milk or tea, brewing a collection of medicinal herbs with a sedative effect.

You should absolutely not drink alcohol, smoke, drink coffee, or eat heavy, fatty foods before bed. You should not watch TV, play computer games, or replay negative situations that happened during the day in your head. Create a pleasant, calming environment in the bedroom, prepare a comfortable bed, choose a suitable pillow, provide a flow of fresh air at a comfortable temperature, in short, create all the conditions for a restful sleep.

What to do if insomnia during pregnancy exhausts a woman and complicates this difficult period for her? All the tips apply in this case, the main thing is to learn to relax and forget about the worries of the day before going to bed. Relaxation methods, breathing exercises, and yoga help with this. Using them, a woman can achieve the desired effect without the use of medicinal methods, which are contraindicated during pregnancy.

Insomnia drugs

If you have tried all available means, but still cannot cope with the problem, there is only one way out - seek help from a specialist. Sleep disorders are dealt with by a somnologist; if there is no such specialist in your clinic, you can contact a therapist or neurologist. In most cases, sleeping pills or drugs with a strong sedative (calming) effect are used to combat insomnia. But the fact is that most medications for insomnia are toxic, cause a lot of side effects, and their improper use can provoke life-threatening situations. In addition, almost all strong sleeping pills provoke addiction, and a person can no longer fall asleep without a pill.

Therefore, sleeping pills should be taken only in severe cases and on the recommendation of a doctor, for a short time. Such medications can be purchased at a pharmacy only with a prescription. However, there are a number of herbal products that are available freely. They have a mild sedative effect, make it easier to fall asleep and are completely safe for life and health. These include the following drugs:

Novo-Passit;
Persen;
Tenoten;
Calm down;
Valerian extract;
Dormiplant.

In combination with the correct daily routine, compliance with the work and rest regime, as well as all of the above recommendations, such remedies have a positive effect and help normalize sleep.

ethnoscience

If you don’t know what to do, folk remedies for insomnia, which our ancestors have long successfully used, will help.

Decoctions of medicinal herbs. If you take a cup of decoction of oregano, valerian, peony, motherwort, lemon balm or thyme at night, it is not difficult to normalize the condition and restore healthy and sound sleep. You can brew herbs with a calming effect separately or prepare infusions by mixing plant materials in equal proportions. The classic recipe for preparing a decoction is as follows: take 2 tbsp. l. herbs in 200 ml of boiling water, brew, cover the dish with a lid and let it brew for 15-20 minutes. The finished broth is filtered and drunk warm before bed.

Relaxing massage with natural oils. It gives a very good effect and makes it easier to fall asleep. You need to massage the neck-shoulder area, temples, hands and feet. Olive, sunflower or any vegetable oil is slightly heated and 2-3 drops of lavender, mint, valerian, lemon balm, rose or rosemary ether are added to it. The body is massaged for 10-15 minutes, this helps to relax and relieve daytime stress.

Soothing bath. Before bed, a warm bath will help prepare you for sleep, and the calming and relaxing effect of the procedure will be enhanced if you add herbal decoctions or a few drops of essential oils that have a sedative effect to the water. You can simply make a foot bath with the same composition and take it for 15 minutes.

When a person is very tired and wants to sleep, sometimes he cannot sleep. This feeling has a negative impact on the psyche, the person becomes irritable. It is important to know the causes of this problem, as well as ways to deal with such a situation.

Why can't you fall asleep if you want to sleep?

Most often, insomnia, even with great fatigue, occurs due to the following reasons:

powerful mental activity before bed. For example, a quarrel with another person can provoke aggression, which will interfere with relaxation and sleep after a working day;
excitement and anticipation of some event;
the development of chronic insomnia, when sleep does not come every night even after a very hard day at work.

Chronic insomnia requires mandatory treatment. Therefore, go see a doctor - a psychotherapist. A specialist will help you find out the true cause of insomnia, as well as successfully eliminate it.

External reasons

Often a person cannot fall asleep when the room is cool or hot, stuffy or not fresh air.
Insomnia can also be a problem when a person sleeps on an uncomfortable bed or a pillow with a scratchy blanket.
Noise and uncomfortable lighting also affect sleep, even if a person is very tired and wants to sleep.

