Sleep deprivation, circadian rhythm disorders...
Why is it so hard for young people to sleep well
Xiao Ming (pseudonym) has always been a good student with excellent academic performance and reassuring his parents. However, after the third year of junior high school, due to the increase in homework and the increasing pressure of entering school, Xiao Ming often writes homework until 12 o'clock in the evening or even later, and must be punctual in the morning Get up and gradually show signs of decreased energy and decreased interest in learning.
He always sleeps in class, and the teacher's repeated criticisms can't be corrected.
Not only did I doze off in class, but I also couldn't refresh my energy during the breaks, and I always looked downcast.
After a doctor's diagnosis, Xiao Ming was believed to have suffered depression symptoms due to long-term sleep deprivation.
Sleep deprivation: a "common disease" in children and adolescents
Zhang Weihua, deputy chief physician of the Department of Psychiatry at Peking University Sixth Hospital, told reporters that sleep deprivation is more common in children and adolescents.
Zhang Weihua explained that sleep deprivation refers to artificially reducing the amount of sleep time per day.
There are two types of sleep deprivation, one is acute complete sleep deprivation, and the other is chronic incomplete sleep deprivation.
Acute complete sleep deprivation means not going to sleep at all within 24 to 48 hours; chronic incomplete sleep deprivation means that the due sleep time is violated or reduced.
"Everyone needs to ensure enough sleep time to meet the basic sleep needs of the body. Generally speaking, children and adolescents should spend no less than 8 hours a day for sleep. If only 6 hours of sleep time are arranged, two a day The body can also compensate. If it becomes a habit and forms chronic incomplete sleep deprivation, it is easy to induce symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and insomnia. If the individual is physically sensitive, the possibility of the occurrence of these conditions is higher."
The White Paper on Sleep Index of Chinese Adolescents and Children released by the Chinese Sleep Research Association in 2019 shows that 62.9% of children aged 6 to 17 sleep less than 8 hours a day, and children aged 13 to 17 sleep less than 8 hours a day. The proportion of up to 81.2%.
Researchers found in the survey that schoolwork pressure became the first factor affecting children's sleep.
The survey shows that from Monday to Thursday at 11 pm, 8.64% of students are still busy with homework.
Long-term sleep deprivation is very harmful to children's mental health, and may induce symptoms such as insomnia, anxiety, and depression.
For example, Zhang Weihua said: “Some children cannot sleep because they should go to bed, and their sleep rhythm is disrupted. When they accumulate a certain amount of time, they will not fall asleep when they want to sleep. Some children go to class and sleep during the day because of sleep deprivation. The teacher criticized and even punished them, and over time they developed anxiety; some children were not in a normal state due to lack of sleep, lack of energy, lack of vitality, slow brain response, depression, lack of interest in anything, and unable to study normally. Life has produced depression."
Not only that, sleep deprivation also has a negative impact on thinking ability and cognitive function, and long-term lack of sleep can lead to memory decline.
"A lot of people feel this way. If you didn't sleep well the night before and lacked enough sleep, you will immediately feel memory loss the next day. This happens occasionally and the brain can adjust itself, but if it does this for a long time, the brain may not be able to recover. To the original state." Zhang Weihua said.
Sleepless at night, not awake in the morning, circadian rhythm disorder of sleep that bothers young people
If sleep deprivation is a high-incidence "time disease" among children and adolescents, then the common sleep problem among young people is circadian rhythm disorder.
Zhang Weihua told reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that young people are in the best physical condition in their lives, which is also the most energetic period in their lives, so they are prone to irregular work and rest.
It is very common to surf the Internet, surf the phone, play games, and sleep until late at night.
Irregular work and rest in a short period of time will not cause too serious consequences in most cases, but for some sensitive people, it may cause sleep circadian rhythm disorders.
"For example, some young people are not sleepy after 12 o'clock in the evening, so they play games or arrange other entertainment activities. Gradually, the body's awareness of this law is continuously strengthened, and at this time, they are in a relatively active state. , So it is more difficult to fall asleep. When you are sleepy and want to sleep, it is already two or three o'clock in the night. When you wake up the next day, it may be after 10 am or even 12 o'clock in the morning. Slowly, the circadian rhythm disorder is formed."
Zhang Weihua pointed out that circadian rhythm disorders are very complicated and rarely exist alone in clinical practice, often accompanied by other mental problems.
