Insomnia many people will have the experience of mentioning insomnia many people will be distressed, want to exhaust all kinds of methods to treat insomnia, but are not very useful, is the use of the wrong method? Obviously not, adjust the sleep is a good trick, let's listen to the experts is how to help you solve the insomnia it.

▲People with chronic insomnia are prone to negative automatic thinking.

Insomnia, as it's known in psychiatry, is defined as not sleeping well at least three nights a week for at least three months in a row. Can you see a doctor if you have trouble sleeping four nights a week for two months in a row, or two nights a week for four months in a row? As long as you feel that your insomnia is affecting the quality of your life, school, and work, of course you can. The first step in treating insomnia, remember, is never to prescribe sleeping pills; if a doctor diagnoses you with insomnia and then prescribes sleeping pills without giving you any other non-pharmacological treatments, that's not the right way to treat it.

The first step in treating insomnia is to try to rule out factors that may cause insomnia, such as insomnia caused by physical illnesses or medications; insomnia caused by psychological stress, depression, anxiety, or other mental illnesses; or other sleep problems such as sleepwalking, excessive snoring, and sleep shaking. If all of these possible causes of insomnia have been eliminated or dealt with, and you still can't sleep well, then you can only be said to be suffering from insomnia.

The next step in recognizing insomnia is not to take sleeping pills, but to look at non-pharmacological treatments for insomnia. What are the non-pharmacological treatments for insomnia? There's basic sleep hygiene, and there's advanced cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.

Sleep hygiene

Sleep hygiene, also known as good sleep habits, many medical personnel health education when speaking without a system, the patient is not easy to remember, in fact, can be said:

First, do not do things that affect sleep

Three hours before bedtime do not do too stimulate physical and mental activities, such as intense exercise, watching stimulating film and television shows, drinking too much coffee and tea or smoking too much, or even eating too much fruit or drinking too much tobacco, etc. Even if you have to go to bed, you will not be able to sleep. Eat too much fruit or drink too much water and so on. Do not sleep after getting up in the morning, do not take a nap at noon, so as not to sleep again at night.

▲Don't drink coffee three hours before bedtime.

Second, to do things to promote sleep

Many people will do some customary actions before going to bed, such as taking a bath, do soft exercises, drink some milk, read some books or eat some snacks, these actions, if you can bring physical and mental relaxation, are helpful to sleep. But the habit of drinking a little wine before bedtime to be careful, long-term drinking to help sleep may lead to sleep pattern disorders, the loss is not worth it. Morning exercise and a little sunshine during the day can help you sleep. As for the noise and light, of course, we should try to exclude, but insomnia people often think that the neighbor's dog is noisy, outside the car is too loud, in fact, their own sleep is not good.

▲ Long-term drinking may lead to sleep disorders.

These are sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene alone can improve many sleep problems and avoid or reduce the use of sleeping pills. Sleep hygiene is effective for both early and chronic insomnia, and it is a basic skill that insomniacs must train themselves in. If sleep hygiene is not effective, the next step is to receive cognitive behavioral sleep therapy. There are not many organizations that offer complete cognitive behavioral therapy, or patients who have the time, but at least non-pharmacological treatments for sleep must be based on the theory of cognitive behavioral therapy.

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia I. Stimulus control

The bed was originally used to sleep, but insomniacs often develop inappropriate connections with the bed, such as the habit of thinking about the bed when you can't sleep, and as soon as you lie down on the bed for a long time, you will start worrying about the country and the people and make a vicious circle; and for example, if you can't sleep, you will often look at the clock, and it will be one o'clock, two o'clock, and then it's wow, how can we not go to sleep at three o'clock in the middle of the night? The more you look, the more nervous you are.

Stimulus control, that is, to cut off the bed and the subsequent improper connection, to give back to the bed pure sleep function. Specific practices include in addition to sleep, do not do other things in bed; after going to bed, if you can not sleep for twenty minutes to get up, go to another room to sit, want to sleep and then come back to bed; can not sleep when you are not allowed to look at the clock, or take the clock away from the dormitory.

Second, sleep restrictions

Insomnia is the best sleeping pills, last night if you can not sleep well, today during the day do not make up sleep, tonight will sleep better. Sleep rhythm is the product of billions of years of animal evolution, the human brain has a self-propelled clock, wake up during the day and sleep at night so that the rhythm do not go to disrupt it, will sleep well, but long-term insomnia often want to rely on naps or sleep back to sleep to supplement sleep, it will only aggravate insomnia.

▲Do not disrupt the rhythm of sleep.

Specific approach, is to first ask the patient to write down the sleep diary, what time to bed, how long to sleep, wake up in the middle of the night a few times, what time to get up in the morning, during the day there is no dozing, etc., and then the actual sleep time to add up (just lying in bed with eyes wide open is not counted), for example, six and a half hours, so that the number of permitted sleep every night as a number.

Then set the morning wake up moment, such as seven o'clock, then the night before must wait until 12:30 midnight to be allowed to go to bed, even if how sleepy are not allowed to go to bed early, and the next morning must be seven to get up, can not stay in bed. By doing this, you are limiting your bedtime to the required six and a half hours of sleep. And most importantly, the next day, absolutely no sleep during the day. In this way, the efficiency of sleep will increase, and after a better sleep, and then gradually extend the sleep time.

Third, relaxation training

Insomnia patients are often combined with tension, worry, muscle tension, soreness, habit of nonsense and other conditions, so that the body and mind is not easy to relax, it is more difficult to fall asleep. The two words "relaxation" are generally spoken, but most people may not know whether they have relaxed. The relaxation training will target the breathing, the whole body muscles and the mind, one by one, with the help of the feedback of the instrument, to enhance the person's awareness of the state of mind and body, to achieve true relaxation.

▲Relaxation before going to sleep.

Fourth, cognitive therapy

This is the most critical cognitive behavioral treatment of insomnia, but also the most doctors ignore the project. The first thing you need to do is to get your hands on a new pair of shoes or boots, and you'll be able to get them to fit in the back of your head, so you'll be able to get your hands on a new pair of shoes or boots. For example, there is a distorted perception that people must sleep eight hours a day to be healthy, and that long-term insomnia can lead to a variety of illnesses. When you can't sleep well for a few nights, you will start to think about whether or not your blood pressure will rise and you will have a stroke, or your brain cells will die and you will be prone to dementia, and so on, which will make it impossible for you to relax physically and mentally, and make it harder for you to sleep.

People with these distorted perceptions and automatic thinking want to sleep harder when they can't sleep, but sleep is like a dog, the more you chase it, the farther it runs. These conditions must be dealt with in cognitive therapy. For example, patients can be taught to think paradoxically, telling themselves "I'm not going to sleep tonight", which reduces the pressure to fall asleep and makes it easier to do so.

▲Cognitive therapy for insomnia must be ongoing.

If all of the above non-pharmacological treatments have been tried, and you still can't sleep, can't get enough sleep, and can't sleep well all the same, then take some sleeping pills to help fall asleep. Some people obviously eat some sleeping pills will improve insomnia, but worry about addiction or eat too much brain injury, even half of the pills do not dare to eat, it is not necessary. Of course, after insomnia improves, sleeping pills should be reduced or stopped. Whether or not you take sleeping pills, you must continue the cognitive-behavioral treatment of sleep hygiene and insomnia described above.