Why are you sleeping badly? Falling asleep badly is not at all the same as jumping up at dawn for no reason or waking up in the middle of the night with a start and then nodding off at work. The somnologist tells Expresssen about sleep disorders of various types and how to cope with them.
Why are you sleeping badly? Falling asleep badly is not at all the same as jumping up at dawn for no reason or waking up in the middle of the night, shuddering.
Somnologist and Professor of Public Health Helena Schiller will help us identify different types of sleep disorders. You will also learn how to deal with them.
1. Difficulty falling asleep
The essence of the problem:
You need more than 30 minutes to fall asleep. This is the most common problem among young people.
Psychological reasons:
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“Sleep is strongly affected by stress - a person simply cannot slow down in the evenings. During the day, you have to solve a bunch of issues at the same time, you run back and forth - and in fact, because of this, the person should sleep better and longer. But only if he manages to calm down in the evening,”explains Helena Schiller.
Physical reasons:
Of course, perhaps you just don't want to sleep yet or can't calm down.
But pain, difficulty breathing (for example, with a cold) and anxiety can also interfere with sleep. Restless legs syndrome - cramps - can also keep you awake and reduce sleep quality.
What to do:
If there is a bustle around you, you are stressed and it is difficult for you to calm down, it may be worth reconsidering your lifestyle and adjusting your daily routine a little.
The first thing a sleep therapist will tell you when dealing with your sleep: go outside and move. And you also need daylight, and preferably in the morning. Don't sit behind gadget screens in the evenings. Don't drink coffee at night.
“We don't live quite according to our internal clock. In the evenings, we often do something actively before we go to bed. In the meantime, we need about an hour to get ready for bed, calm down, meditate, take a shower or lie down on the applicator,”says Helena Schiller.
Often when a person has difficulty sleeping, he goes to bed too early, but the problem is that you need to stay awake long enough to get good sleep. To sleep for eight hours, you have to be on your feet sixteen.
There are also sleeping pills that primarily affect the first hours of sleep.
“This does not solve the problem, although it can sometimes help. All studies, however, show that cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy is more effective here,”says Helena Schiller.
2. Sudden awakening
The essence of the problem:
One or more times during the night you wake up and feel like you are completely asleep. However, during the day, fatigue falls on you, and you may even involuntarily fall asleep.
Psychological reasons:
It’s natural to wake up after each sleep cycle. If you feel completely awake and do not fall asleep again immediately, then you begin to twirl and twirl from side to side. But if this happens in the middle of a cycle, it may have physical reasons.
Physical reasons:
Sleep apnea: during sleep, a person stops breathing, which adversely affects the quality of sleep. The risk of such a phenomenon increases with age, can arise due to excess weight, as well as due to excessive alcohol consumption.
It can also be due to a heartbeat or malfunction of the activating part of the nervous system. In this case, an examination may be necessary.
What to do:
Strategy: If you find it difficult to fall asleep again, you need to break the established pattern.
“Get up and go to a chair, leaf through the newspaper you have already read for ten minutes. Don't try your best to fall asleep again, break this pattern,”says Helena Schiller.
If you have sleep apnea, there are various aids, such as breathing masks, that can be obtained from your doctor to deal with this problem. If you are restlessly sleeping, a weighted blanket can help.
3. Nightmares and parasomnia
The essence of the problem:
Parasomnia is the collective name for a number of sleep-related phenomena. It includes nightmares (pavor nocturnus) as well as common nightmares, sleepwalking, and more.
Psychological reasons:
The problem can be determined by psychological phenomena. If you are very exhausted physically and mentally, there is a high risk that you will run into this. Nightmares are associated with daytime stress.
“You are probably depressed or have some kind of trauma,” says Helena Schiller.
In this case, sometimes you need to talk to someone about what is bothering you.
“When you sleep, the amygdala in your brain, which is responsible for the formation of emotions and the functioning of memory, continues to work, while the frontal lobes are turned off. This is why dreams are so illogical. If something stuck in your head, puts you into stress, and you just can't process it, your dreams will become brighter.
Physical reasons:
Parasomnia is compounded by lack of sleep, alcohol and drugs.
In addition, certain medications can cause nightmares due to their chemical effects.
“Many people think that alcohol makes you sleep well, but the problem lies in the pendulum effect: when alcohol leaves the body, the body gets excited, the heart starts to beat faster, and the pulse quickens. It hurts sleep. You fall asleep well, but you have to pay for it,”explains Helena Schiller.
What to do:
Perhaps we can find a medicine. If these sleep disorders are harmful to others, or if you are exposing yourself to various risks, it is likely that testing will be needed.
4. Waking up in the morning
The crux of the problem: you wake up and reach for your mobile or look at the alarm clock, and you realize that the dawn has caught on - at 05:02, or 03:28, or at some other inopportune time.
Psychological reasons:
Stress plays a big role here too. If you are under stress for a long time, the level of the corresponding hormones can be increased around the clock.
“If you are constantly stressed and anxious, it happens that you start to wake up too early. At the same time, your deep sleep usually suffers, you sleep too shallowly and cannot go back to sleep,”says Helena Schiller.
