For deep sleep

When you have insomnia, your body does not have time to replenish the energy lost during the previous working day. Many people often fall into this situation, even when they practice the “sheep counting method” from 1 to 100 to make their body tired and sleepy, but they still cannot sleep.

On average, an adult sleeps from 4 to 8 hours. However, evaluating sleep is not only based on the number of hours of sleep but also depends on the quality of sleep, that is, the feeling of comfort and enough energy to serve the next working day. If a person sleeps eight hours a night but still feels tired and lethargic the next morning, then it is considered that the sleep is not of good quality. On the contrary, if even though sleeping only five hours, the body feels refreshed and happy to start a new working day, then the sleep is satisfactory.

Young water spinach soup is a "medicinal dish" that significantly improves sleep (Photo: Kikitran).

Why do we lose sleep?

There are many factors and causes of insomnia:

- External factors: stress at work or financially; conflicts with people around; major life events; fatigue from work or shift work.

There are internal medical diseases of the cardiovascular system (coronary artery disease, arrhythmia, heart failure); respiratory system (asthma, sleep apnea); chronic pain; endocrine system (diabetes, hyperthyroidism); digestive system (gastric ulcer, gastroesophageal reflux); neurological system (Parkinson's disease, epilepsy) and pregnant women.

- Neuropsychiatric: personality disorders (depression, psychosis); anxiety disorders; drug and alcohol withdrawal syndrome.

Insomnia due to the use of certain drugs: anticonvulsants; antihypertensives of the sympathetic inhibitor group; diuretics or steroids, stimulants.

Depending on the severity and cause of insomnia, modern medicine has many generations of drugs from first-generation H1 receptor antihistamines to sedatives to treat insomnia. However, if used for a long time, there are often certain unwanted side effects.

Some measures to help improve sleep

In traditional medicine, both non-drug and drug measures can significantly improve sleep:

- Do not use drugs: practice the habit of sleeping and waking up at a certain time of the night; Do not sleep too long at noon (an average of 15 - 30 minutes is enough); the bedroom needs to be quiet, airy (not too many objects, books, etc.), suitable light (not too bright); do not eat too much or on the contrary, being too hungry will affect sleep; avoid drinking strong tea or coffee a few hours before going to bed; practice deep breathing, especially diaphragmatic breathing (breathe in deeply, the abdomen moves with the breathing rhythm while limiting the movement of the chest: the shoulders do not lift, the neck muscles, chest muscles do not contract strongly); practice relaxation (lie down and relax the muscles of the face, neck, chest, abdomen, arms, legs; do not think too much.

Focus on breathing in and out regularly. Tell yourself that your hands, feet and whole body feel heavy and warm. If you relax well, you will easily have quality sleep; press some acupoints that have the effect of relieving stress and calming the mind such as: Yintang acupoint (the point between the two inner ends of the eyebrows), Anmien acupoint (the point about 1.5cm behind the left ear), Neiguan acupoint (the point between the two tendons on the wrist crease about 3cm), Sanyinjiao acupoint (the point above the highest point of the inner ankle about 4cm, close to the posterior edge of the tibia), Zusanli acupoint (about 4cm below the lower corner of the patella, outside the anterior edge of the tibia). Warm both the soles and backs of the feet, or soak the feet in warm water about 50oC.

- Using medicine: some medicinal herbs that are easy to find around us have a calming effect, helping you sleep easily such as rau nhut (young rau nhut is used to cook soup with fish, meat, shrimp...); lotus root (the part of the plant under the mud has a sedative and nutritious effect...); lotus seeds (have many nutrients and are sedative); lotus heart (the green core in the middle of the lotus seed, has the effect of preventing anxiety and insomnia); water chestnut (beneficial for people with mental and nervous breakdowns, sleep disorders); longan meat (cook water or combine lotus seeds and apples to make sweet soup to help you sleep easily); vong nem leaves (have a strong sedative effect when steamed in a rice cooker or boiled or cooked with some other medicinal herbs); passionflower (the parts used are the leaves and stems, have a sedative effect, help improve sleep quality); eat or drink the juice of tomatoes, carrots, avocados, pineapples, bananas... because they contain a lot of vitamins B2, B3, B6, C... to help the body create serotonin, a neurohormone that helps you sleep.

According to SGTT - PC