Problems with the body

Insomnia can be caused by age-related changes in the body, failure to comply with biorhythms, hunger, thirst, overeating, and physical fatigue.
Often a person cannot sleep with a stuffy nose, pain in the throat, head, limbs, stomach or other parts of the body.
Sleep is disturbed due to problems in the nervous or endocrine system.

Psychological reasons

Psychological causes of insomnia include anxiety, depression, and agitation. Often anxiety and depression bother you at the same time, and a person, even if he is very tired, still cannot sleep.

What to do and how to fight

If you want to fall asleep, but can’t, use the following advice from psychologists:

Before going to bed, turn off the TV and avoid reading newspapers. If a book or program is interesting, it causes the brain to get excited, but on the contrary, it needs to calm down and get ready to relax.
You need to go to bed not when you are supposed to, but when you want. After all, there is no point in going to bed at 9 and tossing and turning until 12.
Try to do quiet activities in the evening. Don't plan work for tomorrow before going to bed. It’s best to plan your next day an hour and a half before your night’s rest.
Before going to bed, it is recommended to perform special breathing exercises to relax.
If sleep has not come 20 minutes after you go to bed, get up. Try to do something that will help you relax.
Before going to bed, ventilate the bedroom and make sure that the air temperature is no higher than 20 degrees. If necessary, to humidify too dry air in a room in winter, use a humidifier or hang a towel soaked in water on the radiators.
Never start counting objects to fall asleep. Counting, on the contrary, provokes brain activity and prevents you from falling asleep even more.
It is recommended to exercise three hours before your night's rest.
Try to have dinner two to three hours before bedtime. An evening meal should be light, satisfying and healthy at the same time.
Avoid daytime rest if you suffer from insomnia at night.
It is not recommended to drink coffee, alcohol or smoke before bedtime.
Listen to your favorite relaxing music.

For better sleep, you can eat a teaspoon of honey in the evening with warm milk. It happens that you have a nightmare and find it difficult to go back to sleep. In this case, come up with a good ending to a bad dream.

Sleep hygiene rules:

Go to bed and get up in the morning at the same time.
In the evening, three hours before your night's rest, organize physical exercise.
Before going to bed, take a cool shower to help you fall asleep faster.
Sleep on a wide, firm bed with a comfortable mattress and a flat surface.
Sleep in dark underwear and comfortable nightwear.
Use the bed only for sleeping. Thanks to this, you will develop a bed-sleep association.

When falling asleep, create all the conditions so that your head is cold and your feet are warm.

To help you fall asleep quickly in the evening, it is recommended to take evening walks in the fresh air before going to bed.

To relax, you can ask a family member to massage your back, lower back and legs. To relieve fatigue, take water treatments - a warm bath or shower. Sometimes they can be combined with aromatherapy. Pine needles, hop cones, geranium herb, rose petals, laurel leaves, buckwheat husks or thyme soothe and provide a sleepy state. But, before using aromatherapy to improve sleep, consult your doctor and also check if there is an allergic reaction to the herbs and oils that will be used for the procedure.

Insomnia requires determining the cause of its occurrence, as well as its successful elimination. Therefore, if you cannot sleep, get up, do any quiet task and try to go back to bed. If you have frequent sleep problems, it is recommended to consult a specialist for help. The doctor will find out the reason for the inability to sleep after a working day, and will also suggest what measures will help eliminate the problem and improve night sleep.

We are all exposed to a lot of stress every day - this is especially true for residents of megacities, whose lifestyle is so fast that it is difficult for them to keep track of everything. Work, household chores, and everyday routine often lead to the fact that a person simply cannot rest properly.

Sometimes it even happens that, having come home from work as exhausted as a lemon, some people cannot sleep, despite being extremely tired. All this is a consequence of our lifestyle, which leads to a number of stresses and, ultimately, to insomnia. Sleep disturbances are very common nowadays, and in especially severe cases, even the intervention of doctors is required.

What can help if you can't sleep?

However, before you bring yourself to such a state, you can try to use the advice of psychologists who have helped more than one person restore normal sleep. These are the tips:

1 . Don't read or watch TV before bed. If a book or program is interesting and encourages you to think, then your brain will not be able to calm down for a long time, preventing you from falling asleep. If you suffer from chronic insomnia, then watching TV and reading before bed are generally contraindicated.

