Sleep problems in adults folk treatment. Bad dream, what to do? What to do if you can't sleep? How to break the vicious circle and give yourself a relaxing night's rest

Sleep disorders are quite common phenomena. Between 8 and 15% of the adult population of the world have frequent or persistent complaints of poor or insufficient sleep, between 9 and 11% of adults use sedatives sleeping pills and among the elderly this percentage is much higher. Sleep disorders can develop at any age. Some of them are more common in certain age groups, such as bedwetting, night terrors and somnambulism in children and adolescents, and insomnia or pathological sleepiness in middle-aged and older people. A neurologist, chief physician, Ph.D. will tell us about sleep disorders. Slynko Anna Alekseevna.

– Anna Alekseevna, tell our readers why our body needs such an important component of life as sleep?

Sleep is one of the most important components of human life. During sleep, wakefulness is inhibited with the consciousness turning off and the active work of the unconscious, the activity of certain (somnogenic) systems of the brain and the whole organism as a whole. During sleep, the processing and integration of human mental activity, the active restoration of the structure and function of the body takes place. And this part of our life is no less important than wakefulness, and perhaps the most important, during which self-healing, healing, and mental “reboot” take place. No wonder they say: "The morning is wiser than the evening." Because during sleep there is an active processing of information. Decision-making involves not only the conscious and unconscious, but also the knowledge and experience of our ancestors, which are encrypted in our genetic material. Some believe that spending one third of your life in a dream is a lot and therefore they are in a hurry to live, cutting back on sleep time, grossly breaking the sleep cycle (sleep during the day, stay awake at night, go to bed late). Such disrespect for sleep comes out sideways for the body. It is known that this reduces resistance to infections, immunity is impaired, the risk of cardiovascular diseases, mental disorders increases, adaptation to stress decreases, etc. It has been noticed that centenarians sleep a lot, that is a large number of the time spent in sleep, their body rewards with a long healthy wakefulness. However, it is known that with age, the need for sleep decreases, and older people sleep less. But isn't this a prognostic sign of a stock of health.

- Anna Alekseevna, is there a difference in how we sleep?

- It is considered normal sleep from 6 to 9 hours a day in an adult. But everyone's need for sleep is different. It is important to go to bed so that in the morning you wake up on your own without coercion and discomfort and do not feel sleepy during the day. It is very important to fall asleep at the same time. In this regard, shifts in time zones, the transition to summer-winter time, and work at night are unfavorable for health. It is very important to fall asleep before 23.00. It has been observed that sleep between 11 pm and 1 am is very important for the body. At this time, the greatest recovery activity of the body occurs. This is consistent with the knowledge of traditional medicine. During this period, the energy "power" of the heart is at a minimum, so it is best to sleep at this time. But not only does the total duration of sleep matter, the structure of sleep is important when it comes to the correct duration and sequence of sleep stages. It is known that the structure of sleep changes with various diseases. Medical influence on sleep phases changes the course of some diseases (for example, depression). Sleep is a heterogeneous state; during sleep, a regular alternation of phases occurs. Phase slow sleep makes up 75-80% of sleep (subdivided into nap, superficial sleep, medium-depth sleep, deep dream), in this phase of sleep, recovery processes occur, optimization of the management of internal organs. There is also a phase of REM sleep or a phase of rapid eye movements. In the phase of REM sleep, the electroencephalographic picture resembles wakefulness, although the person is motionless and the muscles are maximally relaxed, in this phase he sees dreams. The total duration of all phases, that is, the cycle, is about 90 minutes. For the entire period of sleep, 4-6 cycles pass.

Insomnia or insomnia

Insomnia or insomnia- a subjective symptom that characterizes dissatisfaction with sleep, lack of vigor after sleep. If this dissatisfaction with sleep occurs within one week, this is episodic insomnia, up to 3 weeks - short-term, more than 3 weeks - chronic insomnia. In laboratory mice without sleep, a change in consciousness occurs after three days, a coma and death after a week. A person also cannot live without sleep, as well as without food, drink, air. Therefore, people who say that they do not sleep at all are mistaken. They sleep, but their sleep is intermittent, short, incomplete and there is no feeling of rash and cheerfulness after it.

What types of sleep disorders exist?

- More than 54 different diseases of the nervous system, psyche and internal diseases are manifested by sleep disturbance.

Sleep disorders: dyssomnias, presomnias, intrasomnias, postsomnias, parasomnias, pathological parasomnias, hypersomnias

Sleep disorders can be divided into:

Dyssomnias -

difficulty falling asleep, maintaining sleep, excessive sleepiness, feeling of lack of rest after sleep.

Presomnic disorders -

difficulty falling asleep (inability to fall asleep for 2 or more hours)

Intrasomnia -

shortening of sleep, frequent awakenings, superficial sleep, early awakening.

Post-somnia disorders

lack of a feeling of rest after sleep, physical vigor, a feeling of "brokenness", asthenia.

Parasomnias -

motor and mental phenomena that accompany sleep. These are shudders, a change in body position, which are physiological. And pathological parasomnias- excessive, restless movements during sleep, sleep-talking, sleepwalking. There may also be frightening dreams, nightmares, disturbances in the rhythm and depth of breathing, night snoring, apnea (long pause in the breathing cycle).

Hypersomnia -

pathological daytime sleepiness. Most often, daytime sleepiness and inappropriate falling asleep during the day are caused by obstructive sleep apnea. That is, during sleep, the airways overlap and the patient wakes up from lack of air. Especially often this occurs in obese people, with a large belly, sleeping on their backs, when the lungs are supported by organs below the diaphragm. In this situation, it is desirable to reduce weight, sleep on your side, on a higher pillow. daytime naps extremely dangerous for people involved in driving and other dangerous species activities.

– How to evaluate the quality of sleep?

– Sleep doctor - somnologist, analyzes sleep using polysomnography. This is a diagnostic method that includes simultaneous registration of electroencephalography, ECG, electromyography, audio monitoring of snoring, analysis of body movements, legs, respiratory movements, body temperature, blood pressure, pulse, etc. Polysomnography data allows you to evaluate sleep duration, the number of awakenings, the distribution of sleep stages, respiratory disorders and heart rate, abnormal movements and establish the nature of parasomnias. However, not every patient with insomnia manages to study his sleep so closely. Therefore, a therapist or a neurologist, or a psychiatrist often helps to understand this.

– Anna Alekseevna, tell us about the causes of sleep disturbance?

- The causes of sleep disorders are diverse and are divided into three groups.

1. Internal causes- sleep apnea syndrome, periodic limb movements, restless legs syndrome, etc.
2. External causes – psycho-emotional stress, anxiety and stress, pain syndromes, inadequate use of drugs, including sleeping pills, poor hygiene sleep, taking psychostimulants, alcohol, excessive smoking, impaired drinking regime(frequent urge to urinate at night), etc.
3. Circadian Disorders– change of time zones, premature sleep phase syndrome, disorders caused by daily or night shift work, etc. Of course, in the first place among all the factors leading to sleep disturbance, especially in healthy people, are emotional stress, mental and physical overwork, mental fatigue. Especially in people with asthenoneurotic personality traits, states of anxiety, asthenia, melancholy or depression, apathy, and depressed mood are frequent. This is called psychophysiological insomnia. Often such people try to help themselves on their own and take in the morning tonics, in the evening sedatives or sleeping pills. Such self-treatment eventually depletes the adaptive and regenerative forces of the body, which not only does not restore sleep, but also does not give a feeling of rest and promotes the development psychosomatic diseases. The first to suffer is the organ system that is subjected to the greatest load or there is an innate predisposition, weakness of this organ system. At first, there is a violation of the function of organs, when everything is reversible. Then the disease already violates the structure of the organ.

- Anna Alekseevna, give some useful tips on the treatment of sleep disorders for our readers!

– What are the steps for the treatment of psychophysiological insomnia.

Treatment of psychophysiological insomnia (insomnia)

1. Sleep hygiene. Set a fixed time for going to bed and waking up. It is advisable to determine the duration of sleep on those days when you manage to get enough sleep, since this individual indicator. If the duration of your sleep is 8.5 hours, then you should already be in bed half an hour before bedtime, preferably with light, pleasant literature (preferably with art), perhaps with smooth, pleasant music. For example, if you need to get up at 7.00 in the morning, then you need to get ready for bed at 22.00. And at 22.30 go to bed.
2. Avoid falling asleep during the day.
3. Don't think about not being able to sleep.
4. It is desirable that the sleeping room be allocated separately, (ideally, it should not have equipment, TV, computer). It is advisable to ventilate the bedroom well (the optimum room temperature is 18-20? C), there are thick curtains on the windows, a comfortable mattress, a small pillow, the bed does not creak, extraneous sounds do not distract.
5. In the evening it is useful to walk on fresh air , breathing exercises, light exercise, freestyle, slow paced swimming. Not later than 20.00 it is necessary to complete physical activity. If there are no contraindications, it is good to take a bath or shower at a comfortable temperature. If sleep disorders are associated with psycho-emotional stress, it is good to have a relaxing massage (or therapeutic massage) 2-3 times a week, 2-3 times a week of medium and light intensity sports.
6. Avoid drinking during the day strong coffee, tea, tonic, cola. For any "spurring" the body has to pay with subsequent asthenia, irritable weakness, insomnia. In the evening, you can drink tea with mint and honey. Honey is a sweet natural sleeping pill.
7. The last meal should be easy for the body to digest., in a small amount, no later than 2 hours before bedtime. Liquid after 18 hours is better to consume limitedly, so as not to wake up at night, for the toilet. A pleasant feeling of satiety causes drowsiness.
8. Do not take any medications on your own without consulting a doctor. It is advisable to discuss with your doctor the optimal tactics of behavior and treatment of sleep disorders.
9. And most importantly - go to bed with a GOOD MOOD! SWEET DREAMS!

