Insomnia torments at night: what to do if severe nighttime insomnia and headaches - BeLadies. Insomnia. Causes and treatment of insomnia Why insomnia at night

But one night without sleep is nothing to worry about, much worse when they start to repeat themselves with frightening constancy.

So, who is at risk for developing insomnia:

You are a woman - women suffer from insomnia much more often than men. Hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle and menopause can play a negative role. During menopause, night sweats and hot flashes often interfere with normal sleep.
You are over the age of sixty – due to changes in sleep patterns, the risk of insomnia increases with age.
You suffer from a mental disorder - many disorders, including depression, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder, interfere with normal sleep patterns. Waking up too early in the morning is a classic symptom of depression.
You experience a lot of workload and stress - experiences can cause both temporary and long-term insomnia. The death of a loved one or divorce can lead to the development of a chronic condition. The risk is even greater among low-income populations.
You work nights or shifts – Working nights or shifts also increases your risk of developing the disease.
Traveling long distances - the difference in time when crossing time zones very often contributes to insomnia.

Causes of insomnia

Common causes of insomnia include:

Stress - worries and worries about work, school, health, or family can take over your mind at night, making it difficult to sleep. Tragic events in your personal life, such as the death or illness of loved ones, divorce, or job loss, can also lead to insomnia.

Anxiety - the cause of normal sleep disturbance can be daily worries and serious mental health disorders - anxiety neuroses.

Depression - When depressed, you either sleep constantly or have very poor and insufficient sleep. The reason for this may be either a chemical imbalance in the brain, or anxiety and anxiety that prevent you from relaxing and falling asleep. Insomnia often accompanies other mental disorders.

Medications - Prescription medications, including some antidepressants, stimulants, corticosteroids, and medicines used for allergies, blood pressure, and heart disease, can cause sleep disturbance. Many over-the-counter medications, including pain relievers, antihistamines, and weight loss products that contain caffeine and other stimulants. Antihistamines cause drowsiness in the first stage, but lead to more frequent urination, causing you to wake up at night to go to the toilet.

Caffeine, nicotine and alcohol. Coffee, tea, cola and other caffeinated drinks are well known stimulants. If you drink coffee late in the evening, there is a high chance that you will find it difficult to fall asleep at night. Nicotine, present in tobacco products, is another stimulant that contributes to the development of insomnia. Alcohol is a sedative, but it interferes with deep sleep, so it often happens that after drinking alcohol, some people wake up in the middle of the night and cannot fall asleep.

Health problems. If you suffer from chronic pain, difficulty breathing, or frequent urination, you are at risk for developing insomnia. Diseases that cause sleep disturbance include arthritis, cancer, heart failure, pneumonia, hyperthyroidism, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease. Proper treatment of an existing condition will help you get rid of insomnia. For example, for arthritis, you might try taking a pain reliever before going to bed.

Changes in the environment or work schedule. Traveling, getting up early, or working late can disrupt your body's circadian rhythms, making it difficult to sleep at night. The circadian rhythms work like an internal clock that governs things like the sleep-wake cycle, metabolism, and body temperature.

Poor sleep hygiene - includes irregular sleep patterns, stimulating activities before bed, turning on the TV, and using the bedroom for anything other than sleep and sex.

Acquired nocturnal insomnia – It may be that you are overly worried about not being able to sleep and are trying too hard to fall asleep as soon as possible. Most people with this condition fall asleep more easily when they are not in their usual bedroom setting or when they are not trying to sleep but are reading a book or watching TV.

Too heavy dinner late at night. It's okay to have a light snack before heading to bed, but eating too much can make your stomach feel full and uncomfortable, making it difficult to fall asleep. Many people experience belching and heartburn after eating, which also leads to difficulty sleeping properly.

Negative effects of insomnia

Sleep is as important to your health as proper nutrition and regular exercise. No matter what the cause of sleep disturbance is, insomnia itself is a very dangerous phenomenon and can negatively affect your physical and mental health. People suffering from this disease complain of feeling unwell and depressed.

The pathological consequences of insomnia include:

Poor performance at school or poor performance at work.
Slow driving response and increased risk of accidents.
Mental health problems such as depression or anxiety.
Overweight or obesity.
Weakened immune system.
Increased risk or worsening of chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, heart failure, and diabetes.

How to get rid of insomnia at home?

In most cases, insomnia is treated well enough, and your age, in this case, does not matter.

Below we provide you with some tips:

Keep a sleep schedule. Try to get up and go to bed at the same time every day, including weekends.

If you are already awake, get up and go to breakfast, no need to lie in bed. You need to sleep exactly as much as you need in order to feel rested. If in the evening, you didn’t manage to fall asleep within the first twenty minutes, and you are tired of rolling over from side to side, you need to get up and do something relaxing - read, for example?

