Lack of sleep can pose a huge health risk and be depressing. Most important body functions like bolstering the immune system or storing information on the long-term memory occur while sleeping. Sleepless nights deter the natural flow of these processes, leading to problems like heart diseases.
Lack of sleep is mainly caused by insomnia, sleep disorders, or medications. There are different ways to achieve quality sleep. Quality sleep is achieved for at least 7 hours of uninterrupted rest. This article will explore the various causes of insomnia and ways to achieve quality sleep.
Causes of Sleeplessness
Insomnia is the number one cause of sleeplessness. It is described as s sleep disorder in which you have trouble falling or staying asleep. Insomnia can be acute, short-term, chronic, long term. There are two types of insomnia; primary and secondary insomnia. Primary insomnia is where the sleep problems are not a result of any health condition. Secondary insomnia is when one fails to fall asleep because of an underlying health condition or substance use. You might also experience insomnia in phases like sleep-onset insomnia, which is having trouble falling asleep; sleep-maintenance insomnia which is having trouble staying asleep; paradoxical insomnia is when you underestimate the time you are asleep, feeling like you have slept a lot when you haven’t. Finally, mixed insomnia involves both having trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. Insomnia can be caused by depression, nicotine, caffeine, stress, pain, or medications.
Other common sleep disorders are sleep apnea, where breathing is interrupted while sleeping, causing you to wake up suddenly, narcolepsy, which is excessive daytime sleepiness that cannot be controlled. Excessive day sleepiness can affect your night sleep. It can be dangerous because of sudden attacks of sleep, REM sleep behavior disorder, or RBD. RBD involves acting out your dream because you may lack the paralysis felt during the REM stage of sleep. Finally, restless legs syndrome is a condition where the legs move because of an unpleasant sensation and can make it difficult to fall or stay asleep. RLS can occur at any age, and it gets worse as you advance in age.
How To Get Better Sleep
Getting better sleep should not be hard; you can get the quality sleep you deserve with at least 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep with a few hacks. You can start by setting a sleeping routine where you go to bed at the same time every day. You can adjust for the weekends to not more than an hour. This will train the brain on when to release melatonin, a light-dark hormone that dictates that it’s time for sleep, and it is secreted highest at night. You can also make your bedroom more sleep-friendly by eliminating screens like TVs and phones. Light from these screens can interfere with the secretion of melatonin.
Avoid going to bed on an empty stomach and a full stomach, as this will create discomfort that will make it hard to get sleep. For better sleep, eat at least an hour before bedtime. Avoid nicotine and caffeine around bedtime because they are hard to wear down, thus impairing sleep. You can equally reduce daytime naps. The more you sleep during the day the hard it becomes to sleep at night.
You can achieve quality sleep by using either sleeping pills or sleeping supplements like melatonin or CBD for sleep. The seductive nature of sleeping pills makes them addictive. This can make it hard to sleep without them because of dependency. Melatonin supplements are prescribed for a short period, like 3 days a week or sometimes for even 10 weeks. For more information about waking up and sleep patterns, Kölling et al. (2016) will be much helpful. Furthermore, melatonin supplements are only limited to older people. Also, Babson et al. (2017). promoted a supplement that could help with sleep, CBD supplements. CBD for sleep is another supplement you can use to aid your sleep. CBD comes in different forms like CBD oil, gummies, vapes, sprays, and capsules. You can also find CBD and melatonin-infused products. You should consult your doctor before using any sleeping pills or supplements.
How Long Should you Sleep and Why
Quality sleep is measured by the period of uninterrupted sleep. For an adult, quality sleep is at least 7 hours, and for kids and teenagers, at least 10 hours. It would be best to have all these hours because sleep happens in various stages and cycles. The common stages are NREM and REM. The NREM stage comprises the N1, N2, and N3 stages. The N1 is the dosing stage. You can be easily woken up, but body functions are slowing down. In the N2 stage, the body temperature drops, and muscles relax with a slow heartbeat rate. The brain activities equally slow down with short-term activities. N3 is the deep sleep stage, and key body functions like energy recovery occur.
The REM stage is the final stage of sleeping or the dreaming stage. Your eyes can be seen moving, thus the name of this sleep stage. The REM stage is important to memory, learning, and creativity. If you don’t achieve the REM stage, you will likely forget what you learned the previous day. Because this is when information learned is stored in long-term memory. If you don’t achieve this stage of sleep, you are more likely to wake up tired or feel groggy.
Conclusion
Too many sleepless nights can lead to health problems or even accidents and injury due to fatigue. Have enough sleep to achieve the different sleeping stages. This is important because different body functions take place at different stages. Dealing with lack of sleep is simple since you can train yourself to go to bed at the same time every day, remove screens from the bedroom, and avoid caffeine and nicotine. Furthermore, you can aid sleep with sleeping pills or natural sleep supplements but always consult a professional doctor before using these sleep aids.
References
Babson, K. A., Sottile, J., & Morabito, D. (2017). Cannabis, Cannabinoids, And Sleep: A Review Of The Literature. Current Psychiatry Reports, 19(4), 1-12.
Kölling, S., Steinacker, J. M., Endler, S., Ferrauti,
A., Meyer, T., & Kellmann, M. (2016). The Longer The Better: Sleep–Wake
Patterns During Preparation Of The World Rowing Junior Championships. Chronobiology
International, 33(1), 73-84.
I believe that nutrition science is a wonderful helper both for the preventive improvement of health and adjunctive therapy in treatment. My goal is to help people improve their health and well-being without torturing themselves with unnecessary dietary restrictions. I am a supporter of a healthy lifestyle – I play sports, cycle, and swim in the lake all year round. With my work, I have been featured in Vice, Country Living, Harrods magazine, Daily Telegraph, Grazia, Women's Health, and other media outlets.
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