– Thank you for the interesting conversation, Anna Alekseevna! I hope every reader will take something useful from your story!

An interview with Anna Alekseevna Slynko (neurologist, chief physician, candidate of medical sciences) was conducted by Margarita Kucheruk

A sound sleep can tell a lot about a person. In particular, it indicates a healthy body and a proper lifestyle. Sleep disturbance (light sleep, frequent waking up at night, inability to fall asleep for a long time) indicates failures that occur inside the body. To answer the question why I fall asleep and often wake up or cannot fall asleep for a long time, it is necessary to establish the root causes bad sleep. In this article, we will also talk about effective ways normalization of the process of falling asleep and the ability to make rest at night more productive.

Features and dangers of sleep disorders

According to doctors, sleep disturbance can be primary (not associated with a particular disease) or secondary. The latter option involves sleep problems in adults due to certain pathologies. If you often ask yourself why I don't sleep well at night, listen to your body. Perhaps the cause should be sought in diseases of the heart, kidneys and other vital organs.

As for the types of sleep problems, there are three of them.

• Firstly, it is insomnia (classic insomnia) - a sleep disorder in which the patient cannot fall asleep for a long time or often wakes up.
• Secondly, hypersomnia is excessive sleepiness.
• Thirdly, parasomnia is a sleep disorder caused by malfunctions in the body due to somatic, mental, neurological diseases.

If the quality of a night's rest is constantly declining, you can't sit back and do nothing. In the future, this can cause obesity, type 2 diabetes, tachycardia, worsen mental work and lead to many other equally dangerous consequences.

Superficial sleep or its lack causes the body to function in an emergency mode and release a huge amount of neurotransmitters into the bloodstream. They provide additional resources for the so-called overtime wakefulness. As a result, the optimal functioning of the heart and blood vessels is disturbed.

The reasons

Sleep disturbance can cause banal at first glance reasons. Sometimes we don't even pay attention to them, and this is our big mistake. Among the factors that cause sleep difficulties, the following should be highlighted:

The causes of sleep disturbance should also be sought in the air temperature in the room. To make your rest better, create an optimal microclimate. The air temperature should be in the range of 18 to 19 degrees. Humidity - 60-80 percent.

disease as a cause

Regular sleep disturbance in adults often causes neurological and somatic diseases. In particular, this can lead to pulmonary heart failure, enuresis, sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome. For example, light sleep may be the result of oxygen starvation (pulmonary heart failure). Symptoms of this pathology: headaches, pallor, fainting, chest pains and so on.

If you find yourself having intermittent sleep, you have no idea what to do, pay attention to restless leg syndrome. We are talking about vascular insufficiency of the lower extremities. Impaired circulation causes an unconscious need to move the legs. If during the day we do not pay attention to this, then at night such a pathology manifests itself very clearly - it provokes a light sleep and its frequent interruption.

Sleep problems may be associated with obstructive sleep apnea. As a rule, it is diagnosed in people who snore from time to time.

Due to the flabbiness of the throat and nasopharyngeal tissues, the respiratory opening is briefly blocked. The result of this is a short interruption of breathing (no more than 30 seconds) and the patient wakes up from a lack of oxygen. Eliminate snoring and interrupted sleep will no longer bother you.

Medications

Frequent sleep disturbance, the treatment of which should be carried out after a visit to the doctor, can be eliminated with the help of finished medicines. They are sold in the form of tablets, capsules, drops and are taken orally:

Take a look at the tools above. They well eliminate the symptoms of insomnia (insomnia) and are sold in any pharmacy without a prescription.

Healthy Herbal Recipes

Poor sleep at night in an adult can be effectively treated with dry collections of sedative herbs. They are used for decoctions and infusions.

herbal sedative fees are an excellent analogue of synthetic drugs. In order not to wake up at night and forget about disturbing dreams, take herbs in courses of 2-3 weeks.

Regular change of fees and use of Melatonin at the very beginning of treatment will help to increase therapeutic effectiveness.

If you are wondering why I don’t sleep at night, where my sleep goes, and what to do about it all, pay attention to the insomnia treatment algorithm. The therapy is carried out in stages and involves:

• determining the type of sleep disorder;
• identification of possible mental pathologies;
• development of an effective treatment strategy;
• selection of optimal drugs.

Do not self-medicate by trying to eliminate light sleep. It is best to entrust such a responsible matter to a doctor.

Regularly no sleep? Go to bed at the same time every day. The lost amount of night rest, unfortunately, cannot be made up with the help of daytime rest.

But why does a person fall asleep slowly? Key reason lies in the excessive activity of the nervous system. Therefore, immediately before going to bed, do not watch bright and emotional films, do not gamble. In a word, completely exclude any actions that excite the psyche.

Effective prevention of sleep disturbance also consists in eliminating any external stimuli that interfere with normal sleep. Primarily, we are talking about excessively bright light and loud sounds. Never fall asleep to the accompaniment of the TV. The room should be dark, quiet and cool. This is the right solution if you can’t fall asleep or if you can’t sleep well.

People suffering from lack of sleep should exclude coffee and chocolate from their diet at night. They invigorate the psyche, activate the work internal organs and in particular the brain. If you use such products before going to bed, then you should not be surprised and complain why I do not sleep well at night.

Before a night's rest, a warm (but not hot) bath helps to relax. To prevent sleep loss from becoming a chronic ailment, do not use sedatives and sleeping pills without medical advice.

If a person has not slept for a long time, he may experience difficulty falling asleep due to overexcitation of the nervous system. In this case, we advise you to do some monotonous business, and sleep will soon come.

Article content

Sleep disturbance is a problem well known to many. According to statistics, approximately 8-15% of the population of our planet complain of poor sleep, about 9-11% of adults are forced to use sleeping pills. Among the elderly, these figures are much higher.

Sleep problems occur at any age, but this disease has its own characteristic features for each age category. For example, children most often suffer from night terrors and urinary incontinence. Elderly people suffer from pathological drowsiness and insomnia. But it also happens that having arisen in childhood, a sleep disorder is observed in a person throughout his life. So what to do if you can't fall asleep, you don't sleep well? What do experts think about this?

Causes of sleep disorders

Poor sleep, regardless of the duration, causes a feeling of weakness and fatigue, a person does not have a feeling of morning vigor. All this negatively affects performance, mood and well-being in general. If insomnia occurs long time this leads to serious health problems. Do you often ask yourself the question: “Why do I sleep badly?” Experts believe that this is due to a number of reasons, including:

1. Psychotraumatic situations, stress.
2. Diseases of somatic and neurological origin, accompanied by physical discomfort and pain syndromes.
3. Depression and mental illness.
4. Influence of psychoactive substances (alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, drugs, psychostimulants).
5. Some medications cause insomnia or light sleep, such as glucocortioids, decongestants, antitussives, dietary supplements, and others.
6. Malicious smoking.
7. Brief cessation of breathing during sleep (apnea).
8. Violation of the physiological (circadian) biorhythms of sleep and wakefulness.

Among the causes of sleep disturbance, experts call the malfunctioning of the hypothalamus due to injury or after suffering encephalitis. It is noted that restless sleep observed in workers on the night shift, as well as with a rapid change of time zones. In adults, sleep disturbance is often associated with a disease such as narcolepsy. In most cases, young men are affected.

Depression is the most common cause of insomnia in the world today.

If a child complains that he is afraid to sleep at night, do not brush it off, considering the problem a far-fetched or childish whim. Timely consultation of a competent specialist - a somnologist or a psychotherapist will help eliminate the causes associated with sleep disorders and avoid serious health problems in the future.

Sleep problems

Complaints about poor sleep and insomnia are most often heard by doctors from those who have trouble falling asleep. But the very concept of "insomnia" from the point of view of medicine is much broader. If you notice that you often wake up early or wake up in the middle of the night, feel sleepy or tired in the morning, suffer from shallow and interrupted sleep, all this indicates that you have a sleep disorder.

When the first signs of a change in sleep appear, do not hesitate to consult a doctor. Moreover, you need to sound the alarm in the following cases:

• you have difficulty falling asleep and notice a worsening of sleep several days a week for one month;
• more and more often catch yourself thinking: what to do with a bad dream, how to get enough sleep, concentrate on these issues, returning to them again and again;
• in connection with the unsatisfactory quality and quantity of sleep, you notice deterioration in work and personal life.

