How Much Do You Know About Insomnia?

Today is World Sleep Day – a day to celebrate the joy and health benefits that we can get from a good night's rest. Unfortunately, many people in the world must go without these due to a well-known affliction called insomnia. But what exactly qualifies as insomnia? Might you have it? What can you do about it? Experts at Beijing United Family Hospital's (BJU's) Sleep Medicine Center explain.

What is insomnia?

Insomnia refers to the subjective experience of not being satisfied with the quality and quantity of your sleep despite adequate sleep opportunities and environment. This can affect your social function during the day. Insomnia is a very common clinical disorder. In the long term, serious insomnia will bring negative effects to people’s health, lives, relationships, and work, and can even lead to accidents.

In adults, the main complaints related to insomnia include difficulty falling asleep, waking up easily, and waking up early. These are often accompanied by prolonged wakefulness at night, insufficient sleep time, or poor sleep quality.

What causes insomnia?

1. Social and psychological factors: Unpleasant events in your life and work can often lead to insomnia when depression, anxiety, tension, and other stress reactions occur.

2. Environmental factors: Noisy environment, inappropriate lighting, excessive cold, excessive heat, dirty air, strong smells, crowded living quarters, or changes in sleep can affect your sleep.

3. Physiological factors: Feeling too hungry, too full, extremely fatigued, or sexually excited can keep you from sleeping.

4. Mental illness: Sleep disorders exist in almost all types of mental disease, especially anxiety and depression.

5. Other diseases: Snoring, numbness, acid distension, and formication (crawling skin) in both lower limbs before going to bed at night all affect sleep.

6. Drug and food factors: Consuming alcohol, caffeine, tea, and other stimulating drinks at inappropriate times will keep you up at night, as can drug dependence, drug withdrawal, or adverse reactions to certain therapeutic drugs (e.g. certain antihypertensive drugs can cause coughing and prevent you from sleeping). 

7. Sleep rhythm changes: Frequent night shift and day shift changes and cross-time-zone travel cause circadian rhythm changes. 

8. Nervous system diseases and somatic diseases: These include Parkinson’s disease, hyperthyroidism, and rheumatoid arthritis.

9. Life behavior factors: Too much rest during the day, smoking, and too much exercise before sleep can lead to difficulty falling asleep.

10. Personality traits: Certain personality traits can cause a state of high vigilance. These include a tendency to put excessive demands on your physical health, life, and work, or having a habit of thinking the worst.

How can insomnia be diagnosed and treated?

A diagnosis can be made using a combination of the patient’s complaints and symptoms. These can include observations from other people.

As for treatment, there are two avenues that your doctor may choose. The first is a drug treatment, the specific treatment plan for which should be executed according to the doctor’s advice. The second is a non-drug therapy that involves a mixture of cognitive behavioral, complementary, and alternative medical treatments.

What can I do at home to manage my insomnia?

If you have trouble falling asleep at night, wake up easily, sleep a lot, have trouble concentrating during the day, or feel irritable or depressed, you may be suffering from insomnia. To ease your symptoms, you can try the following before seeking medical advice:

• Develop good sleep habits. Reduce your intake of stimulants (tea, coffee, etc.) during the daytime;

• Maintain a regular bedtime and wake-up time. Avoid reading, working, watching TV, playing games, thinking, or using a computer before bed.

• Avoid eating too much before sleeping. Keep your sleeping environment dark, quiet, well-ventilated, and heated/cooled to a moderate temperature;

• Appropriate sleep restriction may be helpful to induce sleep;

• Correct the attitude and belief that “you cannot sleep without medicine”, in order to minimize your dependence on drugs;

• Keep a routine in your life. Work and rest on time and develop good sleep hygiene;

• Take any sleep medicine on time and do not change the dosage without seeing your doctor.

Still not sleeping well? It may be time to make an appointment at the Beijing United Family Hospital Sleep Medicine Center. This clinic brings together ENT doctors, orthodontists, Family Medicine physicians, neurologists, cardiologists, anesthesiologists, pediatricians, gynecologists, obstetricians, psychiatrists, and ER doctors to help adults, children, and seniors with sleep issues. Through our integrated, multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment services, you can get your life back to normal. To make an appointment at the Beijing United Family Hospital Sleep Medicine Center, please call the department reception at 5927 7039 during clinic hours or our Service Center at 4008-919191 24 hours a day.

• Need some help relaxing and taking it easy? BJU Psychologist Dr. Bojun Hu shares a simple yoga-inspired move that can help you get some calm. 

• So now you know not to eat too close to bedtime! But what sort of stuff should you be eating in general? BJU Dietitian Jackie Gao shares some thoughts.

• Smoking is bad for your health. Click here to learn how to give up smoking at BJU.