Not long ago, the China Sleep Research Association and other institutions released the "2022 White Paper on Healthy Sleep for Chinese Nationals".
According to a white paper survey, 42% of the elderly spend more than half an hour falling asleep, and the insomnia rate is as high as 21%.
Poor sleep has become a common pain point for the elderly.
Recently, the reporter came to the sleep clinic of Huilongguan Hospital in Beijing. Doctor Xu Haiting told the reporter that "epidemic anxiety" has also become the cause of insomnia for many elderly people.
Not sleeping well because "thinking too much"
"Insomnia every day during this time, please give me more sleep aids." As soon as she walked into Xu Haiting's clinic, Ms. Zhu, who was over seventy years old, put forward her own request-she wanted to "hoard medicines".
Ms. Zhu told the doctor that after the outbreak of the epidemic in Beijing, she struggled with insomnia almost every night, feeling unwell all over her body and worried that she might be infected with the virus.
In addition to worrying about being sick, she is also worried that she is short of medicine - "What should I do if I can't get medicine due to the epidemic?"
Under the psychological pressure of the epidemic, a few days ago, she suddenly experienced palpitation and chest tightness. "I felt like I was dying." The family immediately dialed 120 and sent her to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment.
But after a series of professional examinations, she was in a stable state in all aspects, and there was no problem.
The doctor who received her suggested that she should go to the psychiatry department for treatment.
Xu Haiting learned that Ms. Zhu had always suffered from anxiety disorders, but after effective treatment and control, her condition was relatively stable.
"Your sudden sense of 'imminent death' is actually an acute attack of anxiety. Your recent insomnia problem is also related to the aggravation of anxiety." Xu Haiting explained that excessive worry about the epidemic is the incentive for Ms. Zhu's anxiety to increase, and also caused sleepiness Difficulties.
Ms. Zhu began to worry about sleep at night during the day. This kind of worry is actually anxiety. The whole day's worry aggravates the problem of insomnia again, and a vicious circle is formed between insomnia and anxiety.
In order to give the elderly a sense of psychological security, Xu Haiting prescribed anti-anxiety and sleep aids within a safe dosage range for her.
But for Ms. Zhu's situation, what is more important is the correction at the cognitive level and the education of disease-related knowledge.
"There is no sign of the shortage of medicines that you are worried about in Beijing. Even if the community is closed, the hospital can guarantee the patient's medication needs by mail." The doctor gave Ms. Zhu a "reassuring pill".
At the same time, Xu Haiting told her the important role of good protection and active vaccination for epidemic prevention, reminding her to read more authoritative releases, keep up to date with accurate epidemic information, do not listen to rumors of the epidemic from unknown sources, and at the same time pay attention to "shielding" some information about the epidemic. of negative emotions.
Appropriately increase the amount of exercise in outdoor ventilated places, and actively communicate with family members and friends.
With the doctor's patience, Ms. Zhu realized that she was too anxious in the face of the epidemic, and began to pay attention to self-regulation.
Helping children with anxiety and sleeplessness
One type of elderly group is very typical in Xu Haiting's clinic, that is, the elderly who help their children with their children.
When the epidemic was severe, their sleep problems became more prominent.
"I can't sleep at night, I'm very tired during the day, I don't eat well, and I'm very tired every day." Ms. Lin, 65, is a typical migrant old man. After her daughter gave birth to grandchildren, she came to Beijing from her hometown in Shandong to help take care of the children. It's been almost 4 years now.
During this period of time, because of the epidemic, the little grandson was unable to go to kindergarten, and Ms. Lin's parenting pressure increased sharply.
The youngest grandson is more than three years old, becoming more lively and mischievous day by day, and Ms. Lin feels that she "can't keep up with the slipper".
In addition, I heard that the Omicron variant is highly contagious and spreads hidden, which also made her terrified, "My little grandson is outdoors every day and interacts with children in the same community. What if he is infected? Wan Wan When something goes wrong, I can't explain it to my daughter and son-in-law." The epidemic has exacerbated the psychological pressure brought about by the sense of responsibility, and anxiety has increased in Ms. Lin's heart, which has also kept her up at night.
For nearly a week, Ms. Lin's son-in-law was asked to work from home because the unit was in the relevant lockdown control area, which also made her feel uncomfortable.
In addition to worrying about the safety of the epidemic prevention and daily life of her wife and children at home, Ms. Lin had trouble sleeping and eating. In addition to sleep problems, she also experienced depression and poor appetite. Dry."
Through professional consultation, Xu Haiting believed that Ms. Lin's anxiety and depression were closely related to sleep, so she suggested that Ms. Lin should improve and adjust her behavior first.