"Generally speaking, people with circadian rhythm disorders often have anxiety, depression, or other mental illness characteristics. Strictly speaking, they may not meet the diagnostic criteria for a certain mental illness, but their thinking patterns, emotional activities, and Behavioral characteristics, there may be characteristics of certain mental illnesses."
Zhang Weihua emphasized that sleep circadian rhythm disturbance is different from sleep deprivation. Simply put, "If you sleep late at night, but start on time in the morning, resulting in insufficient sleep throughout the night, this situation is sleep deprivation. If you sleep late at night, in the morning It’s enough to wake up late and sleep as long as you need. This situation is a disorder of sleep circadian rhythm."
There are different types of sleep circadian rhythm disorders. The more common among young people is the delayed sleep phase syndrome, that is, "It is obviously inconsistent with the work and rest time that everyone is used to under a certain social and cultural background, at least two or three delays. Hours, which will have a negative impact on your own activities.” Zhang Weihua said, “Generally speaking, a person goes to bed at 12 o’clock in the evening and gets up at 8 o’clock in the morning. But if you delay it for two hours and go to bed at 2 o’clock at night, Get up at 10 in the morning, this is the manifestation of circadian rhythm disorders. For people with circadian rhythm disorders, waking up at 10 may feel that they are sleeping well and adequately, but if they need to get up at 8 to do errands, it is two hours less Sleeping time will cause pain and disturbance to him, his state will be very poor, and his emotional experience will be more obvious."
When a person does not participate in social activities, the circadian rhythm of sleep is not necessarily a problem, and it does not interfere with emotions.
But when you need to synchronize with others to do something, people with sleep circadian rhythm disorders will feel obvious pain due to sleep deprivation, and will have insufficient energy, upset, irritability, slow brain response, and inattention in the long run. which performed.
Behind sleep problems is often some kind of mental illness
In fact, sleep problems are not only related to sleep itself. Common mental illnesses basically have symptoms related to sleep.
Sleep problems are often accompanied by anxiety and depression.
Zhang Weihua introduced that more than 80% of depressed patients have sleep problems.
Sleep problems are mostly manifested as lack of sleep, including insomnia and getting up early. A small number of patients also experience excessive sleep, and feel sleepy and tired no matter how long they sleep. In other words, the effect of sleep that should have eliminated fatigue disappears.
The relationship between anxiety and insomnia is more complicated.
Anxious patients often suffer from early insomnia, that is, difficulty falling asleep, or even sleeplessness throughout the night. However, it is emotional problems that really affect the quality of life of the patient and cause obvious pain to the patient.
Zhang Weihua said: "A simple lack of sleep will not cause too serious impact on the human body, and will not make people feel particularly painful or pay special attention to sleep. Behind the request of "I want to sleep well", often There are symptoms of anxiety. At this time, the focus is on emotional problems, not sleep problems. Hypnotics alone can hardly achieve the effect of completely improving sleep. It is necessary to take antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs. Some patients also need antipsychotics. Drugs or anti-epileptic drugs.” Zhang Weihua particularly emphasized, “Although some drugs are classified as antipsychotics and anti-epileptic drugs, these drugs are not only used to treat mental illness or epilepsy, and patients can’t reverse it. Anti-psychopathy means that I have a conclusion like mental illness. Because emotional problems are not resolved, it is impossible to sleep well with hypnotics."
Zhang Weihua further explained that sleep disorders have the highest correlation with common mental diseases, which is why most sleep disorders require psychiatrists to treat them.
"Many patients think that they just have the problem of being unable to sleep, and other problems are caused by the inability to sleep. This is actually a cognitive misunderstanding. The patient's sleep symptoms may be just one of the symptoms of mental illness, a common mental illness Most of the diseases have sleep symptoms during the onset period."
Zhang Weihua specifically pointed out that adolescents are also prone to anxiety-related sleep problems. This part of the population is mainly junior high school and high school students. Their pressure mainly comes from academic performance, and relationships with teachers and classmates.
Anxiety caused by stress can lead to poor sleep or even insomnia. Sleep problems will in turn affect their academic performance, making them irritable, tantrums, unnecessary conflicts with classmates, resulting in tension between classmates and forming Vicious circle.
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Xia Jin Source: China Youth Daily