Getting a healthy night’s sleep isn’t always a matter of willpower and changing habits. A large part of insomnia problems can be solved with what we call sleep hygiene guidelines , but there are specific disorders that can prevent you from getting a good night’s rest.
The truth is that 14% of the population suffers from established chronic insomnia and around 50% of the population has difficulty falling or staying asleep, or their sleep is not restful.
Sleep experts warn that our society suffers from chronic sleep deprivation that increases decade after decade, with serious repercussions for our physical and mental health.
Things to keep in mind about our sleep
Sufficient quantity and quality of sleep acts as a neuroprotective factor against the risk of suffering from dementia.
Our learning capacity decreases the longer we are awake and recovers when we sleep.
Lack of sleep is linked to a higher likelihood of injury and illness.
Sleeping gives you a greater ability to solve problems and develop ideas.
Sleep deprivation leads us to eat more and worse. It also directly affects our reproductive hormones, decreasing fertility.
Poor sleep ages you inside and out, facilitating the appearance of wrinkles and sagging skin.
At Psybilbo we are experts in the treatment of sleep disorders . If you need professional help, contact us without obligation.
Let’s talk about the circadian system
Plants and animals, including humans, rhythmically vary their activity during the day and night, synchronizing it with the rotation cycle of the planet. This adaptation to the environment is vital for survival.
Synchronization works thanks to the presence of an internal circadian clock, with a cycle that repeats approximately every 24 hours. The circadian system is one of the two mechanisms that regulate our sleep, along with homeostasis or sleep pressure.
Therefore, the circadian system marks when we have to be awake and when we have to sleep , although it also regulates functions such as: mood swings, muscle strength, metabolism, the release of different hormones, body temperature or urine production.
The circadian system is made up of a set of structures that generate, coordinate and synchronize the sleep-wake rhythm with environmental factors , especially with the natural light-dark cycle.
It should also be said that this system needs to be adjusted periodically. This is because the duration of our circadian rhythms is not exactly 24 hours. The duration varies according to the person and the stage of life they are in.
Chronotypes, what are they?
Each individual has his or her own internal rhythm that marks the hours of activity and rest, sleep and wakefulness. The different variations of these internal rhythms are called chronotypes .
People with a morning chronotype prefer to go to bed and get up early, showing a greater capacity for concentration, work and physical exercise in the morning. People with an evening chronotype are the opposite; they are active in the afternoon and prefer to go to bed and get up late. There is also a third chronotype called standard , which is found between the two People born in autumn or winter, seasons with fewer hours of daylight, tend to have a morning chronotype, while those born in spring or summer, with more daylight, tend to have an evening or night chronotype.
Chronodisruption: the loss of circadian rhythms
Our species is diurnal. We are designed to sleep at night and stay awake during the day. If the timing of sleep, which also acts as a synchronizer for the rest of the biological rhythms, is altered, a domino effect occurs. When the alteration in the internal temporal order of the rhythms of physiological and behavioral variables is maintained over time, chronodisruption occurs.
Circadian rhythm disturbances are examples of chronodisruption. They involve recurrent or sustained sleep disturbances due to alterations in the endogenous circadian pacemaker or desynchronization of the circadian rhythm due to external factors that affect the schedule and duration of sleep. This causes significant social, family and/or occupational impairment.
Types of circadian sleep disorders:
Delayed sleep phase disorder : Delay of several hours in the times when sleep begins and ends in relation to socially accepted times.
Sleep phase advancement disorder : The onset and end times of sleep are advanced by several hours compared to socially accepted times.
Rhythm different from the 24 hours : A progressive delay in sleep schedules occurs each day compared to the previous day.
Irregular sleep-wake rhythm : Sleep is distributed in periods of varying length at different times throughout the 24 hours.
Jet lag : Transmeridian travel disorder.
Shift work disorder : Caused by forcing the body to work at times when the circadian system is programmed for sleep and to sleep at times when it is not prepared for it.
Circadian disorders due to medical conditions .
The phases of sleep
Homo sapiens is not only cyclical throughout the day, but also throughout sleep. While we sleep, there is a jump between two types of sleep ( REM and non-REM ) that is repeated throughout the night, until completing four to five cycles each night. The phases occur as follows:
Non-REM Phase 1 : Sleep is light, with a feeling of drowsiness. Less than 5% of sleep.