2. Go to bed not when it seems like it’s time to sleep, but when you feel like it. What's the point of going to bed at 9 pm if you'll still be tossing and turning until 12?

3. Try not to do anything particularly active in the second half of the evening. In general, try not to think about problems or plan activities for tomorrow before going to bed. Try to do all this an hour and a half before going to bed.

4. Some doctors, especially Eastern ones, recommend performing breathing exercises to help you relax.

5. Your bed is there for you to sleep in, not for you to roll around unable to fall asleep. If sleep doesn’t come after 15-20 minutes and you don’t feel like sleeping, get up and do relaxation auto-training or just find an activity that helps you relax.

6. It is better to keep your bedroom cool, and be sure to ventilate it before going to bed.

7. Don't count sheep or elephants or anything else while trying to fall asleep. Counting stimulates activity in certain areas of the brain, making it even more difficult to fall asleep.

8. You should not engage in physical activity immediately before bed. It is advisable to finish all training exercises 3 hours before going to bed.

9. Don't overeat, and in general, your last meal should be 2-3 hours before bedtime.

10. Don't take naps during the day.

11. If you wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall asleep, don't force yourself - get up and do something else, and when you feel sleepy, go back to bed.

“The monotonous battle of hours, the tedious story of the night...” sometimes drive a person to despair. He talks about the difference between insomnia, insomnia and sleep deprivation, as well as how to learn to sleep happily at night. Svetlana Sergeeva, neurologist at the Cecil Plus clinic, Ph.D., associate professor at the First Moscow State Medical University named after. I. M. Sechenova.

Oddly enough, there is no medical term for “insomnia.” This name was considered incorrect, since studies by our and foreign scientists did not reveal a complete lack of sleep in people who complained of being unable to fall asleep. If you really don’t sleep enough and you don’t like it, you constantly experience fatigue, daytime sleepiness, decreased concentration and performance, then you have insomnia.

Insomnia is defined as a deficiency in the quality and quantity of sleep needed for normal daytime activities. Moreover, it is necessary to fulfill both conditions, because in order to get enough sleep, a healthy adult, depending on his personal and psychophysiological characteristics and current state, needs from 4 to 9 hours.

What is deprivation?

If a person deliberately deprives himself of sleep or someone deliberately prevents him from falling asleep, then this situation has the scientific name “sleep deprivation.” Individuals practice various sleep deprivation techniques to achieve an altered state of consciousness. Perhaps this is safer than drugs that also alter consciousness, but a significant deterioration in the well-being of sleep experimenters is guaranteed. After such experiments on yourself, you cannot drive vehicles or perform work that requires constant attention, since the brain seeks to make up for lack of sleep by uncontrollably switching off for several seconds. This phenomenon is called “microsleep”.

Anxiety on a schedule

Anxiety is often associated with increased fatigue, and increased fatigue is provoked by insomnia - the result is a vicious circle. If exhaustion is primary due to, say, excessive workload, plus there is an increased sense of responsibility and a desire for high results, then such a person must adhere to a strict regime. Everything should be planned according to the clock: war is war, and lunch and sleep are on schedule. The working day is over - away are all thoughts about work.

But, oddly enough, the habit of overwork is difficult to give up, especially when deadlines are pressing and bosses tease you with a promotion. There’s no time for sleep, and the next morning you’re exhausted, it’s more and more difficult to concentrate, slowness appears... and now you’re annoyed with your colleagues. When leaving home, check several times to make sure the door is closed and the iron is turned off. Causeless anxiety, tightness in the chest, a feeling that your heart is about to jump out of your chest, are visiting you more and more often, a headache from time to time wraps itself like a hoop around your head... What successes are there? All of the above is called “manager syndrome” in the West, but in our country it is simply called “neurasthenia”. If your portrait is higher, then you need two specialists: a neurologist and a psychologist.

Shift work and frequent changes in time zones can also cause insomnia. Moreover, some easily rearrange their biological rhythms, while for others they are stable, preventing them from quickly adapting - for such people, working at night and constant business trips are extremely undesirable.

I can't sleep!

But still, there are many more who suffer from insomnia not of their own free will, saying: “Oh, if only sleep would overtake me sooner!” These, according to various sources, range from 28 to 45%. Medicine has divided insomnia into three categories: presomnic, intrasomnic and postsomnic disorders.