Doctors note that insomniacs are twice as likely to seek medical care and undergo treatment in hospitals. Therefore, it is not recommended to let the problem take its course. The specialist will quickly identify the causes of poor sleep and insomnia in adults and prescribe effective treatment.

Restless and interrupted sleep

Sleep is a complex physiological act during which the main processes of the nervous system are “rebooted”. Complete daily sleep essential condition normal functioning body, health and well-being. Normal sleep of an adult should last 6-8 hours. Deviations, both up and down, are harmful to the body. Unfortunately, sleep problems are as common in our lives as stress, constant haste, endless domestic problems and chronic diseases.

Restless sleep is a pathological condition that adversely affects human health. Being in this state, a person is not completely immersed in sleep, his brain can actively work due to the presence of non-sleeping areas. A person is tormented by nightmares, in a dream he can make involuntary movements, scream, grind his teeth, etc.

What to do if you do not sleep well at night? Perhaps one of the causes of this problem is restless leg syndrome. This is a neurological disease, accompanied by discomfort in the legs, which increase in calm state. It occurs at any age, but most often in middle-aged and elderly people, women are most often affected.

Sometimes restless legs syndrome is associated with heredity, but mainly occurs due to a deficiency of iron, magnesium, B vitamins, folic acid. Observed in patients with uremia and thyroid diseases, diabetes, with the abuse of alcoholic beverages, chronic lung diseases.

At night in lower limbs tingling, itching, bursting are observed, sometimes it seems to a person that there are crawling insects under the skin. To get rid of heavy sensations, patients have to rub or massage their legs, shake them, and even walk around the room.

One of the forms of insomnia that residents of megacities often suffer from is interrupted sleep. Those suffering from this disease are able to fall asleep quite quickly, but at the same time their quality of sleep is very low, because these people sleep sensitively and restlessly. For example, without apparent reason, a person wakes up in the middle of the night, often at the same time. At the same time, a feeling of anxiety and tension is noted, and several hours spent in a dream are not felt in any way. Such night wakefulness can be short-lived, lasting a few minutes, and can last until the morning.

Repetitive awakenings from night to night are accompanied by excitement, cause negative thoughts. As a result, a person, not getting enough sleep, is forced to get up for work. It is clear that the lack of normal rest causes daytime apathy and chronic fatigue. “I often wake up, what should I do?” - Doctors are often asked this question by those who do not know how to cope with insomnia. Doctors in this case, along with general recommendations, can prescribe individual medication by conducting a diagnostic examination.

Almost completely lost sleep

Sleep problems often occur with spasms of the muscles of the legs. Patients complain of sudden sharp pain in calf muscles. As a result, most of the night a person is forced to fight with an unpleasant condition. These symptoms are observed in adults under the age of 50, 70% of older people are also familiar with this problem. Strong discomfort that disrupts nighttime rest, unlike restless legs syndrome, does not cause an acute desire to move the limbs.

You can alleviate the condition and quickly relieve spasm with a massage, hot bath or compress. If for this reason you have lost sleep, it is recommended to consult a doctor. Proper therapy will help prevent night cramps. Usually, a course of vitamin E is prescribed, in case of a serious pathology, the doctor will prescribe a tranquilizer and advise a set of special gymnastic exercises to stretch and strengthen the calf muscles.

Of course, the solution to sleep problems in children and adults should begin with a doctor's consultation. Often a person may not be aware that he has serious health problems, up to oncology or mental disorders, but complains that he does not sleep at night, about partial or complete lack of sleep. So, intoxications of various origins often provoke drowsiness. Pathological drowsiness may develop due to hormonal abnormalities, in particular, the pathology of the hypothalamic-mesencephalic region. Only a doctor can identify these formidable diseases. And having cured the underlying disease, it will be possible to normalize sleep.

Restless nighttime sleep in an adult is often due to behavioral REM sleep disorder. In fact, it is a malfunction in the functioning of the central nervous system and is manifested by the physical activity of the sleeper in the REM phase. In medicine, the phase of rapid eye movement is called the REM phase. It is characterized by increased activity of the brain, the occurrence of dreams and paralysis of the body (except for the muscles that support breathing and heartbeat).

In REM-phase behavioral disorder, the sleeper's body exhibits an abnormal "freedom" of movement. Mostly older men are affected by this pathology. The disorder is manifested by talking and screaming from the sleeping person, active movements of the limbs, jumping out of bed. The patient may even unknowingly injure himself or a sleeping person next to him. I am glad that this disease is quite rare.

The fashionable hobby for horror films can lead to sleep loss. Heavy dreams can haunt a person who has survived mental trauma. Often the body thus sends signals about an impending disease. Waking up in the middle of the night in deep despair or with a sense of catastrophe, a person cannot fall asleep for a long time. He tries to understand the reasons for the short sleep, scrolling through the images of a nightmare in his head. Sometimes a person awakened from heavy emotions simply does not remember the dream, but feels a chilling horror and, as a result, suffers from insomnia.

What to do if there is no sleep? Perhaps you need to seriously reconsider your lifestyle. Be sure to visit a doctor, undergo an examination and carefully follow all the prescribed recommendations.

Too sensitive and superficial sleep

Light dream - serious problem, both the sleeper himself and his inner circle. And if a person wakes up from every slightest rustle, it becomes a real disaster for his family. Why sleep is superficial and what to do about it?

There are actually quite a few reasons why a person may have too light sleep. But in general, they can be distinguished into physiological, that is, corresponding to the norm, and pathological.

Light sleep is completely normal for the following categories:

1. Young mothers. In this category, the habit of waking up from the slightest rustle and sniffing of the crumbs, and even more so his crying, is formed due to physiological processes occurring in a woman's body after childbirth.
2. Pregnant women and women certain period menstrual cycle. Shallow sleep in these two groups, combined into one, is explained by hormonal fluctuations in the female body.
3. Night shift workers. This group of people is characterized by difficulty falling asleep, lack of sound sleep due to biorhythm failure.
4. Those who spend too much time sleeping. It has been noticed that with a banal excess of sleep, its quality deteriorates, intermittent and sensitive sleep appears. Usually pensioners, the unemployed, vacationers fall into this category.
5. Elderly people. Sensitive in older people, sleep becomes not only from oversleeping, but also due to age-related changes in the body. The production of melatonin (sleep hormone) is reduced, which leads to insomnia.

Concerning pathological causes light sleep, then this can be attributed mental disorders, somatic diseases, exposure to drugs and psychoactive substances.

If we figured out the reasons for the lack of sound sleep, then the question of why a person suddenly falls asleep during the day is also very often asked to specialists. What is the cause of this disease and how to deal with it? In medicine, a pathological condition characterized by sudden and unpredictable bouts of drowsiness that occurs in the middle of the day is called narcolepsy.

For those affected by this disease, and most of them are young men, the phase of "REM sleep" can come unexpectedly and in the most unexpected place - in class, driving, during lunch or conversation. The duration of the attack is from a few seconds to half an hour. A person who suddenly fell asleep wakes up in a strong excitement, which he continues to experience until the next attack. This is the main difference between narcolepsy and excessive daytime sleepiness. It has been observed that even during such sleep attacks, some may continue to perform their usual activities.

Possible consequences of sleep disorders

Why are millions of people unable to sleep at night? There are many reasons leading to sleep disorders. Some devote too much time to work and overwork sets in, others watch too much TV or sit at the computer. But in the end, caused various reasons insomnia leads to a number of negative consequences of chronic sleep deprivation.

• Impaired glucose tolerance

Lack of sleep, lack of sleep negatively affects the central nervous system, making it overexcited and more active. For this reason, the pancreas ceases to produce insulin in the right amount, a hormone necessary for the digestion of glucose. Scientist Van Kauter observed healthy young people who did not sleep for a long time at night during the week. As a result, most of them were in a pre-diabetic state by the end of the week.

• Obesity

In the first phase of deep sleep, growth hormone is released. In people over the age of 40, periods of deep sleep are reduced, hence the secretion of growth hormone is reduced. At a young age, insufficient sleep contributes to a premature decrease in growth hormone, thereby stimulating the accumulation of fat. There are studies confirming that chronic sleep deprivation reduces the production of the hormone testosterone. This leads to a decrease in muscle mass and the accumulation of fat.

• Increased carbohydrate cravings

Interrupted sleep reduces the production of the hormone leptin, which is responsible for satiety. As a result, there is an increased craving for carbohydrates. The situation is aggravated by the fact that even after receiving a portion of carbohydrates, the body will require more and more calories.

• Weakened immunity

Restless sleep, the lack of a good night's rest has pernicious influence on white blood cells in the human body, reduces resistance to infections.

• The risk of atherosclerosis

Chronic lack of sleep provokes stress, and this in turn increases the amount of cortisol. As a result of this imbalance, hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) is possible. This leads to heart attack. Due to the high level of cortisol, muscle and bone mass fat accumulates. Increases the risk of hypertension, premature death.

• Depression and irritability

Chronic insomnia leads to the depletion of neurotransmitters in the brain responsible for mood. People with sleep disorders are more irritable and more likely to become depressed.

What to do if an adult has bad sleep at night? Help to cope with insomnia simple recommendations. First of all, you need to pay attention to your habits and the conditions in which you sleep. Often non-compliance elementary rules becomes an obstacle to a good rest. Here are the rules.