You don't have to try your hardest to fall asleep. The more you try to sleep, the more aroused you become. Try reading or watching TV in another room, and only go back to bed when you feel your eyes are drooping.

Your bedroom is a place to sleep or have sex. Do not read, eat, work or watch TV in bed.

Find ways to help you relax. A bath with warm water before going to bed, a relaxing massage, quiet soothing music that distracts from bad thoughts and puts you in a positive mood. You can come up with a relaxing evening ritual - bedtime reading, breathing exercises, yoga or prayer.

If you suffer from insomnia, then try not to sleep during the daytime. Daytime naps can keep you from falling asleep at night. If you really need to take a short nap, naps should be no longer than 30 minutes and no later than 3 p.m.

Create comfortable sleeping conditions in your bedroom. Close the door to the room or turn on the fan, the smooth, quiet noise of which will help drown out all other extraneous sounds. The room should be dark and cool. A computer or TV in the bedroom is a bad idea.

In the daytime, be sure to devote some time to active physical activities. You will need at least 20-30 minutes of good physical activity, in the form of exercise or active cleaning around the house, but no later than five to six hours before bedtime.

Avoid or limit caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine intake. Smoking and drinking coffee in the afternoon can prevent you from falling asleep at night. Alcoholic drinks will make you sleepy at first, but your sleep will be restless, you may wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to sleep for two to three hours.

It is better to exclude a large amount of drinking and a heavy dinner before bedtime. It's okay to have a light snack before bed, but be aware that eating too much late at night can lead to problems sleeping at night. Too much drinking in the evening - frequent trips to the toilet at night.

It is worth paying attention to the medications you are taking. Check with your doctor - some medications can contribute to the development of insomnia. If you are taking any over-the-counter medications, it's a good idea to check the ingredients for caffeine or other stimulants such as pseudoephedrine.

You don't have to endure pain. If you are in pain, try taking a pain reliever before bed.

Hide all the clocks in the bedroom. You need to hide all watches from yourself, including wristwatches and mobile phones. The less you look at the clock at night to find out what time it is, the better you will sleep.

If these tips do not help you, the treatment of insomnia should be started under the guidance of a doctor. To do this, you need to contact a neurologist, who, if necessary, can appoint a psychiatrist's consultation in order to eliminate depressive conditions. If you have been suffering from insomnia for a long time and you do not know what to do, do not hesitate and go to the doctor.

Almost every second inhabitant of the globe, tired of counting mythical sheep at night, asks himself the question - what to do if insomnia torments you and how to deal with it at home? From time to time, everyone has problems with sleep, but today we’ll talk about the pathological variant, when insomnia becomes chronic, interfering with proper rest and provoking fatigue, drowsiness and nervous tension during the day.

Insomnia torments - when does it become dangerous?

Insomnia is a sleep disorder that often becomes chronic and causes exhaustion of the nervous system. This is a dangerous and debilitating condition that can lead to a psycho-emotional breakdown or cause constant drowsiness and decreased daytime performance. And this already creates a certain threat to the life and health of a person if he is engaged in work that requires the utmost concentration of attention and speed of reactions. In addition, constant lack of sleep in the most negative way affects the health and well-being of a person and can cause serious diseases associated with disruption of the heart, brain, and endocrine system.

Insomnia has many faces - it manifests itself in different forms. Some wake up from any rustle, others cannot fall asleep until dawn or sleep in fits and starts, as sleep is interrupted several times a night. There is only one result - in the morning a person feels overwhelmed and so tired, as if he did not go to bed at all. What to do if insomnia does not let go for a week and how to return a sound and healthy sleep? It is best to contact a specialist with your problem who will help you find out the causes of this condition, because sleep disorders can indicate serious health problems that manifest themselves in this way.

You will be diagnosed with insomnia if sleep disturbances occur three times a week and this condition lasts for at least a month. At the same time, experts distinguish between short-term (when difficulties with sleep appear periodically) and chronic insomnia (when the problem occurs every night for a long time). What signs indicate the development of insomnia?

inability to fall asleep quickly even with severe physical fatigue;
superficial nature of sleep, a person can wake up from any rustle and faint noise;
sleep is interrupted several times a night, a person sleeps in fits and starts and may wake up long before dawn, unable to fall asleep again;
insomnia torments all night and lets go only in the morning when you need to get up for work or study.

If you have any of the above signs, then you are experiencing a persistent sleep disorder. To understand how to deal with the problem, try to find out the reason that provokes this condition.

