Regular and adequate sleep is very important for healthy living. A quality sleep; it helps to maintain mental health, physical health and quality of life. How do sleep disorders affect psychology? Psychologists gave important information on the subject and made 12 tips for healthy sleep.
What is insomnia?
Insomnia means you regularly have problems sleeping. It usually gets better by changing your sleeping habits.
Check if you have insomnia:
You have insomnia if you regularly:
- find it hard to go to sleep
- wake up several times during the night
- lie awake at night
- wake up early and cannot go back to sleep
- still feel tired after waking up
- find it hard to nap during the day even though you’re tired
- feel tired and irritable during the day
- find it difficult to concentrate during the day because you’re tired
If you have insomnia for a short time (less than 3 months) it’s called short-term insomnia. Insomnia that lasts 3 months or longer is called long-term insomnia.
Health problems also disrupt the order and quality of sleep from time to time, or deterioration of sleep patterns can have negative effects on health and daily life. Inadequate or poor quality sleep can cause motivation and concentration difficulties, rapid anger, loss of tolerance, fatigue and feeling exhausted, mental and physical breakdown.
So how do sleep disorders affect psychology?
Psychologists gave important information on the subject and made 12 recommendations for healthy sleep.
The need for daily sleep varies from person to person. It can be said that a third of the average human lifespan is spent in sleep, which is a significant amount of time. For adults, 7-9 hours of sleep is enough, while in the first years of life the need for sleep is about 12-18 hours. The need for sleep is 12-14 hours in children between 12-35 months, 11-13 hours for preschoolers and 6-year-olds, 10-11 hours for primary school children, 7-8 hours for adolescents and 6-7 hours for adults.
In the first years of life, most of the time is spent asleep. As you get older, the need for sleep decreases. Sleep duration can be reduced to 6.5 hours, as it tends to decrease with age after the age of 45. The time to fall asleep also increases with aging.
Understaffed child can be vicious or restless
Stressing that lack of adequate sleep and rest can lead to some physical and mental problems and impair a person’s quality of life, the experts said, “The person starts the day tired, there is deterioration in attention and concentration and decreased productivity. Deterioration in sleep patterns and duration is also associated with obesity. According to researches, grelin hormones linked to high levels of hunger are secreted in the bodies of people who do not sleep enough and the risk of obesity increases. Inadequate sleep can negatively affect children’s behavior during the day, as children need more sleep than adults. A child who does not get enough sleep can be vicious or restless.”
Psychological, environmental, bodily factors and lifestyle can lead to sleep disturbance
There may be many psychological, environmental, physical and lifestyle-related causes of sleep disorders. Psychological factors such as stress, anxiety, some mental illnesses; lifestyles such as excessive caffeine intake, certain medications, working hours, shift work, late-night eating and malnutrition; environmental factors such as light, sound, ambient temperature and whether the environment is safe; physical illnesses such as pain, the need to go to the toilet very often and respiratory problems can lead to sleep disturbance. In addition, anxiety related to separation from the mother in babies in the 7th-9th months may also disrupt sleep patterns. This can also be seen in the babies of working mothers. The baby, who is separated from his mother during the day, may perceive the sleep period as a second separation. Finally, the nicotine contained in cigarettes has a stimulating effect, depending on this effect, the person may have difficulty falling asleep.
85 percent of depressed patients complain of insomnia
Psychosis (schizophrenia, schizophrenia, schizophrenic disorders, schizophrenic disorders), bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, substance use can also be seen, the experts said. In major depressive disorder or common anxiety disorder, difficulty falling asleep and waking up at night can cause severe insomnia problems and daytime sleepiness. 80-85 percent of depressed patients complain of insomnia. In anxiety disorders, sleep problems often occur as difficulty in starting and maintaining sleep. It is known that many patients with panic disorders have difficulty falling asleep.”
12 recommendations for a better sleep:
- Choose light meals in the evening and leave for at least 4 hours between bedtime and meal time.
- Make sure that the temperature of the bedroom is not too hot or cold and ventilate the room before sleep.
- Make sure that the room you sleep in is dim, comfortable and quiet. If necessary, use earplugs and eye masks.
- Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day for the order of the biological clock of the body.
- Learn by trying out what’s good for you when you go to sleep. Some people prefer a quiet environment to sleep in, while others sleep more easily with a light sound of music or certain sounds.
- Do not have a TV in the bedroom. Do a “digital detox” by leaving your mobile phones 90 minutes before bedtime.
- Try to do light exercises at least three days a week. Exercise raises body temperature. 2-4 hours after exercise, the body temperature drops. Therefore, it is easier to fall asleep and maintain sleep. While a person’s fatigue makes it easier to sleep, excessive fatigue at the end of a stressful and negative day can make it difficult to fall asleep, contrary to popular belief.
- If you do not feel sleepy and cannot fall asleep within 20-25 minutes, get out of your bedroom and start a quiet activity elsewhere. Go back to your bedroom only, but only when you feel sleepy.
- Avoid taking naps during the day. If you can’t resist, reduce the nap time to one per day and less than an hour. Don’t take a nap after 3:00.
- Maintain a regular bedtime during your holidays and weekends.
- Do not consume caffeine in the afternoon Limit your caffeine consumption during the day.
- Take advantage of relaxation and relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, yoga and meditation just before bedtime.