• develop a healthy habit of going to bed and getting up at the same time. Even in one week, following this regimen, you can achieve a significant result - it will be easier to fall asleep, and you will wake up cheerful and rested;
• stop sleeping during the day, unless it is prescribed to you by your doctor;
• time spent in bed should be strictly limited. Namely, as long as your dream lasts. Give up reading, watching TV and working in bed, otherwise you will have interrupted sleep;
• instead of watching TV or lying in bed with a laptop, take walks in the fresh air in the evenings;
• if you have a light sleep, take care of good sound insulation in the bedroom, there should not be any extraneous sounds and noises (such as the sounds of a working refrigerator) in this room;
• organize a quality and comfortable bed. Sleep on cotton linen, use a pillow with a synthetic filler that retains its shape well and is hypoallergenic;
• the light in the bedroom should be dimmed, and while relaxing in the bedroom it should be completely dark;
• a small light dinner 2-3 hours before going to bed will help to improve the process of falling asleep. Refuse plentiful, fatty and high-calorie food in the evening;
• Taking a warm bath with anti-stress oil will help you relax and fall asleep faster. You can add 5-7 drops of lavender or ylang ylang oil and 1 cup of milk to your bath. It is useful to take a hot shower an hour before bedtime;
• refrain from smoking at night, drinking alcohol and coffee. Instead, it is better to drink a glass of warm milk with a spoonful of honey or chamomile tea;
• keep only an alarm clock in the bedroom. Waking up at night, do not try to find out the time;
• the room where you sleep should be ventilated and regularly wet cleaned;
• if you have trouble falling asleep, use meditation or relaxation exercises.

Do not self-medicate for sleep disorders. Pick the right one the right drugs only a doctor can!

Prevention

“I can’t sleep well” - something like this is the complaint of those who are constantly faced with insomnia. Doctors distinguish several types of insomnia.

1. episodic. It lasts 5-7 days, arising as a result of emotional overstrain or stress (an exam, a quarrel in the family, a conflict situation at work, a change in time zone, etc.). Treatment is not required, in most cases it goes away on its own.
2. Short-term. Lasts 1-3 weeks. Develops due to long stressful situations, severe psycho-emotional shocks, as well as due to chronic somatic diseases. Contribute to sleep disturbances the presence of skin diseases accompanied by itching, and pain syndromes in arthritis, migraines.
3. Chronic. It lasts more than 3 weeks, often indicating hidden mental and somatic diseases, such as depression, neurosis and anxiety disorders, alcoholism. It is ubiquitous in old age. “I don’t sleep well” - 69% of older people complain, 75% of this age group have difficulty falling asleep.

Taking medications, nootropics, antipsychotics and antidepressants very often provokes poor sleep in adults.

Doctors advise not to go to bed if you do not want to sleep. It is better to occupy yourself with some exciting business: read, listen to calm music. At the same time, it is better not to be in the bedroom, so that associations of this room with insomnia do not arise in the brain.

To prevent sleep disorders, use the following tips:

• learn to bring the psyche into a passive state. Mentally renounce all problems and annoying thoughts;
• if it’s hard for you to concentrate and extraneous noise interferes, use earplugs or cover your ears with cotton wool;
• perform rhythmic breathing, focusing on an extended exhalation;
• you can perform a soothing water treatment. For example, 20 minutes to hold your feet in a pleasant hot water with the addition of a decoction of mint, lemon balm, oregano. Warm coniferous baths help to fall asleep well;
• a heavy blanket helps you fall asleep quickly;
• under the pillow, you can put a linen bag with dry hop cones. By the way, hop tea with honey is also useful for sleep disorders. Cooking like this: brew 1.5 dry hop cones with 1 cup of boiling water, insist, strain, add honey, drink warm;
• can't sleep for a long time? You can undress and lie naked until you freeze. Then wrap yourself in a blanket. Pleasant warming will help you fall asleep faster.

uncomplicated psychological technique It will help you get rid of negative thoughts accumulated during the day.

Mentally write down everything that worries you on separate sheets of paper. Imagine that you are crumpling each leaf in turn and throwing it into a basket or into a fire. Try to remember positive points that happened to you today. Be sure to thank higher power for a good day. Now you can perform relaxing techniques: dream about something pleasant, mentally listen to the sound of the surf, remember pleasant events from your life. Rational people can focus on calm breathing and the beating of their heart.

If a desired effect is absent and you can’t fall asleep in any way, most likely you need medical help.

Medicines

If you are constantly tormented by interrupted sleep, the first thing to do is consult a therapist. If necessary, you will be referred for a polysomnography study, on the basis of which treatment will be prescribed.

In the presence of somatic pathologies, therapy consists in eliminating the underlying disease. In old age, patients most often need the help of a neurologist to normalize sleep. For drug therapy, drugs of the benzodiazepine series are mainly used. If the process of falling asleep is disturbed, drugs are prescribed short action triazolam, midazolam. You can not prescribe these drugs on their own, as they have many side effects.

sleeping pills with lasting effect, for example, diazepam, are prescribed for frequent nocturnal awakenings. Long-term use of these medicines can lead to daytime sleepiness. In this case, the doctor will adjust the treatment and select drugs with a shorter exposure time. With neurosis and depression, accompanied by sleep disorders, a psychiatrist's consultation is required. AT severe cases neuroleptics or psychotonics are prescribed.

Normalization of sleep rhythm in the elderly should be carried out in a complex manner using vasodilators (papaverine, nicotinic acid) and light herbal tranquilizers - motherwort or valerian. Any medications should be taken only under the supervision of a physician. Usually, a course of treatment is prescribed with a gradual decrease in dosage and its gradual reduction to nothing.

Traditional medicine

Good help to cope with the problem of difficult falling asleep and proven folk remedies.

Milk + honey

• milk - 1 glass;
• honey - 1 teaspoon;
• juice of freshly squeezed dill (can be replaced with a decoction of seeds) - 1 teaspoon.

Heat milk, dissolve honey in it, add dill juice. Take daily in the evening.

pumpkin broth

• pumpkin - 200g;
• water - 250 ml;
• honey - 1 teaspoon.

Pour boiling water over the peeled and diced pumpkin, cook over low heat for 20-25 minutes. Strain, cool until pleasant warm state. Add honey. Drink ½ cup before bed.

Finally

Various sleep disorders are mostly treatable. It is difficult to treat sleep disorders associated with chronic somatic diseases, as well as in elderly people.

Subject to the sleep and wakefulness regimen, the normalization of physical and mental stress, the competent use of drugs that affect the nervous processes, and the maintenance of a proper lifestyle, sleep problems are completely eliminated. In some cases, consulting a specialist or taking medications will help to cope with the problem. Be healthy!

Sleep problems are a fairly common problem, and are found in literally every fifth or sixth person on earth. This disease occurs at any age, but adults are especially dependent on good night so that his absence could disrupt their daily lives. What to do when you have insomnia? In this article, you will learn the causes of sleep disturbance in an adult, what treatment to take, how to take drugs, and much more. You can find out about the best sleeping pills from

There are several types of sleep disorders. Below you can see the most common, occurring in most cases:

• insomnia. Violation of the process of sleep and falling asleep. Insomnia can be caused psychosomatic reasons, and maybe external reasons: frequent, medicines or narcotic drugs. Quite often, insomnia is caused by mental disorders and breathing problems during sleep;
• hypersomnia. Excessive sleepiness. The reasons for its occurrence can be very different: psychophysiological state, frequent use of medications and alcohol, mental illness, breathing disorders during sleep, narcolepsy, various pathological conditions of the individual organism;
• Sleep and wake disturbance. They are divided into permanent and temporary. The former occur chronically and constantly, while the latter may be associated with an irregular work schedule or due to a sharp change in time zones, as well as work at night;
• Parasomnia. Improper functioning of systems and organs that are associated with awakening and falling asleep. It includes somnambulism, various night terrors and phobias, incontinence, and other mental disorders.

Causes of insomnia

In most cases, a person often wakes up, or sleeps very poorly at night for chronic or physiological reasons. The following are medical diseases sleep related:

• Insomnia - what to do? Almost 15% of the world's population suffers from sleep disorders. Insomnia adversely affects the daily life of a person of any age, including, in connection with which his working capacity decreases, concentration of attention decreases, and sometimes mental illnesses and disorders can even develop;
• restless leg syndrome. This pathology manifests itself in the fact that a person constantly experiences excitement in the lower part of the body, which prevents normal sleep. Convulsions, shuddering, twitching and a strange feeling of flying are manifestations of this syndrome. To alleviate this condition, it is necessary to eliminate iron deficiency in the blood, pay attention to a balanced diet. A walk before going to bed and a warm shower will not hurt.
• Narcoleptic seizures. During this state, a person can simply fall asleep in the middle of the street at any time of the day. Severe weakness and hallucinations are symptoms of this disease;
• Bruxism. Involuntary contraction of the upper and mandible. Because of this, a person grinds his teeth in a dream and causes discomfort to himself. The next morning, pain in the joints and muscles is usually felt, especially the jaw hurts.
• Somnambulism. To most people, this ailment is known as sleepwalking. It manifests itself in uncontrolled walking in a dream and committing various activities, in which the person also does not give a report. In this state, a person usually drools, he moans, and moans can be during sleep, or tries to keep up conversations with himself. It is quite difficult to get out of this state, so it is better to let the person do what he wants and let him go back to bed.