Physical reasons:
Before the morning, the sleep hormone melatonin begins to break down, and instead of it, the level of the stress hormone cortisol rises, which prepares us to wake up.
The older a person is, the more sensitive their sleep cycles are. This is especially true for those over 60. At this age, many often wake up in the middle of the night. In addition, women of climacteric age often wake up at the end of the night.
In people over 60, less of the sleep hormone melatonin begins to be produced in the body. The pineal gland is calcified and sleep does not last as long.
“If that’s the problem, you can take melatonin,” says Helena Schiller.
What to do:
Older people often need less sleep, so if you're awake during the day, maybe things just go on as usual. Many retirees continue to go to bed at the same time or even earlier. This is a mistake - try to stay awake longer instead.
Try not to sleep during the day, although a little rest never hurts.
If you have anxiety problems, cognitive behavioral therapy and medications can help.
If you are having trouble with menopause, you can take medications that increase estrogen levels in your body.
5. Waking up several times a night
The essence of the problem:
You wake up three times a night or more, and sometimes you cannot sleep for 45 minutes or even longer.
Psychological reasons:
It's natural to wake up between sleep cycles. If you feel completely awake and cannot fall asleep again, then you start spinning in bed, not finding a place for yourself.
Just like when a person wakes up too early, the problem can be related to stress and a lack of melatonin in the body.
Physical reasons:
If the reason is associated with frequent trips to the toilet, nocturia, it may be due to an enlarged prostate in men or an overactive bladder in both sexes.
What to do:
If it makes your quality of life worse, there are different ways to help you. An enlarged prostate can be cured. There are also various medications that give the bladder a rest at night.
6. Disrupted circadian rhythm
The essence of the problem:
This is caused, for example, by jet lag or shift work. Our "inner days" can shift in time, in addition, their length can change.
Psychological reasons:
People who are depressed may have distorted sleep and wake periods.
Physical reasons:
Circadian rhythms are disrupted in people who work in shifts for a long time. It can also accompany mental illness such as bipolar disorder.
It also often accompanies dementia.
What to do:
With the help of a doctor, it is necessary to determine what exactly caused the problem.
“If your circadian rhythm suddenly changes, sometimes it's worth giving a little attention to it,” says Helena Schiller.
Researcher: stress harms sleep very often
Many people suffer from sleep problems: about 30% of all women and 20% of all men. For sleep problems to be classified as insomnia, they must be repeated at least three times a week for at least a month, and cause a deterioration in well-being during the day, causing, for example, drowsiness.
And the nature of these problems tells us much more than we might be used to thinking. He can explain to us what is the cause of insomnia and how to deal with it.
Helena Schiller believes that often people with similar problems aggravate their condition by focusing too much on the number of hours to sleep: "If you sleep a total of six hours, that may be enough."
At the same time, she wants to emphasize the importance of another point: “This is the quality of sleep. You can go back to sleep and make up for the lack. And it's not just about the number of hours. If a person does not sleep one night, he may sleep more soundly the next night. The body regulates the amount of deep sleep as needed. Perhaps not everyone knows about this."
If you have trouble sleeping, don't sleep during the day, she advises.
In addition, it is worth paying attention to the traditional advice: walking for 20 minutes in the daylight in the morning to regulate your circadian rhythm, exercising regularly, not eating much at night, and reconsidering your habits regarding coffee, nicotine and alcohol. And let yourself recover.
In our society, a lot depends on stress
In her experience, stress is the main cause of sleep disturbances.
“In our society, stress affects a lot. This affects physiology. Our head is just full when we go to bed. It is difficult for us to disconnect from the outside world, we must be in touch all the time. We try to be as efficient as possible at work, and we also take on a lot of responsibilities outside of it."
When our stress levels are elevated around the clock, it can be difficult to maintain the system that slows us down and gives us rest.
"When I lecture on stress, I always make it clear how important rest and recovery are."
The methods of mental, emotional and physical recovery depend on the lifestyle.
If you work in a warehouse, for example, you need physical recovery.
"Then you have to allow yourself to lie on the couch!"
“If you’re an inspector at a financial company doing strenuous mental work, then you might be better off running instead. And if you have an emotionally charged job, for example, you are a child psychologist, then perhaps you should not watch a heavy documentary during your vacation,”explains Helena Schiller.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy May Help Find Your Techniques
Helena Schiller helps people with sleep problems by giving lectures, conducting talks and arranging remote meetings. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can help with sleep and other situations throughout the day.
There are phone apps that are said to measure sleep. They can help, but it is not yet clear how reliable they are. Plus, using them too often can be stressful in and of themselves. Better to check only weekly averages.
“Compare this to people with an eating disorder: in their case, the first thing to do is lift the scales and stop counting calories. It's the same with sleep. Don't keep your watch around all the time,”says Helena Schiller.
As for Helena Schiller herself, she sleeps well - in addition to research in the field of sleep, she has several other jobs, and she is also a riding trainer. By exercising and walking in the fresh air, her circadian rhythms work as they should.
Christina Lundell