Why insomnia occurs: the main causes

The most common factors that cause sleep disorders are:

Wrong way of life. The habit of eating well at night, watching a new movie with chases and shootings, playing a computer game, brainstorming while doing homework or preparing for an exam - all this excites the nervous system and contributes to sleep disturbance.
Hypodynamia, sedentary work, lack of movement or vice versa, active evening life with visits to bars, clubs, dances and new acquaintances that evoke strong emotions and do not allow you to relax and fall asleep.
Nervous strain or chronic stress associated with problems at work and scrolling in the head of certain negative situations.
Change of habitual way of life. Often, sleep problems occur when spending the night in an unfamiliar place (on a tourist trip, visiting or on a business trip);
Poor sleeping conditions (heavy, stale air in the room, uncomfortable bed, heat in the summer, lantern light outside the window);
Bad habits. Abuse of stimulant drinks (strong tea, coffee, tonics), smoking, drinking alcohol. Another negative factor is overeating, eating fatty, spicy, high-calorie foods before bedtime.
Health problems. Chronic insomnia often accompanies various diseases and can signal neurological disorders, pathologies of the cardiovascular, digestive, and endocrine systems.
Pregnancy. During the bearing of a child, “hormonal storms” rage in a woman’s body, which can cause problems with sleep. In late pregnancy, the big belly, the pressure of the uterus and the movement of the baby interfere with sleep.

As you can see, there are many reasons for sleep disorders. What to do if insomnia at night affects health and reduces the quality of life? First you need to understand the mechanism and, in accordance with this, adjust the rhythm and lifestyle.

How do we fall asleep and what are the consequences of insomnia?

Somnologists say that a state is considered normal when falling asleep is preceded by a process of internal inhibition. It is expressed in the fact that at the level of the subcortex in the human brain, the intensity of nerve impulses decreases, the activity of almost all subcortical cells slows down, and after a short time a state of drowsiness occurs. At the same time, a person feels a strong drowsiness, a desire to lie down and relax.

Those cells that remain in an uninhibited state are called sentinel cells and their ratio to inhibited neurons determines the depth of sleep. Accordingly, the more cells are involved in the process of inhibition, the deeper our sleep. Gradually, we move from a state of drowsiness to the second and third stages of sleep, when the body temperature slightly decreases, the muscles relax, breathing slows down and the sleep hormone melatonin is produced. At the fourth stage, a person falls into a deep sleep, and at the fifth stage, he begins to dream. These are the stages of healthy sleep, which our body needs for normal life.

But if these processes are violated, a failure occurs at the physiological level and night insomnia is formed. As a result, the nervous system practically does not rest and the person becomes overly irritable, feels constant fatigue, drowsiness, problems with memory and concentration. Unpleasant consequences of poor sleep are a decrease in efficiency, physical and psychological discomfort, an increase in the risk of diseases of the brain, heart and blood vessels. What to do with chronic insomnia and how to deal with sleep disorders?

Ways to deal with insomnia

To cope with the problem on your own, first of all, you need to reconsider your lifestyle and adjust the daily routine in such a way as to fall asleep and wake up at the same time. It is believed that the optimal time for a night's rest should be at least 8 hours. Therefore, you need to comply with this norm and not relax even on weekends, trying to get enough sleep for the whole week. Firstly, you will not be able to compensate for the lack of sleep that has been accumulating for a week in two days, and secondly, the violation of the regime will result in the fact that on the night from Sunday to Monday you will not be able to fall asleep at the usual time.

Any physical activity, training, jogging and other sporting activities must end before 19 pm. After this time, you should calmly dine (but do not overeat) in a calm home environment, take a warm bath, in which you can add decoctions of herbs with a sedative effect, ventilate the room and slowly get ready for bed. Quiet music or reading a book before going to bed has a soporific effect on someone, others use psychological methods, discard disturbing thoughts, meditate and tune in to relaxation. You can drink a cup of warm milk or tea, brewing a collection of medicinal herbs with a sedative effect.

You should definitely not take alcohol, smoke, drink coffee, take heavy, fatty foods before bedtime. You should not watch TV, play computer games, scroll through the negative situations that happened during the day in your head. Create a pleasant, soothing environment in the bedroom, prepare a comfortable bed, choose the right pillow, provide fresh air at a comfortable temperature, in a word, create all the conditions for a restful sleep.

But what if insomnia during pregnancy exhausts a woman and complicates this difficult period for her? All the tips are applicable in this case, the main thing is to learn to relax and forget about the anxieties of the day before going to bed. Relaxation techniques, breathing exercises, and yoga classes help a lot with this. Using them, a woman can achieve the desired effect without the use of medical methods that are contraindicated during childbearing.

Insomnia medications

If you have tried all available means, but have not been able to cope with the problem, there is only one way out - to seek help from a specialist. Sleep disorders are dealt with by a somnologist, if there is no such specialist in your clinic, you can contact a therapist or neurologist. In most cases, sleeping pills or drugs with a strong sedative (sedative) effect are used to combat insomnia. But the fact is that most drugs for insomnia have a toxic effect, cause a lot of side effects, and their improper use can provoke life-threatening situations. In addition, almost all strong sleeping pills provoke addiction, and a person can no longer fall asleep without a pill.