Main symptoms of insomnia

Sleep disturbance has many symptoms, but whatever they are, they can radically change a person's life in a short time. The emotional state changes, the person becomes nervous and angry, labor productivity decreases, which may cause problems at work. And often a person does not even suspect that all his problems are connected precisely with poor sleep.

insomnia

Insomnia is considered situational if it lasts no more than 2-3 weeks. Otherwise, it flows into a chronic one. People who suffer from this form of insomnia fall asleep late, wake up frequently, and wake up quite early. They feel tired throughout the day, which can lead to chronic overwork.

In addition, a person winds himself up, worrying that he will spend the next night without sleep. This further weakens the nervous system.

As a rule, insomnia is a consequence of a strong emotional shock in a person's life, for example,. But after overcoming this event, the dream returns to its normal state. However, there are running cases when insomnia is caused by other causes, and constant fear poor sleep only exacerbates the situation. In this case, you just need to seek help from a specialist.

Alcohol

Alcohol greatly shortens the phase of REM sleep, which is why the phases get confused, interfere and cannot normally complement each other. A person often wakes up in a dream. It stops after two weeks to stop drinking alcohol.

Apnea

Apnea - stop for short term airflow into the respiratory tract. During such a pause, snoring or twitching in a dream begins. In severe situations complicated by external factors, sleep apnea can even cause a stroke or heart attack, and sometimes death.

Slow sleep syndrome

When a person cannot sleep certain time, he develops a slow sleep period syndrome. Sleep patterns are disturbed required time to restore energy is not obtained by the body, performance decreases, the human condition worsens. Usually sleep comes to him either late at night or in the morning. There is no deep sleep at all. Often occurs on weekdays, weekends, or on vacation this problem disappears with sleep.

Premature Sleep Syndrome

The reverse syndrome of the above is the premature sleep period syndrome, but it is practically harmless to humans. It manifests itself only in the fact that a person falls asleep too quickly and wakes up too early, which is why he also spends the next night. There is no harm in this, and this condition is characteristic of the elderly, but it also occurs among adults.

Nightmares, night phobias and fears

Nightmares, which are dreamed in the process of sleep disturbance, usually disturb in the first hours. A person is awakened by his own cry or an obsessive feeling that someone is watching him. There is rapid breathing, the pupils are dilated, sometimes tachycardia is possible. A couple of minutes are enough for a person to calm down, and in the morning he does not even remember what he dreamed at night.. However, night phobias and fears - serious illness and needs appropriate treatment. These things don't go away on their own.

Treatment for insomnia

The norm of sleep is about seven to eight hours. If a person sleeps more or less than this time, then it's time to think about your own well-being. What to do at home? As soon as you start noticing that your sleep is restless and you start to get tired often, it is not recommended to immediately run to a nearby pharmacy for a pack of sleeping pills. For the best treatment, you should immediately, as soon as possible, consult a doctor in order to find out what exactly happened to you and how to treat it. In most cases, you may have the usual overwork or age-related changes in the body. If a neurologist diagnoses a sleep disorder, then you need to follow his recommendations.

For the treatment of sleep disorders, drugs and drugs of the benzodiazepine type are used: midazolam and triazolam. However, they themselves often cause drowsiness during the day. In such cases, doctors prescribe medium-acting tablets: zolpidem and imovan. In addition, such drugs do not cause addiction.

Sometimes sleep disturbance is caused by a lack of one or another vitamin. Therefore, in some cases, vitamin-containing drugs are prescribed.

Sleeping pills should only be taken on the advice of a doctor., since the abuse of this drug can also cause negative impact to a person's dream. In a sense, the state when you went through sleeping pills is similar to alcohol intoxication. And the symptoms that alcohol calls are described above.

Sleep is rightfully considered the most important part of human life - during a night's rest, our psycho-emotional and physical state is restored, and the brain processes and assimilates the information received during the day.

Insomnia (insomnia) recognized medical illness, but it is almost impossible to overcome it with the help of drugs - all sleeping pills are addictive.

Therefore, if you enter the query “poor sleep at night in an adult, what to do with folk remedies” into a search engine, you are on the right track - only alternative medicine will help to effectively cure insomnia.

Why does insomnia occur?

All sleep disorders are associated with deviations in the activity of the central nervous system, and therefore the lack of a proper night's rest can be caused by any problem that makes a person have to worry - material difficulties, personal conflicts, parting with a loved one, difficulties sexual in nature.

While stress is thought to be the main cause of restless sleep, there are other common sources of insomnia.

The main causes of poor sleep in adults

• mental and physical overwork;
• mental arousal;
• violations of the usual rhythm of life (change of time zone, night shifts, late preparation for exams);
• usage pharmaceuticals, which have a stimulating effect on the central nervous system;
• thyroid disease, dysfunction gastrointestinal tract, pathology respiratory system;
• neurological and cardiological diseases (osteochondrosis, high pressure, arrhythmia);
• mental disorders (depression, increased anxiety, sleepwalking);
• hormonal disorders during pregnancy;
• smoking and unhealthy lifestyle.

Manifestations of insomnia

Not to be missed early symptoms disease and start treatment on time, pay attention to the following signs (in the early stages they may appear periodically):

• complete or partial absence sleep;
• difficulty falling asleep or getting up too early;
• frequent nocturnal awakenings;
• insufficiently deep sleep;
• feeling unwell after sleep (fatigue, drowsiness).

Traditional medicine - the best remedy for bad sleep

Home remedies for insomnia are simple and varied – they can help restore peace of mind without much expense or hassle.

Benefits of using natural remedies:

1. They act more gently - they are not toxic and, unlike antidepressants, do not have an overwhelming effect on the nervous system.
2. They are not addictive - it is impossible to get addicted to them, like a drug, which usually occurs as a result of prolonged use of sleeping pills.
3. Have fewer side effects.
4. They have practically no contraindications - after a little consultation with a doctor, everyone can take them.
5. Folk remedies can be used in parallel with any other medicines- they reinforce and reinforce therapeutic effect.
6. Skillfully selected herbal collection treats not only insomnia, but also other related diseases.
7. Every woman knows that taking anti-anxiety medication during pregnancy is strongly discouraged - with insomnia, which is caused by hormonal changes, it is best to fight with the help of natural medicines.

Folk remedies for insomnia that everyone should know

1. Chamomile tea. This is the most famous and simple method of dealing with stress - it calms the nervous system and normalizes the digestive system. Tea is being brewed traditional way, but if desired, you can add honey, cinnamon and warm milk.
2. Milk with honey. In a glass of warm milk, you need to dissolve one spoonful of honey - this pleasant and mild-tasting drink is taken immediately before bedtime.
3. herbal pouch. From cotton or flannelette, you need to sew a small bag and fill it with a variety of medicinal herbs that improve the quality of sleep - oregano, valerian, lavender, St. John's wort, or other plants at hand that exude pleasant aroma(fresh hop cones are perfect for this purpose). The bag should be kept at the head or under the pillow, then the smell of meadow herbs will help you forget about all stresses and set your body up for deep sleep.
4. Baths with medicinal herbs. Any water procedures perfectly help to cope with insomnia, and at home, before going to bed, you can take relaxing baths - they add all kinds of medicinal decoctions. It is best to brew linden and valerian - the herbal solution is brought to a boil, cooled and strained, poured into the bath. The water temperature should not exceed 40 degrees, and the bath itself usually lasts no more than 30 minutes. Perform the procedure 2-3 hours before going to bed and always make sure that the water does not cover your chest in the heart area, otherwise blood circulation may, on the contrary, worsen.

The most effective remedies for insomnia

Many traditional healers and some doctors recommend using before going to bed a small amount of red wine, or even prepare a special homemade tincture of alcohol to take at night to relax and calm the nerves.

Indeed, sometimes the so-called healthy strong drinks (balms, special liquors and wines) in small doses help to fall asleep faster, but you will very soon realize that this is just an imaginary improvement.

Your poor sleep after alcohol will become even worse over time - consciousness will turn off only superficially, and the amount of alcohol will have to be constantly increased.

Fragmented light sleep and frequent nocturnal awakenings await you, which will eventually cause morning headaches, a state of general weakness and decreased performance. Poor health during the day will only exacerbate insomnia.

To get rid of insomnia and restore normal sleep, folk remedies alone, of course, will not be enough - so that your enjoyment of a night's rest is as maximum as possible, learn to follow some rules:

Every time you go to bed in the evening, try to forget about all your unresolved problems and think about something pleasant - do not rush to take strong drugs, a person is always stronger than circumstances.

Opt for traditional medicine - home remedies will not only improve your restless sleep, but also strengthen the immunity of the whole organism as a whole.

Follow the simplest recommendations - relax more, walk in the fresh air, use all the ways you can relax in the evening. A healthy night's sleep will be restored, and with it a good mood and a desire to enjoy life will return.

