Why you can't sleep and how to deal with it

What to do if you can't sleep

You should not stay in bed for long if you are not going to sleep. The brain is an associative memory device. If you lie in bed for a long time, the brain will perceive it as a place to stay awake, not to sleep.

Go to another room and read a book. Don't use gadgets. Go to bed only when you feel like sleeping. In this way, the brain will again learn to associate the bedroom with sleep.

If you don't want to go to another room, try meditation practice. Before, I didn’t believe that meditation could help cope with insomnia. So I decided to try this method on myself when I was suffering from jet lag while traveling. It turned out that this is indeed a very effective way.

Meditation calms the mind, promotes physical relaxation, and reduces the nervous system's natural “fight or flight” response to stress, which is a hallmark of insomnia.

Is it possible to compensate for the lack of sleep by sleeping longer the next day?

Unfortunately, you can't make up for missed sleep by trying to get enough sleep after a couple of days or over the weekend. If you deprive you of eight hours of sleep, then no matter how you try to compensate for its lack the next night, you will not succeed. Our brain is not capable of this. Even if you sleep longer afterwards, the lack of adequate sleep will affect your health.

Is it okay to let teens sleep long on weekends?

Parents often scold teenagers for wasting precious weekends sleeping. However, this is wrong for two reasons.

Firstly, it is not their fault, it is a feature of their nature. It is she who makes teenagers sleep until dinner. Secondly, in this way the teenager tries to compensate for the lack of sleep in connection with the early rise to classes. Therefore, ideally, we should change the approach to educational practice.

Why sleep quality and quantity decrease with age

The older a person is, the shorter the duration of his sleep. It is believed that the need for sleep decreases with age. But this is not the case. At 60 or 80 years old, our bodies require as much sleep as at 40 years old. The brain simply loses its ability to generate the required amount of sleep.

Sleep quality also deteriorates with age. A person begins to wake up more often at night due to pain or frequent urge to use the toilet.

In the process of aging, the phase of slow, or deep, sleep is disrupted. By the age of 50, the amount of deep sleep can be reduced by 40-50% compared to, for example, adolescence. And by the age of 70, this number is likely to reach 90%.

Do sleeping pills provide healthy sleep

Unfortunately, sleeping pills give a false sensation of sleep. They are a wide range of chemicals that have a sedative effect. Natural sleep is very different from sedative-induced sleep.

How caffeine affects sleep

Everyone knows that drinking caffeine prevents a person from falling asleep. Some argue that they can easily have a cup of coffee before bed and sleep well. However, this is a very dangerous practice: under the influence of caffeine, sleep will not be so deep.

Having drunk coffee before going to bed, a person will wake up broken. Then he will again reach for a cup of this drink, not realizing that the cause of this state is yesterday's portion of caffeine.

How alcohol affects sleep

Although alcohol has a sedative effect, it does not promote healthy sleep, but rather worsens it. Due to alcohol, a person can often wake up at night, and in the morning he does not even remember about it. Therefore, he may not even be aware of how badly he slept.

In addition, alcohol consumption decreases the duration of the REM sleep phase, which is important for the normal functioning of the body.