Therefore, sleeping pills should be taken only in severe cases and on the recommendation of a doctor, for a short time. Such medicines can be purchased at the pharmacy only with a prescription. However, there are a number of plant-based products that are released freely. They have a slight sedative effect, make it easier to fall asleep and at the same time are completely safe for life and health. These include the following drugs:

Novo-Passit;
Persen;
Tenoten;
Calm down;
Valerian extract;
Dormiplant.

In combination with the correct daily routine, compliance with the regime of work and rest, as well as all of the above recommendations, such funds have a positive effect and help normalize sleep.

ethnoscience

If you don’t know what to do, folk remedies for insomnia, which have long been successfully used by our ancestors, will help.

Decoctions of medicinal herbs. If at night you take a cup of decoction of oregano, valerian, peony, motherwort, lemon balm or thyme, it is not difficult to normalize the condition and return a healthy and sound sleep. You can brew herbs with a calming effect separately or prepare preparations by mixing plant materials in equal proportions. The classic recipe for making a decoction is as follows: take 2 tbsp. l. herbs for 200 ml of boiling water, brew, cover the dishes with a lid and let it brew for 15-20 minutes. Ready broth is filtered and drunk warm before going to bed.

Relaxing massage with natural oils. It gives a very good effect and makes it easier to fall asleep. You need to massage the neck and shoulder area, temples, hands and feet. Olive, sunflower or any vegetable oil is slightly warmed up and 2-3 drops of lavender, mint, valerian, lemon balm, rose or rosemary ether are added to it. The body is massaged for 10-15 minutes, it helps to relax and relieve daytime stress.

Soothing bath. Before going to bed, a warm bath will help you get ready for sleep, and the calming and relaxing effect of the procedure will be enhanced if you add herbal decoctions or a few drops of essential oils to the water, which have a sedative effect. You can simply make a foot bath with the same composition and take it for 15 minutes.

The main problem of a modern resident of a metropolis is a frantic rhythm in which less and less time is left for sleep, as a result of which the quality of life and human health deteriorate, and, oddly enough, various sleep disorders develop. Treatment with medications is effective, but not always safe, which cannot be said about folk methods. So, insomnia and what to do with it at home, we will consider in this article.

You often hear such a phrase - how insomnia tormented me, I simply do not have the strength to do something. Indeed, insomnia is a kind of ailment that gradually turns a person into an apathetic vegetable who does not want anything during the day except sleep, but with the onset of night, this condition disappears somewhere. The reasons for this sleep disorder can be completely different. So, provoking factors can be:

All of the above causes, with daily exposure to a person, cause a malfunction of his biological clock and, as a result, lead to the development of insomnia.

Ways to treat insomnia

In order to prescribe the correct and effective treatment, it is necessary to understand what exactly is the cause of the development of insomnia, since if a person continues to sacrifice his sleep for the sake of work, and at the same time try to defeat the disease, there will be no result.

First of all, the patient must eliminate the irritating factor. Those who like to eat at night need to follow a clear nutrition schedule, and if they can’t at all, it’s better to replace a night snack with a glass of water or, at worst, a glass of kefir.

The habit of “sitting” with a smartphone before going to bed is, in general, the most harmful of all, since the flickering of the screen irritates the nervous system, and it cannot recover for a long time, thereby preventing a person from falling asleep. An alternative to the telephone is a good old book (not an electronic counterpart, but a paperback).

An equally important role in the organization of treatment is played by a properly prepared bed. The room in which a person sleeps should not be too bright, ideally it should have dark blackout curtains. In addition, the presence of good sound insulation will be a plus. Nothing should distract a person from going to bed.

When the conditions for comfortable sleep are created, you can think about treatment. Treatment happens:

Medical.
Folk means.
Non-drug treatments.

medicines

Treatment of sleep disorders with drugs is the most effective and fastest, and at the same time the most dangerous way.

The danger of this method lies in the specialized substances contained in medications, some of which, by accumulating in the body, can cause a backlash, as well as provoke other concomitant diseases.

Sleeping pills form the basis of drug therapy:

with a short duration;
with an average duration;
with a long duration.

The validity period affects the nature of the violation. For example, some people cannot fall asleep - the duration of the drug is short. If a person often wakes up at night - the average duration of action, and if the patient has a problem with getting up early - a long duration of action.

Folk remedies

If drug therapy has a large number of contraindications, and some drugs are generally approved for use only in adults, folk remedies have practically no such restrictions.

A huge arsenal of traditional medicine allows you to choose the most effective and suitable remedy for you, which will gently and unobtrusively send you to the land of Morpheus.

Naturally, traditional medicine in rare cases guarantees an instant effect, but in any case it will be, if not immediately.

