News& Information

Let’s talk about the agonising insomnia

Author: Dr.Liu Haixia

Many people suffer from insomnia. According to the latest figures released by the World Health Organization, nearly a quarter of the world's people suffer from insomnia, and nearly 860 million people suffer from insomnia disorder every year, including 75 million in China alone. The harm caused by insomnia to personal physical and mental health cannot be ignored. Poor sleep quality will lead to low efficiency in work, physical disorders, and could seriously affect people's life expectancy. So, It is very important to get a good sleep in the night.

What’s the symptoms of insomnia?

Insomnia refers to a sleep disorder or lack of sleep due to various reasons. Insomnia can be clinically diagnosed if the following symptoms occur and you get sleepy after getting up, your brain is not clear, and you even have headaches, dizziness and other symptoms, which last for a long time and affect your work and life.

* Having difficulty in falling asleep and staying awake for half an hour after bedtime.

* Easy to wake up in the night,  and it need more than half an hour to fall asleep again each time.

* Sleep hours is shorter than normal,  that is, usually waking up early in the morning.

What causes insomnia?

1. Environmental factors may cause insomnia，for example, changes in the living and working circumstances, which can be improved after short-term adaptation.

 2. Psychological factors may cause insomnia, such as study and work pressure, family factors, marital problems, unhappiness, frustration, etc. Insomnia can be improved with the disappear of those factors.

3. Physical diseases may cause insomnia, such as a variety of body pain, chronic heart and lung diseases, etc.

4. Mental and psychological diseases can cause insomnia. For example, depression and anxiety, neurasthenia, schizophrenia, etc.

5. Some drugs may cause insomnia, such as reserpine, amphetamine, thyroxine, caffeine, aminophylline etc.

6. Some foods and drinks can also cause insomnia. For example, tea or coffee drinks containing caffeine, alcoholic beverages, cola, etc..

7. Circadian clock upside down due to jet lag or work can lead you to drowsiness during the day and insomnia at night.

What are the harms of insomnia ?

According to the research, the overall mortality rate of people with long-term insomnia were more than two to three times than people without insomnia. Here are some of the harms of insomnia.

1. Depression. Insomnia is an important factor leading to depression. Insomnia leads to mental distress, low mood and low quality of work.

2. Anxiety disorder. Insomnia easily lead to mental tension, worrying, often accompanied by palpitation, shortness of breath, cold sweat and other physical symptoms. Long-term anxiety disorder can lead to work ability decline, affect interpersonal communication.

3. Amnesia. Insomnia easily lead to decline in memory and concentration, slow reaction, tendency to make mistakes. Long time insomnia could make the body immunity decrease, and easy to catch a cold.

4. Physical diseases. The most serious harm of long-term insomnia is the increased risk of various physical diseases, such as heart disease, hypertension, gastrointestinal diseases, Alzheimer's disease, menopausal syndrome, etc，and it will affect the treatment and recovery of physical diseases.

5. Obesity. Long-term Insomnia is easy to lead to endocrine disorders, which can lead to obesity.

What are the methods to treat with insomnia?

* First of all, we should deal with the factors causing insomnia, establish regular timetables of daily work and rest, develop a good sleeping habit, keep the bedroom at an appropriate temperature, avoid strenuous exercise before bed time, avoid drinking strong tea, coffee and other exciting drinks, etc.

* For different severity of insomnia, sleeping pills could be used under the doctor’s direction. Diazepam, alprazolam and estazolam are used commonly for people with insomnia. But these drugs are only limited to short-term application, because  long-term and high-dose use is easy to addiction, so drug abuse must be avoided. In recent years, several new sleeping drugs came into use, such as zolpidem and Zopicron, which have more safety, few side effects and not easy to addiction.

* Relaxation and psychotherapy are also helpful to relieve anxiety, promote sleep, and eliminate the tension and restlessness of insomnia.

If you have long-term insomnia, and have difficult to adjust by yourself, it is recommended to consult a doctor for treatment in time to prevent other physical and mental illness.