What is insomnia? And effective ways to solve the problem of insomnia and get a good amount of sleep

Weather of Arabia - every night I turn off the lights in my room to take a comfortable sleep, but this plan always fails, so my mind quickly rushes to work in search of any idea and topic that occupies it, whether endless work matters or housework that I postponed until tomorrow morning, or that topic The worry that I haven't found a solution to yet, and I don't think I'm the only one who goes through this bitter experience every night.. Do you suffer from insomnia? What is insomnia and how do we treat it? How do we sleep deeply at night?

Who is prone to insomnia?

In bed, with no other visual or audio cues occupying the mind, many people begin to have racing thoughts that keep them awake. This can happen at the beginning of the night, or when they wake up in the night.

Answer : Up to six out of ten people suffer from symptoms of insomnia, and one in ten people suffer from these symptoms for several months or years.

The good news is, there are good, effective ways to reduce these thoughts and help you get some sleep. To do this, let's take a step back and talk about insomnia

What is insomnia?

Insomnia is difficulty falling asleep at the beginning of the night and waking up during the night, feeling tired during the day and includes difficulties concentrating, lethargy or a bad mood.

Why do you feel awake as soon as you get into bed?

Many people with insomnia find that as soon as they get into bed, they feel alert and fully awake. So what is going on?

Simply put, the more time you spend in bed doing things other than sleeping, the more your brain and body will start to learn that the bed is a place for these activities apart from sleep.

And these activities don't just involve anxiety. It can include cell phone use, watching TV, eating, working, arguing, smoking, or playing with pets.

Gradually, our brain can learn that the bed is a place for these other activities rather than rest and sleep. Over time, the simple act of getting into bed can become an indicator of feeling alert and awake. This is called "conditional insomnia" .

Ways by which you can get rid of insomnia

• Learn to associate bed with sleep

Stimulation management therapy can help rebuild the relationship between bed and sleep.

Follow these steps for a full week and see the difference

1. use the mattress only for sleeping; All other activities should take place outside of bed, preferably in another room.

2. Go to bed only if you feel drowsy (when your eyes are heavy and you can doze off easily). If you don't feel sleepy, put off getting into bed. Use this time to do a relaxing activity in another room.

3. If you stay awake after about 15 minutes in bed, get out of bed and move to another room. Do something else relaxing until you feel sleepy again, like reading a book, listening to the radio, doing some housework, or even doing a crossword puzzle. Avoid anything exciting like working or playing on the computer.

4. Repeat the previous two steps until she falls asleep in about 15 minutes. It may take several cycles of getting in and out of bed. But during this time, your body's natural need for sleep will increase, and you'll eventually fall asleep within 15 minutes of getting into bed.

5. Get out of bed at the same time each morning, regardless of how much sleep you got the night before.

6. Avoid long daytime naps, as this can make it difficult to sleep that night.

Over several nights, this treatment will build and improve the relationship between bed and sleep, and reduce the relationship between bed, feeling awake, and having other thoughts.

• Busy yourself with positive thoughts

Negative thoughts in bed, or worrying about the consequences of not being able to sleep, can make us feel more alert and make it more difficult to fall asleep.

Try something called "cognitive reorientation." Try replaying a good memory or a scene from a movie or TV series in your mind to distract yourself from these negative thoughts.

This memory should be very clearly retrievable, and evoke slightly neutral or positive feelings. Memories that are of an overly positive or negative nature may lead to increased alertness and mental activity.

• Relax to sleep

Relaxation therapy helps reduce alertness and improve sleep

One method is to gradually tense and relax muscle groups throughout the body, which is known as targeted progressive muscle relaxation therapy. You can also try breathing exercises, soothing music, visual imagery, or other relaxation exercises that work for you.

Part of relaxing to fall asleep is avoiding late-evening work or screen-related activities right before bed. Give yourself a "buffer zone" to give yourself time to start relaxing before you go to bed.

• Worry early in the day

Set aside a dedicated worry time early in the day to avoid thinking about these worrying things at night. It is also helpful to write down these worrying thoughts in a notebook.

And if you start worrying about these things overnight, you can remind yourself that you've already written them down, and they're waiting for you to work on them during your scheduled "worry time" the next day.

• Waking up in the middle of the night is normal

You should be aware that waking up briefly at night is normal and not a sign of abnormality or ill health.

Sleep occurs in different "cycles" during the night. Each cycle lasts approximately 90 minutes, and includes different stages of light, deep, and REM sleep. Normally, most deep sleep occurs in the first half of the night, while most light sleep occurs in the second half of the night. Virtually all of us wake up at night for a brief period, but most people don't remember this the next morning.

Read also

• 10 solutions to help you sleep in hot weather
• 8 surprising facts and secrets about sleep

Source: theconversation