Also, do not forget about the individual intolerance of a particular component and the presence of allergic reactions. Therefore, before using the recipes indicated in this article, we strongly recommend that you consult with your doctor.

Honey as a remedy for insomnia

Treatment with a remedy such as honey is used not only in traditional medicine, but also in traditional treatment (take, for example, colds and throat diseases). Therefore, this method is considered the safest. Honey strengthens the body, has a calming effect on the nervous system, and regular use of recipes based on honey will help develop a strong immunity in a patient to insomnia.

Fees for insomnia

In cases where honey recipes do not help much, you can move on to more “heavy” therapy - herbs. However, it is best to use these methods in combination.

Herbs that are used for insomnia include:

valerian;
Melissa;
chamomile;
mint;
motherwort;
viburnum;
caraway.

It should be understood that not all herbs can be used by pregnant and lactating mothers, so you need to be very careful in choosing an effective remedy, but it is better to consult a doctor in advance.

Motherwort has an excellent hypnotic effect, which gently calms the nervous system, thereby triggering the mechanisms of going to sleep.

clay treatment

Clay, oddly enough, is not only a means for cooking dishes, but also a kind of cure for insomnia. To get rid of problems with falling asleep, you will need white clay, 10 g of yarrow flower and 40 g of lemon balm. Dry clay is mixed with the named herbs at the rate of half a glass of clay for the indicated amount of grass. The resulting mixture is poured with boiling water and stirred until it becomes a sticky mass. Applications are prepared from the mixture, according to the size of a person's forehead. This application should be applied to the forehead, 20-30 minutes before bedtime. The cooking process itself will already have a calming effect, and the application will complement the effect.

If you don’t feel like messing with clay, you can collect river sand, dry it and heat it in a pan, then put it in small bags that should be tied to your feet and wrapped in a scarf. This bandage is applied all night.

Relaxing baths

A warm bath has a calming effect on the human body, relieving nervous tension. A bath, with the addition of medicinal herbs in general, is an excellent weapon to combat insomnia.

Non-drug treatments

Any person would be happy if, in order to cure this or that ailment, it was not required to use either harmful pills or tasteless herbs, the so-called method without drugs. There is such a thing in the treatment of insomnia. Non-drug treatments for sleep problems include:

encephalophony;
phototherapy;
psychotherapy.

Encephalophony

The beneficial effects of classical music have been known for a long time, and listening to it perfectly calms the nervous system. However, encephalophony is not quite what you imagined. This type of therapy is based on listening to sounds, but not those that were written by a person, but those that were created by his brain. In other words, encephalophony is listening to brain activity converted into audio information.

The course of treatment is developed by the doctor individually, and involves daily listening to the recording for at least 15-25 minutes.

The procedure for converting brain activity into sounds is as follows:

The patient undergoes a small test.
The doctor records the electroencephalogram in the active phase and at rest.
Specialists convert the EEG into audio information.

This method has no contraindications.

Phototherapy involves exposing the patient to light. However, this is not just sunlight or lamp light, it is a mixture of different rays, with the help of which the human biological clock is adjusted or reconfigured in a new way.

The essence of the method is to expose the patient to such light in the morning, 10-15 minutes before waking up. For example, a person is used to falling asleep after midnight, and, accordingly, he wakes up later. His biological clock has adjusted to a new rhythm and it is hard to bring it back on his own, a person cannot fall asleep before midnight. Or the patient is accustomed to sleeping daily during the day in small intervals, which also leads to a malfunction in the biological clock.

Exposure to light is usually also called soft awakening, which stimulates a person to rebuild in the future.

It is not always necessary to resort to sleeping pills, often an experienced psychiatrist or psychologist will solve the problem with sleep. If the matter is constant overstrain, the inability to distract from pressing problems, a cycle of consultations with a psychologist will help overcome problems that prevent the brain from going to sleep in a timely manner.

With the help of special techniques, a psychologist will teach you how to let go of oppressive thoughts from yourself, how not to succumb to stress when you are in an aggressive environment and maintain self-control, without compromising your sleep.

If insomnia has deeper and more serious problems associated with mental disorders, only a psychiatrist can help in this matter, who will not only understand the problem, but also prescribe effective treatment.

So, folk and non-traditional ways to deal with insomnia are a good alternative to drug treatment, but this does not mean that now there is no need to visit medical institutions at all, just the opposite. The use of alternative methods of treatment obliges you to consult with your doctor in order to avoid complications. Take care of yourself and get well!

Sleep problems often appear in people of all ages. The reason for this is nervous experiences, daily stress, lack or absence of active movements and walks in the fresh air. The question arises, what to do if you suffer from insomnia, and how to regain sleep and proper rest?

Insomnia is a persistent sleep disorder. This diagnosis is made when a person cannot fall asleep or sleep normally for a sufficiently long time.

