Index
A good rest is essential for people’s health.
Physical and psychological well-being depends mainly on better sleep, treatment, and quality sleep; it allows to restore the energy lost in day-to-day life, rejuvenate cells, and strengthen defenses and the immune system.
In addition, sleeping well is enough to create a good mood and is considered a good help for those who want to maintain a stable weight, insofar as it helps to control hunger since when we are awake, we are conscious of food.
Consequences of bad sleep
When complaints of lack of sleep and insomnia escalate, the health consequences get worse and worse.
Obesity, hypertension, and diabetes are associated with poor sleep at night. Mood, growth, and psychomotor development are also affected by lack of rest and sleepless nights.
This is how diseases and sleep disorders can arise. Both are related to health problems and adopted lifestyles.
Incorporated within the framework of these pathologies found in sleep problems and relation to obesity, it can occur from childhood, although it is much more frequent in adulthood.
The loss of sleep can lead to diseases of the heart and thus condition the person’s quality of life.
In the same context, we find narcolepsy, characterized by difficulty in waking up in the morning, drowsiness during the day, and periods of weakness, due to the sensation of sleeping excessively, which affects children, adolescents, and adults.
There is still sleepwalking, and it is widespread in childhood, commonly derived from the genetic factor.
So we could continue adding sleep disorders to the list. However, bruxism appears (or grinding teeth during sleep) due to insufficient sleep, drowsiness, and nightmares.
Identifying the causes of diseases and sleep disorders is the first step in fighting the problem by choosing the best treatment and thus finding the right time to get a good night’s sleep again.
Therefore, pediatric contact and general practitioner is the primary measure since it undoubtedly recommends the most appropriate specialist.
Studies Find Insomnia May Precede and Maintain Depression
Insomnia can pave the way for depression rather than occurring primarily as a symptom of the disorder, according to two studies from the University of Rochester Sleep and Neurophysiology Research Laboratory.
The researchers reinforce other evidence that insomnia is a significant risk factor for recurrent and new-onset major depressive disorder.
“We have to think of insomnia as a symptom and a primary disorder,” says psychologist Michael L. Perlis, Ph.D., principal investigator of one of the studies and director of SNRL. “Many people think that insomnia is just insomnia … the evidence to date is that history is more complicated than that.”
In the Journal of Behavioral Sleep Medicine study, Perlis and his colleagues found that adults over 60 with persistent insomnia were nearly six times more likely to develop a first episode of major depression than older adults without insomnia.
The association was strongest between women and people who suffer from a particular pattern of insomnia that causes people to wake up repeatedly during the night.
Perlis and his colleagues used archival data from a 2002 longitudinal study that measured depressive disorders and symptoms in older primary care patients to arrive at this finding.
The original researchers, led by Jeff Lyness, MD, evaluated 247 participants, ages 60 to 94, twice in one year for depression using the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-III-R (SCID) and Rating Scale. Hamilton for depression.
Perlis and his colleagues then aggregated and categorized the data. They found that older people with insomnia were more likely to develop a first episode of major depression than those who did not have insomnia.
In the study presented at the APSS Annual Meeting, another member of the SNRL group, Wil Pigeon, Ph.D., found that older people with depression who have insomnia were eight to 12 times more likely to remain ill than patients without insomnia.
Additionally, those with persistent insomnia were at increased risk of developing another depressive episode.
To arrive at these findings, the researchers used data from a clinical trial that evaluated the outcome of improving access to collaborative mood-promoting treatment. This program looks at older depression in primary care.
The original researchers interviewed 1,801 participants with depression. The researchers diagnosed the participants using SCID and assessed the severity of depression using the Symptom Check List 90.
In addition to being a predisposing and prodromal sign of depression, they found that insomnia can decrease the treatment of depression and serve as a barrier to remission.
Although the association is likely mediated by various factors, Perlis believes that insomnia may precede depression because both conditions involve activation of the depressive schema, such as feelings of hopelessness and lack of control.
While both studies focused on older adults, Perlis says, the findings from the baseline data apply to young adults and middle-aged people with chronic insomnia.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that chronic insomnia cannot be expected to just go away on its own or with treatment for ‘parental disorder,'” he says.
“It needs to be treated with interventions specifically targeting insomnia, such as cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.”
To help put their findings into practice, Perlis and his colleagues aim to recruit clinical psychologists for training and certification to treat insomnia.
Tips for a good and better sleep
In addition to “counting sheep,” there are some tricks that can help you sleep well and better; you can practice some of these tips:
- Don’t play sports until 4 hours before you go to bed.
- At dinner, do not eat heavy foods that hinder digestion, such as red meat, and do not lie down immediately after eating.
- Don’t drink stimulant drinks like tea, coffee, or caffeinated sodas.
- Take a hot bath to relax.
- Do not drink a lot of fluids at night; this will reduce night trips to the bathroom.
- Do not sleep with the television on, preventing you from reaching deep sleep.
- Having sex before bed relaxes your body and mind.
- Take a walk after dinner; this helps speed up digestion and, at the same time, promotes relaxation of body and mind.
- Avoid smoking about 2 hours before bedtime, tobacco contrary to what many think is a stimulant.
- Try to create a relaxed atmosphere with soft music and read a book.
- Adopting comfortable mattresses and pillows helps maintain uninterrupted sleep.
- And finally … remove all the lights.