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lechenie-narodom.ru

Poor sleep: a comprehensive solution to the problem

Healthy sleep people call strong, peaceful, sweet. After such a dream, a person will wake up energetic, in good mood ready to move mountains.

Sound sleep speaks of a healthy body and the right lifestyle. Superficial sleep, and even interrupted by frequent waking up, signals, like a flashing light, that not everything is in order in the body and help is needed. Since you are reading this article, it means that you are worried about the question, "why can't I fall asleep and often wake up at night." Let's figure out what a bad dream tells us. What to do to restore fast falling asleep without frequent waking up.

Poor sleep can be caused different factors

Types of violation of night rest

Sleep disturbance is manifested by difficult falling asleep and frequent waking up, or, conversely, in drowsiness. Types of sleep disorders:

1. Insomnia is a sleep disorder characterized by difficulty falling asleep or waking up frequently.
2. Hypersomnia is increased sleepiness.
3. Parasomnia is a malfunction of the organs and systems associated with sleep.

The most common sleep disorder is insomnia. In everyday life, it is simply called insomnia. All types of sleep disorders require treatment after examination by polysomnography.

Causes of insomnia

With insomnia, the question often arises, "why do I often wake up at night." The most common cause of insomnia is a nocturnal lifestyle, in which a person works or plays at night, and then sleeps all day. The change of night into day is unnatural for a person. biological rhythms owls and predatory animals are adapted to night hunting and are conditioned by natural laws of survival and continuation of life. The functions of their organs are tuned to a nocturnal lifestyle - acute night vision. Human biological rhythms are genetically tuned for an active life during the day and rest at night. The human brain produces the sleep hormone melatonin at night. With insomnia, the hormone drops to a critical level, and thus, insomnia becomes chronic.

The main hormone of the pineal gland is melatonin.

The cause of insomnia can also be short-term or permanent states or disease.

The most common factors that lead to insomnia are:

• situational insomnia due to emotional overexcitation;
• mental or neurological diseases;
• chronic alcoholism;
• long-term use of sleeping pills and sedatives, as well as the syndrome of their withdrawal;
• somatic diseases - disorders in the functioning of organs and systems that lead to insomnia for various reasons.

Elderly people quite often complain to the doctor, "I wake up at night, prescribe a remedy for a good sleep." In old age, the violation of night rest is natural. Herbal medicines help older people to get rid of sensitive sleep. In the treatment of light sleep in the elderly, the use of a vasodilator (eg, vinpocetine) is also recommended.

What diseases disturb sleep?

If a person says, "I often wake up," then he should think about what caused a sensitive night's rest. The cause of frequent waking up and poor sleep are such somatic diseases:

• cardiopulmonary insufficiency;
• restless legs syndrome;
• obstructive syndrome sleep apnea in snoring people;

Sleep apnea disease

• enuresis (bedwetting).

At cardiopulmonary insufficiency the reason for a sensitive night's rest is oxygen starvation - hypoxia, which makes you take an elevated position of the body to facilitate breathing.

The problem of "often waking up at night" occurs with restless leg syndrome. Very often, varicose veins manifest themselves vascular insufficiency legs. In case of violation of blood circulation in the legs, in order to restore it, there is a reflex need to move the lower limbs. It is this unconscious desire that causes restless leg syndrome. If during the day a person moves his legs without noticing it, then at night involuntary movements make a person wake up often. Timely measures taken to treat the legs will help get rid of insomnia.

One of serious reasons sensitive night rest is obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) in snoring people. It is caused by dangerous cessation of breathing at night due to diseases of the nasopharynx. A person wakes up from suffocation due to the cessation or restriction of air flow through the nasopharynx. Somnologists and neurologists deal with the causes and treatment of sleep disturbances during snoring. If you are concerned about the problem of “often waking up at night”, you should contact these specialists. Snoring treatment will relieve you of insomnia.

Treatment with finished drugs

Ready-made remedies for insomnia in drops, tablets, capsules and solutions are very popular. To get rid of insomnia or light sleep, the following medications will help:

• Novo-Passit is a combination of herbs and guaifenesin. This remedy not only calms, but also relieves anxiety, as a result of which it will be easier to fall asleep. Novo-Passit is often used to treat insomnia.
• Phytosed has a calming effect and facilitates falling asleep.
• Corvalol, Valocordin drops also soothe, help get rid of anxiety, thus improving the quality of night rest.
• Motherwort Forte tablets contain not only the plant, but also magnesium with vitamin B6. This composition of the drug relieves irritability, will help get rid of the problem of difficult falling asleep. Treatment with motherwort is effective with a sensitive night's rest.
• Donormil tablets, accelerate falling asleep, increase the duration of sleep. Take them 15-30 minutes before going to bed for two weeks.
• Valocordin-doxylamine has proven itself as a light sleeping pill. Its use is indicated for situational sleep disturbance after nervous tension.
• Melatonin is a hormone-like drug. It, like a natural hormone, regulates sleep. Its use is recommended at the very beginning of the treatment of insomnia in order to start the correct rhythm of life - work during the day, rest at night. The drug is recommended to be taken together with drugs, preferably of plant origin.

Ready-made products for good sleep can be bought at any pharmacy without a prescription.

Herbal use for insomnia

Sedative herbs

For mild cases of sleep disturbance, herbal remedies are very effective. They can be prepared at home in the form of a decoction or infusion. Popular herbs used to treat insomnia include:

• valerian root;
• Melissa;
• motherwort;
• lavender and oregano;
• peppermint.

The pharmacy has ready-made collections of herbs for the treatment of insomnia. To prepare the infusion, you should brew 2 tbsp. l. dry collection with a glass of boiling water, put in a water bath for 15-30 minutes, then insist for 45 minutes. You need to take the remedy in filtered form 3 times a day. Take your last infusion 40 minutes before going to bed. Infusions help to deepen superficial and sensitive sleep.

The use of synthetic sleeping pills

In the treatment of insomnia, drugs of the benzodiazepine group are used. We give preference to such medicines:

• Triazolam and Midazolam are recommended for difficulty falling asleep. These sleeping pills are short acting.
• Relanium, Elenium and flurazepam have a longer duration of action. It is recommended to take them upon awakening in the early morning hours. However, they cause daytime sleepiness.
• sleeping pills medium duration actions: Imovan and Zolpidem. These drugs are addictive.

Sleeping pills

• Amitriptyline and doxemine belong to the group of antidepressants. They are prescribed by neurologists for depression.

The disadvantage of this group is that they are addictive. If the drug is discontinued after prolonged use, insomnia may develop.

As a result, we examined the most common causes of sleep disorders in people. We learned how to get rid of bad unproductive sleep with the help of herbs and ready-made pharmaceutical preparations. Remember, chronic insomnia needs to be treated, and for this you should contact a neurologist.

sonologia.ru

The Experience of Fighting Insomnia - what to do if there is no sleep

In this publication, I decided to collect and summarize all the material on the folk treatment of insomnia, which I published on my website. Well, I made some additions. Based on new information. The world does not stand still. People share their experiences, and this, in turn, helps everyone a lot.

Now briefly about what is insomnia and how it manifests itself

This is a condition in which a person cannot fall asleep at night, it is also possible that awakenings in the middle of the night are frequent. Sleep is shallow and does not bring any rest.

Insomnia is random

That is, some event provoked a temporary disruption of the rhythm of sleep. For example, an upcoming trip, or an important meeting. It happens that even a cup of coffee after three in the afternoon causes persistent insomnia at night. Tea works the same way for some people. I had such a case. Friends came, and I gave them a good drink green tea at 7 pm. The next day, they complained to me that at night they didn’t get sleep until two o’clock.

Particular attention is paid to chronic insomnia

A person can suffer for many years. And it doesn't have to be cured. Most often somehow adapts to sleep snatches. This is influenced by stress, constant experiences, and even nutrition. In addition to the lack of a clear sleep schedule, with chronic insomnia, the heart can act up, hands tremble. Nerves are on edge and don't rest properly.

Of course, constant lack of sleep negatively affects the daytime condition of such people. They are often irritated, tired, suffer from loss of attention and memory. Old people often have morning insomnia. They wake up at four in the morning and that's it! There is no sleep. If that's just the point, that's okay. The key is to get at least 6 hours of sleep. Then there is no reason to worry.

How to treat sleep disorder? First, I will give options for herbal preparations.

Gathering #1

3 table. spoons chamomile, 3 table. spoons of valerian roots, 2 table. spoons of motherwort grass, 1 table. a spoonful of hawthorn berries. per liter of water. Grind everything in a coffee grinder or through a meat grinder. Brew 4 tables. spoons of the mixture. It is best to insist in a thermos. Set for six hours, then decant and drink warm half a glass of infusion three times a day before meals. After draining, do not pour into a thermos. Warm up before use. Keep refrigerated.

Gathering #2

3 table. spoons of melissa flowers, 2 table. spoons of calendula flowers, 2 table. spoons of yarrow flowers, 1 table. a spoonful of oregano flowers. per liter of water. We also grind herbs, 3 table. pour spoons of the mixture with boiling water and simmer for 20 minutes on low gas. Next, we filter and cool. Take half a glass before each meal.