Insomnia is diagnosed if a person has difficulty falling asleep at least three times a week, and so on for a month.

If you have these periodic violations, then this is mild insomnia.
If you have trouble sleeping every day, it's chronic insomnia.
If you simply cannot fall asleep for several days, this is not insomnia at all (such disorders are called temporary sleep problems, they do not require specific treatment).

Thus, the signs of insomnia are:

Prolonged falling asleep, inability to fall asleep even in the presence of physical fatigue.
Superficial sleep, awakening from any small noise, inability to fall asleep after a forced interruption of sleep.
Recurring cases of sleep disturbances - at least 3 times a week, for at least a month.
Feeling sleepy, depressed.

In addition, the symptoms of insomnia are supplemented by signs of internal pathologies - disorders in the work of the heart, brain, hormonal imbalance.

If you have these symptoms, then you have a persistent sleep disorder. In order to understand how to deal with the problem, consider the reasons - what prevents a person from fully resting after daily stress and impressions.

Causes of insomnia and sleep disturbance factors

The disease of insomnia is formed for various reasons. In order to understand them, consider what changes occur in the human body during falling asleep, which is necessary for a calm deep sleep.

Sleep is a special state of man

Sleep is characterized by minimal brain activity, as well as a reduced response to environmental stimuli. Physiological sleep is different from coma, syncope, hypnotic trance, suspended animation, or lethargic sleep.

During sleep:

breathing, heartbeat, activity of vital organs (heart, liver, stomach, lungs - in contrast to suspended animation, in which a person's breathing is almost not audible, and the activity of many life support systems is reduced) are completely preserved.
there are no disturbances in cerebral blood flow and cardiac output (unlike syncope).
the minimum necessary muscle tone is maintained (which guarantees safety, for example, the tongue is kept from falling into the lumen of the throat and respiratory tract).
there is no psychic connection with the outside world (unlike a hypnotic trance, during which a psychic connection is maintained bypassing the consciousness of a hypnotized person).

What happens in the body in a state of sleep, what processes replace each other when falling asleep?

How a person falls asleep: norm and pathology

Under normal physiology, before the onset of sleep, internal inhibition is formed in the human body (the activity of the cells of the subcortex of the brain is reduced). After some time, almost 98% of the subcortical cells become inhibited, drowsiness sets in, then superficial sleep, after which deep sleep.

In the process of inhibition, almost all cells of the subcortex slow down. A small number of non-inhibited cells are called "sentinel cells" or "awake points". The number of inhibited and sentinel cells determine the depth of sleep. The more cells slowed down, the deeper the sleep.

During the period of inhibition, a person feels tired, a desire to lie down, relax. Drowsiness sets in, in which brain activity is reduced, heart rate is slowed down, and muscles are relaxed. In addition, the body produces an increased amount of the sleep hormone melatonin. It is responsible for the feeling of drowsiness and regulation of body temperature (reduces it during sleep).

Normally, the changes that occur (relaxation, decreased brain activity and digestion, melatonin production) lead to calm falling asleep. If these processes are disturbed, night insomnia is formed.

Braking processes are violated under the influence of the following factors:

Work at night or at night, mental activity in the evening or at night (homework, dissertations, translations, other work that requires brain activity) - increase the activity of brain cells, disrupt the processes of inhibition and falling asleep.
Too active life in the evening or at night (visiting discos, listening to loud music, strong emotions - both positive and negative) - keep the body in good shape, do not allow you to relax and fall asleep. For the same reason, insomnia is formed in children - due to overexcitation in the evening.
The use of stimulating drinks (coffee, various tonics) in the evening can be too strong a stimulation.
Improper sleeping conditions (heavy or hot air in the bedroom, light from a street lamp or from a night lamp) - disrupt the supply of oxygen and the production of the sleep hormone.
Light (even a small one, from a computer or a light bulb in the hallway) - reduces the production of the sleep hormone (melatonin).
Negative habits or working conditions that do not correspond to a person's biological clock (work until midnight, night shifts, computer games at night) - disrupt sleep and wakefulness, shift night sleep to morning or daytime.
The flow of thoughts (thinking and solving problems, inner experiences) - do not allow the processes of inhibition to cover a sufficient number of brain cells. Sleep turns out to be superficial, and falling asleep is long.
Some diseases or physiological conditions can also cause sleep disturbances. Feelings of pain or discomfort keep you awake and also wake you up in the middle of the night. For example, sleep disturbances can occur in women before childbirth. Insomnia during pregnancy is a consequence of an uncomfortable posture, discomfort, and poor health.
Excessive physical fatigue leads to muscle strain. Spasm of muscle fibers does not allow you to relax, fall asleep.
Carbohydrate and high-calorie food in the evening or at night - supplies energy that stimulates human activity, disrupts falling asleep. Activation of digestion stimulates the activity of the brain, thus it disrupts the processes of inhibition.

