Clinically, the number of cases caused by physiological factors, disease factors, drug factors and diet factors is far less than that caused by psychological factors. To sum up, there are six psychological reasons for insomnia recognized by psychologists at present:
Fear of insomnia: Many insomnia patients have "insomnia-related anxiety". They worry about falling asleep as soon as they go to bed at night, or try their best to make themselves fall asleep quickly, which is counterproductive.
Higher nervous activity in human cerebral cortex has two processes: excitation and inhibition. Brain cells are excited during the day. After a day's work, you need to rest, enter a state of inhibition and sleep, and rest for a night, and naturally wake up.
The excitation and inhibition of cerebral cortex coordinate with each other, alternately forming a cyclic sleep rhythm. "Afraid of insomnia, want to sleep", the original intention is to want to sleep, but thinking of "afraid of insomnia, want to sleep" itself is the process of brain cell excitement, so the more afraid of insomnia, the more sleepy, the more excited brain cells are, and therefore the more insomnia.
Dreams are harmful to the mind: many people who claim to be insomnia can't treat dreams correctly and think that dreams are a manifestation of poor sleep and harmful to the human body. Some people even mistakenly think that dreaming more is insomnia. These misconceptions often make people anxious, fearing that they will dream again after falling asleep. This "vigilance" mentality often affects the quality of sleep.
In fact, science has proved that everyone dreams. Dreaming is not only a normal psychological phenomenon, but also a way of working in the brain. Repeating the experience of the day in a dream is helpful to remember and remove useless information. Dreams themselves are harmless to the human body. What is harmful is the psychology of "dreaming is harmful", which makes it a psychological burden.
Self-blame psychology: Some people will feel guilty and self-blame after making mistakes, repeat the mistakes in their minds and regret that they have not handled them well. Because of many things during the day, I feel a little guilty and regret, but at night I "wander" in the fantasy and excitement of self-blame and self-blame, and I can't sleep for a long time.
Expectation psychology: refers to people who are expecting someone or doing something and are worried about oversleeping, so they often wake up early. For example, a "three-shift" stationmaster often goes to bed at 7 pm because he works the night shift (at night 12 o'clock). Because he was afraid of being late, he often slept only 1-2 hours, so he was woken up and became an early wake-up patient for a long time. Some people are often in a state of expectation and excitement before the results of promotion, professional title evaluation and housing allocation are about to be announced, and it is difficult to sleep.
Reproduction of childhood trauma psychology: Some people are afraid of losing their parents, intimidation, heavy punishment and other trauma in childhood, and they are afraid of not sleeping at night, and gradually get better with their age. However, in adulthood, due to some traumatic stimulus similar to childhood, the traumatic psychological reaction suppressed in the subconscious of childhood will reappear, and the phenomenon of insomnia in childhood will recur. Feeling at a loss: Some people can't make a correct response after being stimulated by unexpected events, and they are at a loss, so that they look back and forth at night and think wildly, but they are always in a state of anxiety and excitement, holding uncertain flags.
The duration of insomnia determines the treatment.
At present, psychologists divide insomnia into three categories:
Temporary insomnia: only a few days. It may be caused by emotional excitement, temporary mental stress or jet lag, such as major festivals, meetings, parties, exams, cross-time zone travel, etc. Most people can adjust themselves spontaneously or treat it as a fresh and interesting experience. In short, at this moment, don't panic, it will be fine in a few days.
Short-term insomnia: lasting for several days to three weeks, often occurs when people suffer from serious diseases or personal stress. Usually, we will adopt the method of self-psychological adjustment or seek help from a sleep psychologist to alleviate and improve.
Long-term insomnia: it can last for several years. Some people suffer from insomnia under pressure (even under normal pressure). Just as some people are prone to chronic gastritis or migraine, they have formed a habit pattern of coping with stress. It usually needs doctors and psychologists to solve it together.
Be alert! sleeping pill
The simplest way to insomnia is to take medicine, which is the most direct help that doctors can give to insomnia patients. As patients, especially patients with chronic insomnia, it is best to keep an eye on it-that is, to be temperate. Because uncontrolled drug use can lead to psychological dependence.
Tao Wei, Mao Dun's son, and Chen Xiaoman, his daughter-in-law, wrote in the book Father Mao Dun's Old Age: "Dad has been taking sleeping pills for twenty years, and he has to take three or four kinds of sleeping pills every night. He will eat once or twice when he wakes up at night, and he will often feel dizzy and weak in his legs the next morning. We advised dad to take less sleeping pills, but dad wouldn't listen. Instead, he said that we don't understand the pain of insomnia. Tao Wei thinks that dad insisted on taking so many sleeping pills because of psychological factors, and quietly changed the medicine into vitamin tablets, which can also play a role in sleeping. After two weeks like this, dad's insomnia didn't get worse. One day, Tao Wei talked with his father about the benefits of eating less sleeping pills, saying that people who often eat sleeping pills have a psychological effect, and they always feel that they can't sleep well if they eat less sleeping pills, but it is not. Dad disagreed. To convince dad, Tao Wei said: Some of the sleeping pills you have taken recently are vitamin tablets, but your sleep hasn't changed, so this part can be reduced. Dad was furious and let his son stay out of his business. From then on, his little aunt was never allowed to prepare medicine for him. This is the most stubborn thing that Dad showed in his later years. "
Experts remind:
1 We should put the leading factor to overcome insomnia on the basis of self-active regulation, and only rely on alcohol or drugs to regulate it, especially when both are used at the same time, which is very dangerous and will greatly damage people's lives and health. At the very least, the next day, you need to endure the side effects of the drug-"dizziness, leg weakness."
Long-term use of sleeping pills will lead to drug resistance in patients. When a person adapts to a certain dose of drugs, he will need a larger dose to achieve the same effect, thus forming a terrible cycle: insomnia leads to drug resistance, and persistent insomnia leads to an increase in drug dose. At this time, sleeping pills have become the chief culprit of insomnia. When this happens, it is best to ask for help from doctors and psychological counselors.
Find out the psychological factors that lead to insomnia in time and reduce the demand for drugs.