What juices to drink?

A mixture of carrot and grapefruit juice has a good effect on sleep

Take two carrots and one grapefruit. Squeeze juice out of them and drink a glass every night half an hour before bedtime. Eating should be stopped at least two hours before bedtime.

Celery, beetroot and cucumber

Take two celery roots, one beet and one cucumber. Squeeze juice and also drink a glass half an hour before bedtime.

Milk for insomnia

A glass of warm milk with 1 table is very conducive to a good full sleep. a spoonful of lime or flower honey. Also, you need to drink about half an hour before bedtime. The drink calms the nerves, relieves stress and tension.

Bath with herbal decoction

Pour boiling water over 2 table spoons of motherwort herb, 2 table. Spoons of peppermint, 2 table. spoons of chamomile flowers. Take 2 liters of boiling water. Pour and infuse for 6 hours in a dark place or covered with a lid. It is better to wrap in a fur coat or coat. Before going to bed, take a bath, pour the infusion into it. Lie down for twenty minutes and then go straight to bed. Course 10 baths. But you can do at least every evening. If only for the benefit!

Well helps with insomnia bath with the addition of essential oil frankincense, lavender, bergamot, lemon balm or ylang-ylang. Put 7 drops into the bath aromatic oil and lie down in it for twenty minutes before going to bed.

Massage

Massage the scalp as a rule. Stroking with fingers in the form of rakes is used, rubbing is also used in the same way. Movements during the massage should be measured, unsharp, soothing.

Hop cones

For insomnia, pour two teaspoons of ground hop cones into a glass of boiling water and leave in a thermos for four hours. Then strain and drink the entire infusion in one go. Drink before bed.

Dill seeds

Pour one teaspoon of dill seeds with a glass of boiling water and infuse for one hour in a thermos, then strain and drink the entire infusion at one time. I recommend adding another teaspoon of honey to it for taste and for calming it is also good. It is necessary to drink the infusion before going to bed.

Calming tea

Buy oregano, St. John's wort, valerian, mint, motherwort at the pharmacy. Pour two tablespoons of all herbs into a liter jar and brew with hot water. Brew just like tea. There, in a jar a little later, put three tablespoons of honey. But place the honey when the infusion is no longer hot. Otherwise, you will kill all the useful substances from honey. Before going to bed, drink the entire can within three hours before bedtime. And you will sleep soundly, deeply and without nightmarish experiences.

I believe that these herbs, together with honey, soften thoughts and consciousness. Make it calm and peaceful. Headaches and neurosis also pass. The course of drinking this infusion is fourteen evenings. I think that you will like it very much and you will not regret that you started drinking it. I wish you strong and restful dreams!

Let's also look at remedies for insomnia without the use of sleeping pills. You can fall asleep. And it is not necessary to drink chemical pills.

Take in a one-to-one ratio: cudweed marsh, heather, motherwort and valerian. Mix the herbs thoroughly and brew one tablespoon of the mixture in a glass of boiling water. Infuse the composition for about half an hour. then strain. A glass of infusion should be drunk four times. And for the evening it is desirable to leave the largest part. This infusion remarkably normalizes sleep and calms the nervous system.

Dandelion Root Drink

Dandelion roots are dug up in spring or autumn, dried, roasted until golden and ground in a coffee grinder. The powder is brewed like instant coffee.

Drink from cattail rhizomes

Dry rhizomes are broken and fried until brown in a dry frying pan. It is then ground in a coffee grinder and brewed like instant coffee.

Infusion of lettuce at night

1 tablespoon of finely chopped lettuce leaves is poured with a glass of boiling water and insisted until cool. Take 1 hour before bedtime for insomnia.

Treatment of sleep disorders, especially the falling asleep phase, due to increased nervous excitability

Collection infusion: take 1 part of valerian root, angelica root, peppermint leaves. Drink 100 ml 3 times a day.

Collection infusion: take 2 parts of herb motherwort five-lobed and 1 part of peppermint leaves, valerian root, common hop cones. Drink 100 ml 3 times a day.

Sleep disturbance with nervous excitement and palpitations

Collection infusion: take 1 part of valerian root, five-lobed motherwort herb, common cumin fruit, common fennel fruit. Drink 100 ml 3 times a day 30 minutes before meals. The last dose is 1 hour before bedtime.

Sleep disorder associated with headaches

Collection infusion: take 2 parts of the fireweed herb angustifolia and blood-red hawthorn fruits, 1 part of peppermint leaves and motherwort leaves. Drink 100 ml 3 times a day, the last dose - 30 minutes before a night's sleep.

Infusions are prepared as follows: 1 tbsp. collection spoon for 200 ml of boiling water, leave for 15-20 minutes on the stove (do not boil), then strain.

Herbal pillow

Even kings suffered from insomnia. For example, King George III of England often could not sleep at night. He took a special pillow that was stuffed with medicinal herbs.

I will now declassify the composition of such a pillow. We will fight the tormenting misfortune with soporific herbs. These are hawthorn, valerian, needles, mint, rosehip or rose petals, blackcurrant and cherry leaves. I also advise adding yellow and white sweet clover to the pillow against insomnia. This plant, among other things, also helps with headaches. Wake up refreshed and well-rested in the morning.

Honey treatment

* 1 tbsp. a spoonful of honey and 30 g of lard mix well and dissolve in a glass of hot cow's (and even better goat's) milk. Take orally 2-3 times a day for insomnia.

* From insomnia, it is recommended to drink a glass of honey water before going to bed (1 tablespoon of honey per 1 cup of boiling water) and apply fresh gruel on the forehead from finely chopped fresh or pickled cucumbers, rye or wheat bread, sour milk and clay. Drink honey water in a warm form, and keep the gruel on your forehead for 15-20 minutes.

* With insomnia (a faithful companion of hypertension) or restless, disturbing dream take a glass of pumpkin broth with honey at night. To do this, cut 200 g of pumpkin into pieces, cook over low heat until soft, put on a sieve and cool, then add honey.

* In case of insomnia, grate horseradish and apply to the calves with a compress for 15-20 minutes before going to bed, at the same time drink a brine of pickles with honey: 1 tbsp. a spoonful of honey in a glass of brine.

History of insomnia treatment

My sister began to get sick often, and mountains of medicines appeared in the house. But, apparently, they did not help much, because there were more and more of them. All diseases are from the nerves. Nervous system, especially in women, becomes more vulnerable over the years.

Women generally tend to create problems from scratch. Then they themselves suffer because of it. My sister had insomnia three years ago. As a result - headaches, pressure jumps. All this, of course, alerted me, and I decided to find out the reason.

I didn't succeed right away, but then it became just ridiculous. I don’t want to go into the details of her family life, I can only say that ridiculous thoughts were constantly spinning in her head about her relationship with her husband.

Women! You can not be silent for years if something is bothering you! This leads to insomnia, migraine, hypertension, and neuralgia and other diseases. And besides, it does not improve relations with loved ones at all. It is harmful to keep in oneself, accumulating year after year, negative emotions: sooner or later they will manifest themselves on the physical plane.

In general, they were able to deal with misunderstandings, but health problems still remained. I started looking for recipes for insomnia with herbs, natural remedies but it was too late: my sister was thoroughly accustomed to sleeping pills. Yes, and they already acted ineffectively: sleep came for 3-4 hours, and the doses of sleeping pills had to be increased all the time.

The doctor then prescribed a stronger drug. What's next, drugs?

I began to read serious literature on medicine and learned a lot of interesting things. It turns out that if a doctor gives a patient the most common syrup or, for example, a lollipop and says that this strong medicine from his illness, the patient often recovers.

I bought multivitamins at the pharmacy (bright ones, of different colors) and poured them into an empty bottle with a foreign inscription. I gave it to my sister and said that sleeping pills had not yet been invented stronger than this, that a friend of his had brought me from America. Like, the blue pill must be taken in the morning, the red one in the afternoon, and the yellow one in the evening. I believed!

When the vitamins ran out, I began to sleep like a log, and the pressure returned to normal, and the neuralgia disappeared. My husband, of course, tried all this time to be more attentive, more responsive, and is still trying. After all, this is a person who is very dear to him! But the fact remains: the treatment of any disease should begin with the head. As they say, according to thoughts and illness.

Women's life much more contains tests, stresses and troubles. Insomnia is especially severe. Only a woman can understand when these obsessive thoughts come into her head and not fall asleep. They press until the morning, cut the soul into pieces. What's the dream?

All these drugs are not helping. They just give me a headache. In the morning feeling of weakness and emptiness after them.

Video about the experience of dealing with insomnia:

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Why can an adult have bad sleep at night? What to do in this case?

Do you know how important good rest is for the body? Sleep prepares a person for next day. It fills the body with strength and energy, allows you to concentrate perfectly and think clearly. A well-sleep person feels fit all day. And of course, completely opposite sensations are caused by poor sleep at night in an adult. What to do in such a situation? How to restore the normal rhythm of life?

Common Causes

One can argue for a long time about what can interfere with normal rest and why an adult has poor sleep at night, since there are many reasons for this phenomenon.