Sleep disorders can cause any state of discomfort - physical or mental. A person suffering from insomnia becomes irritable, acquires chronic diseases of the brain, blood vessels, and heart.

Treatment of insomnia: means and methods

For proper sleep, braking, calming and relaxation are necessary. Therefore, any medicine for insomnia acts in this direction - it relieves muscle clamps, relaxes the body, and slows down the brain. There are also simple remedies that traditional medicine recommends for normalizing sleep. Here is a description of the most effective techniques that help you fall asleep. How to get rid of insomnia without the help of drugs?

Calming herbal tea

The main folk remedies for insomnia are soothing herbal teas. For a restful sleep, brew 1 tablespoon of herbal tea with a calming effect at night.

What can be collected:

Valerian root.
Motherwort herb.
Symptomatic herbs - to treat certain symptoms. For example, if discomfort in the stomach or intestines prevents you from falling asleep, add chamomile to the composition. And if you suffer from frequent headaches - put St. John's wort in tea.

The amount of tea that is drunk at night should not exceed 200 ml (so as not to cause nighttime urge to go to the toilet).

Indoor microclimate

The room for sleeping should be cozy, quiet, moderately warm. It is necessary to ensure the flow of fresh air, for which in the summer - open the window, in the winter - the window. The optimum sleep temperature is +18 +20°C, humidity - 70%. Dry air in the bedroom leads to drying of the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract, discomfort, awakening in the middle of the night, and then to insomnia.

If you go to bed late at night, and wake up in the morning from bright light, the windows should be curtained with thick curtains.

Rest and sleep mode

The physiological inclinations of a person, the habit of getting up and going to bed sooner or later, are not hereditary. "Owl" or "lark" is the result of a long-term habit, which, if desired, can be changed. Practice confirms that even deaf "owls" turn into "larks" in 3-4 weeks, if you force them to wake up in the early morning hours. At the beginning of such an experiment, an alarm clock helps to wake up. After 10-14 days, waking up becomes not so difficult, after another 7-10 days, the habit of waking up on your own at 6 or 7 in the morning appears. Why is it necessary to rebuild the "owl" mode to "lark"?

Waking up early encourages early sleep and timely sleep. Getting up in the morning at 6 or 7 o'clock in the morning leads to the fact that at 10 o'clock in the evening you want to sleep. Therefore, if you have insomnia, try rearranging your regimen. Get up early and live actively - by the evening your body will be tired and will require rest.

Good to know: being a lark is more useful than being a night owl. Those who wake up after 8 am develop physiological disorders and diseases over time. This is due to the wrong biological regimen, overeating in the evening (during periods of wakefulness, there is a desire to eat, regardless of the time of day).

General massage and warm baths

Increased muscle tone is formed due to hard work, negative emotions. Stress and anxiety are the norm of modern man. Therefore, the majority of working women and men, as well as young students, constantly increase the tone of the muscles of the back and neck. To relax and relieve muscle spasm, they do a general light massage, take warm baths.

General massage is a popular remedy for insomnia. It can be supplemented by massaging individual parts of the body (those in which the spasm is most pronounced). For example, for office workers it is the neck and upper back, for salespeople it is the legs.

Computer and TV restriction

Doctors confirm: after watching TV or working on a computer, even healthy people have difficulty falling asleep.

Flickering light bulbs, as well as the blue light of screens, cause a subconscious feeling of anxiety. As a result, it is impossible to fall asleep, even if you really want to sleep. Refuse to watch TV and work on a computer, tablet 1 hour before bedtime.

Proper nutrition before bed

To fall asleep easily, you need to be neither full nor hungry. This requires a light dinner (kefir, fermented baked milk) 1 hour before bedtime.

How to deal with insomnia psychologically

Light hypnosis for insomnia is used when a person has an obsession, a fear of difficult falling asleep. In this case, first turn to the help of a psychotherapist. If the problem cannot be solved by psychological analysis, the work of hypnosis is used (the first 3-5 sessions of fast falling asleep demonstrate to a person his capabilities and make further treatment effective).

What can you do before bed

Actions 1 hour before the intended sleep should provide the body and brain cells with maximum relaxation.

What can and should be done:

Listen to calm quiet music. There is special sleep music for insomnia. It contains repetitive rhythms, the sounds of nature, which subconsciously relax, reduce brain activity, and help you fall asleep.
meditate- distract from daily worries, fuss, problems, thoughts. Remember - both positive and negative emotions can disrupt sleep. Therefore, in order to quickly fall asleep, it is necessary to leave the experienced emotions, calm down.
Drink herbal tea with a relaxing and hypnotic effect. Take a warm bath.
For children - sing lullabies and rocking. According to the research of Academician Pavlov, inhibition of the cells of the cerebral cortex occurs when exposed to a mild stimulus. At the same time, it is important that the impact is constant and not strong. The hypnotic effect of motion sickness and lullaby is based on this.

