How to effectively deal with insomnia?

After 40, we start to sleep shorter and shorter and shorter, which is why sleep is not so regenerating and does not always provide intellectual refreshment. It is an aging effect of the central nervous system and the processes that take place in the brain with age. Find out when to see a specialist and what simple tricks you can use to improve your sleep quality.

Sleep quality changes with age

Generally, the recommended duration of sleep is about 8 hours, but this is an individual matter. Moreover, after sixty people rarely manages to sleep seven hours without waking up. The nature of our sleep changes: night owls start to lie down earlier and rarely sleep until noon, many people start to take naps during the day – including those who did not need it before.

– It happens as a result of hormonal changes, as well as changes in the central nervous system related to the aging of our brain – explains psychologist Magdalena Komsta, therapist of insomnia in the cognitive-behavioral trend.

With age, we also need more time to fall asleep: young adults usually fall asleep quite quickly, a maximum of 30 minutes from the moment the lights are turned off, while in people over 60 years of age the norm is 45 minutes. This is important information because many elderly people worry when they fall asleep for a long time. Meanwhile, the older we get, the more time we usually need to calm down.

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It is not without significance that over time there will also be health problems that affect our sleep.

– We are talking not only about chronic diseases, such as hypertension, but also about increased frequency of urination. If we have to do it two or more times a night, and this happens very often both in women due to childbirth and in men due to prostate enlargement, the risk of difficulty sleeping increases because we have to fall asleep more times. – explains the expert.

Sleepless nights and aging

With age, insomnia is an increasingly common problem. The short-term one is most often associated with some emotional event, illness or sudden pain. It passes when we calm our emotions, get used to the new situation, and heal ourselves.

It is much more difficult with chronic insomnia – we are talking about it when sleep disorders repeat for at least three nights a week and it lasts longer than a month. This situation requires diagnosis and treatment.

Insomnia is often accompanied by sleep disturbances, e.g. difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, waking up at night, waking up too early in the morning (e.g. at 3.00:XNUMX am). Such a dream is of poor quality, it does not give rest.

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– Most often people suffering from insomnia complain of several such disorders at the same time, and as a result have the impression that they have not slept all night. This is because, although they are asleep, their sleep is shallow, micro-awakenings occur, and the level of neurotransmitters in the brain, i.e. substances that regulate sleep, is disturbed and makes such a person feel as if they were awake all night – explains the psychologist.

An additional problem with insomnia is worrying about it.

– The life of a person with chronic insomnia begins to revolve around the fact that he cannot sleep, he still thinks about how he will sleep today, how bad he feels after having slept poorly, how it can harm him, affect other diseases. Thoughts and behaviors related to sleep and insomnia take a disproportionate amount of her time, and thus sleep difficulties cause suffering or interfere with normal functioning. The problem with insomnia is that it is a vicious cycle that is often difficult to get out of without specialist help, says the therapist.

Physical fatigue after such a poor night’s sleep often leads to a person starting to save money: spending more time in bed, taking naps during the day – which causes less sleep at night and only exacerbates the problems. Over time, insomnia causes mental exhaustion.

Insomnia occurs on average in 10 percent. people over 60, and even about 40 percent. of them experience chronic insomnia.

The cause of insomnia is not always just emotions

Before we start treating sleeplessness, it is necessary to find out what is the cause of it. It is common to blame emotions, but disease is often at the root of the problem. Insomnia is often associated with somatic diseases, incl. with hypertension, thyroid diseases, allergies, neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s disease. In this case, you need to treat both diseases at the same time, because effective treatment of the underlying disease is not enough.

– The point is that although the primary factor, such as the pain that caused insomnia, has been eliminated, so much has already changed in the behavior of this person – she has started to lead a frugal lifestyle, falls asleep during the day, worries – that the insomnia does not go away. This is why both diseases should be treated. It is also worth determining if there are no other sleep disorders at the same time, i.e. disturbances in sleep rhythm, switching between night and day – because then the therapeutic procedure is different than in the case of insomnia itself – says the therapist.

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It is also worth paying attention to loud snoring and the occurrence of sleep apnea – this is a very dangerous disorder whose effects are similar to those of insomnia: fatigue is caused by poor sleep quality and hypoxia. It also has serious consequences, including a stroke, so you need to see a doctor, including sleep apnea.

Another cause of sleep problems is excessive leg movement while falling asleep and at night. Older adults often suffer from anemia due to iron deficiency, one of the symptoms being the so-called restless legs syndrome, which makes it difficult to fall asleep. The treatment is then aimed at increasing the level of iron in the blood.

Insomnia often coexists with mental illnesses, e.g. depression, anxiety disorders, but also drug and alcohol addiction, and may be a side effect of taking certain medications.

