Short tips on sleep health

The first is whether the schedule is fixed for a long time, and the second is whether the sleepiness can be completely eliminated within 10 minutes after waking up, and the drowsiness will not be frequent throughout the day.

I was chatting with a friend who is a doctor in the sleep department of a tertiary hospital, and he said that he has seen too many young people who said that they were "chronically sleep deprived" when they first came in. After careful questioning, I found out that they either stayed up until 3 o'clock the day before and started to wake up at 10 o'clock the next day, and then turned around and wondered, "Why am I still tired after sleeping for 7 hours?"; To put it bluntly, the biological clock has been shaken so much that it doesn't matter even if you sleep for a long enough time. I have a friend who is a content operator. He sleeps at 12 o'clock and starts at 6 o'clock all year round, and only sleeps for 6 hours. After three years of physical examination, all the tests are normal. Even the mild fatty liver disease before has disappeared, and his energy level is much better than that of his colleagues who have erratic work schedules.

As for the argument that "not sleeping at 11 o'clock is chronic suicide" that is making a lot of noise on the Internet, the evidence on both sides is actually valid - in the Meridian Flow Theory of traditional Chinese medicine, 23 o'clock to 3 o'clock in the morning is the time for liver and gallbladder qi and blood to be repaired. It is indeed recommended to be in a deep sleep state, which is better for body maintenance; but modern sleep medicine tracking research also shows that if you maintain it all year round A fixed circadian rhythm, such as a nurse who works night shifts for a long time, goes to bed at 4 a.m. and wakes up at 12 noon. As long as the sleep cycle is complete and rarely wakes up in the middle, there will be no problems such as "irreversible liver damage" and "premature aging" reported online. What really hurts the body is "frequent circadian rhythm jumps." Going to bed at 10 a.m. today and going to bed at 3 a.m. the next day, and catching up on sleep until the afternoon on weekends, is the most energy-consuming practice.

Having said this, I would like to give you a tip that I personally tested and found to be useful. If you have been lying in bed tossing and turning for 20 minutes and still haven’t fallen asleep, don’t just lie down and count sheep. The more you count, the clearer your mind will be. Get up and sit in the living room for 5 minutes, drink two sips of warm evaporated milk or evaporated honey water, and flip through two pages of professional textbooks from school. You will definitely feel sleepy after reading two pages. Don’t touch your mobile phone. Once the blue light shines on you, you will have to stay alert for another two hours. Also, don’t jump up immediately when you wake up. First lie down for 30 seconds, then sit up and lean for 30 seconds before getting out of bed. Otherwise, you will easily get dizzy. Especially middle-aged and elderly people must pay more attention.

Don’t believe the nonsense about drinking alcohol to help you sleep. I used to have a sales friend who had insomnia and drank two glasses of white wine. He did fall asleep after lying down for ten minutes, but he woke up at exactly 2 o’clock in the middle of the night. Also, don’t hoard melatonin. It’s only suitable for people who are jet-lagged or over 60 years old and don’t secrete enough melatonin. Young people who eat too much will inhibit their own melatonin secretion. If you don’t eat it, you won’t be able to sleep anymore. This is simply putting the cart before the horse.

To be honest, there is really no need to be so anxious about sleep. Don’t always focus on the 8-hour standard, and don’t be frightened by various “sleep taboos” on the Internet. As long as you have a fixed schedule and feel comfortable when you wake up, then you have a good sleep. If it really lasts for more than half a month, even if you sleep for 8 hours, you are still tired, and you may even keep your eyes open until dawn at night. Don't frighten yourself by searching for popular science. Go directly to a regular hospital to see a sleep department, which is much more effective than taking random health supplements.