Medications and drugs for insomnia

Tablets for insomnia - sold by prescription. Their intake in uncontrolled quantities can cause collapse and death. Therefore, it is possible to turn to sleeping pills only after a medical appointment.

It is important to know: sleeping pills can be addictive.

A person loses the ability to fall asleep without a sleeping pill. Therefore, you can take potent drugs only when really necessary. And cancel them as soon as possible.

Here we give a list of drugs that are safe for human life and health. Many of them are based on plant extracts, so you can buy these medicines without a doctor's prescription.

Melaxen- this drug contains an analogue of the sleep hormone, which is synthesized artificially and has a similar effect. It is approved for sale without a prescription, since it does not cause addiction, does not affect the subsequent daily coordination of movements, memory and attention.
Persen- a plant-based preparation, is an extract of valerian, lemon balm and mint. Melissa and mint provide an additional effect - they normalize cerebral circulation, lead to a complete inhibition of subcortical cells.
Dormiplant- also a herbal preparation. The active ingredients are valerian root extract and lemon balm leaf extract.
NovoPassit

Every third adult suffers from insomnia from time to time, and for 10-15% of people it is a serious problem. Especially often sleep problems occur in older people: half of women and one in four men of age say that the quality of their sleep leaves much to be desired.

Episodic insomnia is usually associated with short-term stress and goes away on its own. The question of what to do when insomnia bothers you almost every night usually arises in those who regularly have difficulty falling asleep or often wake up in the middle of the night for many weeks or months.

Tired of insomnia? Looking for a reason

More than 30 (according to some sources - more than 50) diseases are known that can cause insomnia. If your sleep disturbances are secondary, ie. provoked by some malfunctions in the work of internal organs, the issue will have to be resolved comprehensively. Treatment of the underlying disease can have a positive effect, and, perhaps, after its implementation, you will begin to fall asleep quickly, soundly and without any medication.

What folk remedies help with insomnia

If you suffer from insomnia, try soothing herbal teas or individual herbs first. Most of them can be made independently by brewing with boiling water and insisting in a warm place. Detailed instructions for use are on the packaging with the collection.

The most pronounced hypnotic effect is possessed by such folk remedies as valerian, motherwort, cyanosis. Hawthorn, mint, chamomile, lemon balm act gently.

Tired of insomnia? Choosing a safe sleeping pill

To combat insomnia, you can purchase drugs based on medicinal herbs at the pharmacy: or tincture based on valerian and motherwort, Novo-Passit, Persen, Dormiplant. These drugs do not cause drug dependence, which cannot be said about other popular (but far from safe!) drugs: phenazepam, lorazepam, phenobarbital.

Many patients find the answer to the question of what to do if they suffer from insomnia by buying Corvalol or Validol at the pharmacy. If you snore in your sleep, be aware that phenobarbital, which is part of them, is contraindicated in complicated snoring (which is characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep).

From over-the-counter drugs, you should pay attention to tablets, which is an analogue of melatonin, the sleep hormone. The tool has a minimum of side effects and does not cause drug dependence. Rest after taking just one tablet becomes better: the ratio of the phases of deep and superficial sleep is not disturbed, which allows you to wake up in the morning in a good mood and full of energy.

What to do if insomnia occurs during pregnancy

If during pregnancy you cannot fall asleep for a long time, often wake up in the middle of the night and cannot fall asleep again for a long time, and following the general recommendations does not give any effect, herbal medicines will help you.

The safest of them is valerian, lemon balm, chamomile, mint. Persil and Novo-passit can be used only after consulting a doctor, and only if the intended benefit outweighs the possible harm to the fetus.

Treating insomnia in the elderly

In the elderly, insomnia is especially common. If this problem has also affected you, first try to pay more attention to sleep hygiene - this usually helps a lot.

In older people, insomnia is usually secondary, i.e. developing as a result of other existing chronic diseases. In this case, the first stage of therapy should be the correction of the underlying condition.

More than 40% of people over 50-60 years old snore. Snoring is often a precursor or indicator of another much more serious condition, obstructive sleep apnea. With it, in a dream, breathing stops lasting more than 10 seconds occur, which can be repeated several times or dozens of times per hour. During these stops, the body experiences oxygen starvation, which can provoke the development of a hypertensive crisis, heart attack, stroke, and even sudden death. Because of these pauses, micro-awakenings of the brain occur in the sleeping person. As a result, sleep is grossly disturbed, which leads to a deterioration in mental activity, loss of strength and a decrease in mood, pronounced drowsiness during the day. If the cause of your insomnia is obstructive sleep apnea, this should be a reason to see a doctor.