Alcohol is wrongly considered a remedy for insomnia. Although it makes it easier to fall asleep, it also makes sleep shallower and wakes you up at night.

– It is absolutely not recommended to use alcohol as a remedy for insomnia, also because it can be addictive – says the therapist.

How to Treat Insomnia?

The method of first choice is behavioral-cognitive therapy, but not everyone can be offered it – people with dementia or intellectual disability are unlikely to be able to cope with this form of therapy. In such a situation, caregivers receive guidelines and recommendations on what to do, e.g. to increase the person’s activity during the day or reduce the number of naps.

You can also try other methods. Phototherapy gives good results, i.e. taking care of the right amount of light during the day and reducing the light in the evening. In patients, it is worth paying particular attention to sleep hygiene – incl. transferring activity from bed or airing the bedroom before bedtime.

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The second option to fight insomnia is pharmacotherapy, but only strictly according to the doctor’s instructions – some hypnotics, e.g. benzodiazepine derivatives, are quite addictive quite quickly and can be used continuously for up to four weeks. Moreover, some drugs increase the risk of memory disorders, significantly reduce physical performance, and cause imbalance. Therefore, in the event of insomnia of an elderly person, caregivers should pay attention to what and in what doses their patients take.

One way to fight insomnia is to use medications containing melatonin to help you set the right rhythm of the day. However, it is worth knowing that it is effective in people over 55 – so it makes no sense for younger people to take it. There is also no evidence that herbs (e.g. lemon balm) in the form of sleeping teas or dietary supplements (valerian) have an effect on sleep, so there is no special point in using them.

How to get a good night’s sleep?

A place to sleep must be comfortable: it should be quiet, cool and dark in it.

  1. Do not turn on the TV or radio to sleep. 
  2. There should be a maximum of 20 degrees Celsius in the bedroom. 
  3. Do not leave the lamp on at night.

– Our body has been programmed to sleep in complete darkness. The fact that our eyes are closed during sleep does not change much, because the receptors are able to detect the difference in light even with our eyes closed. This is of great importance for the quality of our sleep, but also for the glucose and insulin management, which is particularly important information for people with insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, overweight or obesity, says Komsta.

So instead of a lit bedside lamp, think about other solutions:

  1. Use blindfolds, 
  2. Install motion sensors that turn on the light when getting out of bed,
  3. Put a flashlight on the bedside table. 

– Sleeping in complete darkness has a huge impact on the quality of sleep and regeneration, has an antioxidant effect, i.e. helps in the fight against aging. It is worth knowing that melatonin is released only when we have a completely shaded room at night – explains the therapist.

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The bedroom is only for sleeping.

  1. Don’t work in bed
  2. Don’t eat your meals in bed
  3. Don’t have difficult conversations in bed
  4. If we have no choice, then let’s not do it lying down, because then our body receives contradictory information. 

– If we cannot afford it, because, for example, we have only one room that serves us as a living room, office and bedroom at the same time, let’s make sure that the brain receives appropriate signals, e.g. make the bed for the day, cover and reveal the curtains – let the bed associate we only deal with relaxation and rest – the psychologist advises.

Take care of as much light as possible during the day:

  1. Open the curtains 
  2. Use the balcony or terrace,
  3. If it’s too dark in your house, turn on the light 
  4. Use phototherapy lamps, especially in the fall and winter months.

– Light is of great importance for the functioning of our endocrine system. Even if it is cloudy, our body produces the right amount of a hormone called serotonin – the happiness hormone that regulates our mood, and in the evening it turns into melatonin, which allows us to fall asleep. So let’s not stay in a room with closed windows all day – explains the therapist.

Get ready to go to sleep

  1. Take care of physical activity during the day.
  2. Don’t overeat in the evening.
  3. Take care to regulate the times of day and night.
  4. Take care of lighting during the day, and provide adequate darkening in the evening.
  5. Do not use electronic screens just before bedtime.
  6. Cover the windows at night, complete darkness allows you to fall asleep without any problems and not wake up at dawn with the sunrise. 
  7. Take care of a calm mind
  8. Don’t schedule serious conversations late in the evening
  9. Organize your thoughts before going to bed, e.g. write down tasks for the next day, this will free your mind from thinking about it
  10. Use relaxation techniques – they allow you to calm down and relax, reduce mental tension, stress levels, and make it easier to fall asleep.
  11. If you cannot fall asleep, do not try to fall asleep by force – get out of bed and do something, do not make yourself stressed by the fact that you cannot fall asleep
  12. If you can’t cope with sleep, don’t hesitate to see a specialist.

Monika Wysocka, pap.pl

Also read:

  1. What does it mean to rest?
  2. A good athlete needs to sleep a lot
  3. What are the phases of sleep?

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