Most often, the following points violate a good rest:

1. Insomnia. A long process of falling asleep, constant night awakenings provide a feeling of fatigue and weakness in the morning. Almost everyone experiences episodic insomnia. A chronic similar condition is diagnosed in 15% of the population.
2. Snore. By itself, it does not disturb the rest of a sleeping person. But snoring can lead to sleep apnea. This is a condition in which a person stops breathing. This syndrome is a serious complication that adversely affects the quality of sleep. In addition, it several times increases the risk of stroke and cardiovascular pathologies.
3. Central sleep apnea syndrome. Patients with this diagnosis suffer from impaired functioning of the respiratory center, localized in the brain. As a result of this pathology, respiratory arrest leads to acute oxygen starvation, from which all organs suffer.
4. Restless legs syndrome. This is a neurological disorder in which a person in a calm state experiences discomfort in the lower extremities. Unpleasant sensations pass after small movements of the legs.
5. Circadian disorders. The basis of disturbed sleep is non-compliance with the rest-wake regime. Similar conditions occur in people who often work at night. Changing the time zone also causes the internal clock in the body to malfunction.
6. Narcolepsy. In this case, the patient can fall asleep at any time. Patients note the following symptoms. Suddenly there is a sharp weakness. Hallucinations may occur. They can be observed both during falling asleep and at the moment of awakening. Then comes sleep paralysis.
7. Bruxism. This is a condition in which the jaws clench involuntarily. Such a person begins to grind his teeth in a dream. After such a rest, the patient complains of feeling unwell. He has a headache, muscles, teeth, temporomandibular joint.

What else adversely affects sleep?

The above reasons are far from the only ones that adversely affect the quality of rest. Considering why an adult has poor sleep at night, one should dwell on several more factors that provide a feeling of fatigue and weakness in the morning.

Inadequate night rest can be dictated by the following reasons:

1. Misunderstanding. Unfortunately, not all adults understand how important sleep is for the body. They use the time allotted for rest for any other business: finish work, watch a movie, play on the computer. Morning fatigue is perceived by such people as a normal state. As a result, they concentrate worse on their duties, wake up hard, become irritable, and feel lethargic.
2. Working schedule. Many people are simply loaded with responsibilities. Often, work takes a lot of free time. Some linger in the walls of the office until night, others rush there even on weekends. Of course, they have practically no time to fully relax and unwind.
3. It is a tense timetable. Modern man is constantly striving to do everything. People go to work, visit fitness rooms, participate in various activities. In addition, there are household duties: picking up children from the garden, caring for elderly parents, cultivating a garden. The to-do list can get huge. Obviously, the desire to be in time for everything leads to a significant shift in the time when you can go to bed.
4. Life changes. Any changes that occur to a person can affect the quality of sleep. Good news provides an excited state in which it is quite difficult to fully relax. Negative changes lead to suffering, against which depression can develop. In this case, the pathology can manifest itself imperceptibly and gradually. In such cases, a person is not even always aware of his condition.
5. Bad habits. Poor sleep can be dictated by smoking, alcohol, caffeine. Adversely affects the quality of rest, for example, the habit of having a heavy dinner right before bedtime.

Medical reasons

Some diseases can provoke poor sleep at night in an adult. Treatment of major ailments will greatly improve the clinic. Sometimes pathologies that affect the quality of rest are temporary:

• stretching of the tendons;
• flu;
• recent surgery.

But the basis of poor sleep can also be diseases that accompany the patient all his life:

• asthma and other respiratory ailments;
• epilepsy;
• arthritis;
• heart disease.

Inadequate rest may be dictated by taking medication prescribed by a doctor. Some medications cause irritability and adversely affect sleep. Others can cause drowsiness.

What to do?

So, there is a picture: poor sleep at night in an adult. What to do in such a situation? After all, inadequate rest in the future can lead to a number of serious pathologies.

Let's start small. Analyze the room in which you sleep. Perhaps the quality of sleep is affected by external stimuli.

To do this, answer the following questions as honestly as possible:

1. Is the room well ventilated before going to bed?
2. Is the soundproofing in the room sufficient?
3. Street light does not penetrate into the bedroom?
4. When last time did you change the bed?
5. How comfortable is your pillow?

If you find any of these problems, try to fix them. If, after getting rid of irritants, your sleep returned to normal, it means that these reasons adversely affected your rest.

For the future, remember that you are highly sensitive. For a good and quality holiday, you need a calm and quiet environment.

Effects of caffeine and alcohol

It was indicated above what can cause poor sleep at night in an adult. The causes of inadequate rest are often hidden in excessive consumption of caffeine or alcohol. Analyze how many cups of coffee you drink per day. Or maybe in the evening you like to sit in front of the TV with a glass of beer?

Each organism reacts to these drinks in its own way. It cannot be ruled out that it is for you that the drunk dose becomes excessive, providing poor sleep.

To understand for sure whether this is the reason, try to give up such drinks. Watch your condition.

Schedule

From the school bench, a person is taught to observe the daily routine. Thanks to their parents, most students actually go to bed at the same time. But at an older age, people, as a rule, rarely adhere to the regimen. Going to bed well after midnight, they themselves reduce the duration of rest, and it is not surprising that they have poor sleep at night in this case.

In an adult, as you know, a night's rest should last 7-8 hours. Only in this case the body is able to have a good rest and ensure normal functioning.

Doctors say that sleep disturbance provokes an increase in the level of cortisol (this is the hormone of death). As a result, a variety of diseases can develop. Therefore, you need to start with observing the regime of the day, in which at least 7 hours are allotted for night rest.

Analyze medications

For therapeutic purposes, people are prescribed various medicines. Carefully study the annotation of these drugs. pay attention to side effects, since some medications can provoke poor sleep at night in an adult.

What to do if the drugs prescribed by the doctor are the basis of the disturbed rest? Of course, see a doctor. The specialist will select new medications that will not cause such negative reactions.

Physical exercises

If an adult has poor sleep at night, what should be done during the day to get rid of the problem? First of all, provide the body with normal activity. Sports activities are great for strengthening and developing endurance. In addition, they perfectly improve the quality of rest. The body, sufficiently saturated with oxygen, falls asleep easier and better.

However, do not forget to choose the right time for training. Physical activity should stop completely at least 2 hours before bedtime. Sport provides more than just oxygenation. It stimulates the production of adrenaline. And this substance is a bad sleeping pill.

Walking before bed is very helpful. They will greatly improve its quality. Walk down the street or take a walk in the park. 30 minutes is enough to ensure a good rest.

In addition, it is recommended to exercise muscle relaxation. It can also be done in bed. The procedure consists in alternating tension-relaxation of the muscles. For example: tighten the leg muscles for 5 seconds. Then completely relax them. Do an exercise for the abdominal muscles.

Proper nutrition

Very often the question arises: if an adult has poor sleep at night, what should he take to improve the quality of rest?

Initially, you should pay attention to the diet and diet. Eating right before bed is often the cause of a restless rest. The body cannot enter the sleep stage until the stomach is digesting food. In addition, at this time, energy is generated that does not contribute to rest at all. Given this, eating should be finished 3 hours before lights out.

Foods rich in magnesium can significantly improve the quality of sleep. The lack of this microelement leads to violations of the process of falling asleep. Therefore, be sure to include foods rich in magnesium in your diet, such as pumpkin seeds and spinach.

Water procedures

SPA-procedures will allow to overcome a bad night's sleep in an adult. The body needs to relax. Therefore, before going to bed, take a hot bath or shower. Such a simple procedure will relieve you of stress and cause drowsiness.

Folk remedies

If there is poor sleep at night in an adult, folk remedies can also significantly improve rest and help you fall asleep quickly:

1. Stuff your pillow with herbs. It is recommended to use rose petals, mint leaves, laurel, hazel, oregano, geranium, fern, pine needles. All of these ingredients help you fall asleep quickly.
2. Drink warm water (1 tablespoon) with honey (1 tablespoon) before going to bed. The best effect will provide warm milk with cinnamon and honey. This tool allows you to fall asleep even after strong excitement.
3. Useful tincture of hop cones. It provides a relaxing and analgesic effect. To prepare the product, you need to grind 2 tbsp. l. cones. Fill raw materials with boiling water - 0.5 l. The composition should be infused for 1 hour. Be sure to strain it and take ¼ cup 20 minutes before meals. It is recommended to use the infusion three times a day.

Medications

Sometimes the recommendations described above do not provide the desired result. Such people should definitely consult a doctor. Since in this case they will help normalize poor sleep at night with an adult medication. But remember that only a specialist should prescribe such drugs.

The following sleeping pills are popular:

• "Melaxen";
• "Donormil";
• "Zopiklon";
• "Melatonin";
• "Dimedrol";
• "Imovan";
• "Somnol";
• "Ivadal";
• "Andante";
• "Sondox".

These drugs can quickly and effectively restore sleep. They reduce the number of night awakenings. Provide excellent health in the morning, after waking up.

But remember that only a specialist can choose the right medicine and its dosage if there is poor sleep at night in an adult. The tablets above, like any medication, have contraindications and can provoke quite unpleasant side effects. Therefore, entrust your health and sleep to professionals.