Presomnia disorders are difficulties in initiating sleep. The most common complaint with such “insomnia” is problems falling asleep. As soon as such a person finds himself in bed, painful thoughts and memories arise. He mentally replays the events of the day or looks for a way out of some situation, constantly tosses and turns in bed in an effort to find a comfortable position. The coming long-awaited doze is interrupted by the slightest rustle. Often the brain paradoxically ignores falling asleep: the time spent in bed is presented as continuous wakefulness, although in fact sleep has occurred.

With the long-term presence of presomnia disorders, the phobias “fear of bed” and the fear of “failure to sleep” - insophobia - develop, and pathological “bedtime rituals” are formed.

Intrasomnia disorders are frequent awakenings at night, after which it is difficult to fall asleep for a long time, a feeling of “superficial”, “shallow” sleep. Both types of disorders are characteristic of increased levels of anxiety. Accordingly, you can cope with them by overcoming anxiety. But don’t rush to the pharmacy to buy valerian; first visit a neurologist or somnologist. A somnologist is a special doctor who treats sleep disorders. These specialists will figure out what's wrong, and you may not need to take any medications.

Post-somnia disorders are a problem of early morning awakening. It’s only 4 in the morning, I’m not going to work soon, but I’m all asleep, I have no energy, and I don’t want anything, except maybe a piece of cake... And so it goes every day! Such disorders are typical for people living in a state of depression, which, as a rule, is a consequence of a long-standing anxiety disorder. It should be noted that depression in the modern world does not necessarily manifest itself in total depression. Often it is hidden under the guise of chronic pain, digestive problems and other disorders of the autonomic nervous system. In any case, if you have post-somnia disorders, you should consult a neurologist. At this stage, the specialist will most likely prescribe an antidepressant, and within one to four months after starting to take it, the problem will be solved in the vast majority of cases.

Magic pill

“What about the miracle sleeping pills?” - you say. The modern approach involves treating the cause of insomnia, which should not be considered as a separate disease. Sleeping pills are prescribed only in case of emergency for a maximum of three weeks. During this period, as a rule, dependence and addiction do not form, and the doctor selects therapy for the underlying disease. Herbs and tinctures have a certain hypnotic effect, mainly due to their relaxing effect and reduction of anxiety.

There are a number of non-drug methods for treating insomnia: phototherapy - exposure to bright white light 2500 Lux, calming exercises - stretching, self-massage, breathing exercises, individually selected therapeutic music and “natural noises”. You can practice imagination exercises: it is useful to imagine the face of a sleeping person, to imagine what your own face should look like when falling asleep.

Interesting!

The Guinness Book of Records includes a 17-year-old California high school student, Randy Gardner, who stayed awake for 264.3 hours (eleven days) in 1965. It can be assumed that Randy felt very bad at the end of such a difficult experiment on himself: it is known that one of the most cruel tortures is sleep deprivation.

Sleep hygiene

The most important condition for treating insomnia is maintaining sleep hygiene. To sleep correctly, you need to: go to bed and get up at the same time, eliminate daytime naps (especially in the afternoon), avoid drinking tea and coffee at night, and also follow a number of simple and logical recommendations:

Organize physical exercise in the evening, but no later than 3 hours before bedtime.

Water procedures before bed are highly recommended: take a cool shower, because a slight cooling of the body is one of the elements of the physiology of falling asleep.

It is recommended to sleep on a wide, firm bed, have a comfortable mattress with a flat surface, darker tones of linen, and comfortable nightwear. Use your bed only for sleeping: this is necessary to create and reinforce the association between bed and sleep.

Don't go to bed until you feel drowsy. If sleep does not occur within 20 minutes, it is recommended to get up and do a quiet activity until drowsiness sets in. If your attempt to fall asleep this time is unsuccessful, repeat the procedure.

It is advisable to get up at the same time, including weekends, despite the desire to “sleep off”.

It is important to ventilate the bedroom; if the air is dry, use a humidifier.

It is advisable to keep your head cool and your feet warm during sleep.

It is important to reduce the stress load in the evening: avoid watching TV news programs and aggressive films.

In general, full-fledged, personally satisfying activity, a harmonious combination of mental and physical activity, intensive work and periods of rest are the key to a good night's sleep.