Non-REM Phase 2 : Intermediate, consolidated sleep. This is 50% of sleep.
Non-REM Phase 3 : Deep or slow wave sleep. Between 15 and 20% of sleep.
REM phase : Paradoxical sleep (brain activity similar to wakefulness). Between 20 and 25% of sleep.
During non-REM sleep, our brain reflects, stores and reinforces new experiences and skills. During REM sleep , new experiences are integrated with those of the past, allowing us to understand how the world works and, in turn, create new ideas and skills that will allow us to increase our experience in life.
Nap, yes or no?
Our sleep pattern is biphasic. It consists of a main period of nighttime sleep and a short period of daytime sleep around midday. Naps are a physiological necessity of our species that has been lost over the years, due to the accelerated and overloaded lifestyle we lead. Various studies have shown that sleeping between 20 and 30 minutes improves work productivity, so it would be advisable to take a nap.
Insomnia: characteristics
The main symptom of insomnia is dissatisfaction with the quantity or quality of sleep, accompanied by one or more of the following: Difficulty starting up sleep. Difficulty keeping sleep, characterised with the aid of using common awakenings or troubles returning to sleep after awakening.
Waking up early in the morning, before the desired time, without being able to get back to sleep.
This must occur at least three nights a week and cause clinically significant discomfort that leads to social, occupational, academic or other impairment. If the problem persists for more than three months, we would be talking about chronic insomnia disorder . If the duration is shorter, we would be talking about transient insomnia .
Insomnia is a disorder that affects us 24 hours a day.
At night, we toss and turn, we wake up frequently, and in the middle of the night, despair leads us to have obsessive thoughts, a pessimistic and catastrophic vision, or to magnify our problems. During the day, the consequences of not having rested lead us to feel physically and mentally tired, irritable, have problems with concentration, attention and memory, lack of creativity, lack of empathy, as well as a tendency towards impulsiveness and the consumption of stimulating and toxic substances. So, it is absolutely clear that our day will have a direct impact on our night and our sleep, just as our night will have a direct impact on our day.
Sometimes, insomnia is not directly related to what we are experiencing at the moment, but is due to stressful situations that we have experienced at some point in our lives. Some areas of the brain become hyperstimulated, creating a state of hyperalertness. Therefore, these people are more sensitive to external stimuli.Through therapy, we try to help the patient relate how these different aspects of their daily life or these traumatic events from the past that have become entrenched may be influencing their sleep.
The conditions under which insomnia occurs are unique to each person, as are their personal characteristics and life circumstances. Normally, there will not be a single cause, but it may be the result of different variables that have begun to manifest at a certain time.
Insomnia is a sign
Our body and mind are very wise. They try to warn us when certain habits, personal relationships or life experiences are harmful to us. When insomnia appears, it is time to stop, focus on the present and analyze the different aspects that make up our life. 30% of insomnia cases are resolved by adopting sleep hygiene measures.
But not everything comes from the past. Some patients live in a state of hyperactivation, an excess of emotional reactivity that is not triggered by traumatic or stressful experiences of the past or present, but is simply their way of being (their personality). These characteristics, together with genetics and the education received, lead to the repetition of repeated patterns of behavior that end in insomnia. The way of understanding family, social and work relationships develops an excessively perfectionist, self-demanding and controlling personality, very common traits in patients with insomnia.
Psychological treatment for insomnia
In the treatment of insomnia, psychological therapy, specifically cognitive-behavioral therapy, is the one that has demonstrated the most scientific evidence of efficacy for the treatment of insomnia. It consists of:
Stimulus control : In insomnia, a maladaptive response to sleep occurs. Stimulus control strengthens the relationship between the bed and the bedroom with relaxation and sleep to stop associating bedtime with something unpleasant.
Sleep restriction : A technique in which the amount of time the insomniac can spend in bed each night is restricted. The bed is only for sleeping.
Relaxation exercises : Aimed at reducing the physiological hyper-excitement experienced by patients with insomnia.
Cognitive therapy : Based on cognitive restructuring of erroneous thoughts and beliefs about sleep that increase anxiety and worry.
Sleep hygiene education : It is effective on its own in 30% of cases; in persistent cases it is essential in combination with other treatments.
Read Also: Psychopaths: How to Survive Evil