She pointed out that Ms. Lin should communicate with her daughter and son-in-law, and let them do as much as possible in parenting. "At least sleep with your parents at night, which will not only help the elderly to improve sleep quality, but also help to establish a strong and good parent-child relationship. ."
In addition, Xu Haiting believes that Ms. Lin has a problem of "circadian rhythm imbalance" - "Long time in bed during the day, including naps, resting in bed, etc., will lead to a decrease in sleep drive at night and easily cause insomnia." She suggested Lin Ladies, try to keep your "time in bed" to a minimum of 30 minutes during the day.
It is recommended that the elderly do more outdoor exercise, increase the time they are exposed to natural light, and reduce the use time of electronic products. The blue light emitted by electronic products such as mobile phones will affect the secretion of melatonin, which will lead to sleep problems.
"Watching children is tiring, and many elderly people will seek a little relaxation and pleasure from electronic products, but if this relaxation is at the expense of sleep, it needs to be improved and adjusted." Xu Haiting suggested that if behavior is adjusted , Ms. Lin's sleep and emotional problems are still not significantly improved, and further drug adjustments can be made.
"Fat people" snoring is sometimes a disease
"There are reports that obese people are more prone to serious complications when infected with the new crown. There are also reports that obesity may affect the efficacy of vaccines." Although the credibility of the report cannot be confirmed, such a statement gives "fat people" Mr. Liu left a "psychological shadow".
He believes that his sleep problems in the past two years are related to this.
Mr. Liu is in his 60s, 1.7 meters tall, weighs 190 jins, and is somewhat obese.
Walking into Xu Haiting's consultation room, as soon as he sat down, he directly asked the doctor to prescribe him some sleep aids.
Xu Haiting inquired about Mr. Liu's situation carefully: Mr. Liu not only had difficulty falling asleep at night, but also had a very light sleep, often waking up after a while.
The family reported that Mr. Liu snored very loudly and often woke him up by snoring.
When he couldn't sleep, he was restless and repeatedly had "epidemic anxiety". The more anxious he became, the more he couldn't sleep.
It caused him to be tired, lethargic and unwell during the day.
"'Pandemic anxiety' is the incentive to aggravate your insomnia, but it is not the root cause." Xu Haiting noticed that Mr. Liu had several characteristics of obstructive sleep apnea, and recommended him to perform sleep monitoring to find out the crux.
Mr. Liu didn't quite accept the doctor's advice, "I just don't sleep well, I just need to take some medicine. What else should I do?"
Xu Haiting patiently explained to Mr. Liu: Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome is a serious sleep-related disease, which is very common in the elderly.
One of the main reasons is that with age, the body's muscle relaxation increases, and the airway collapses to a certain extent.
Obstructive sleep apnea occurs in severe collapse.
"If you don't find the crux of the problem, treat it symptomatically, and blindly take sleep aids to treat the symptoms but not the root cause. It may even aggravate the hypoxia during sleep and cause more serious consequences."
After a series of missions, Xu Haiting finally persuaded Mr. Liu to perform sleep monitoring.
The monitoring results showed that Mr. Liu's AHI index (disordered breathing index) was as high as 15, and he was diagnosed with sleep apnea syndrome.
After ventilator treatment, Mr. Liu's sleep problems at night have been significantly improved, the time to fall asleep has been shortened, and he has slept much more at ease.
Sleeping well, Mr. Liu's "epidemic anxiety" has also been significantly relieved.
Xu Haiting introduced that sleep apnea will not only bring about sleep problems at night, but also affect the emotional and physical state of the elderly during the day.
"Sleep apnea will make people in a state of hypoxia for a long time, which affects the emotional regulation of the elderly. Many elderly people are irritable, suspicious, irritable, and some physiological reactions such as headaches and palpitation are related to this. Long-term hypoxia is also easy to increase the incidence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular-related diseases.”
Xu Haiting said that for elderly people with related symptoms, they must go to professional institutions for examination, and confirmed patients should receive corresponding formal treatment.
At the same time, she suggested that the elderly should maintain good work and rest, eating habits, and control their weight. "The incidence of obstructive sleep apnea is closely related to obesity." Quitting smoking and drinking is also effective in improving the problem of obstructive hypoxia.
Elderly people with such sleep problems should use sleep aids and sedative drugs with caution. "Sedative and hypnotic drugs generally have the side effect of aggravating sleep breathing obstruction, and should be used with caution according to the doctor's advice." For sleep-disordered breathing that occurs, lying on the back will aggravate the obstruction. "It may be better to sleep on the side."
Source: Beijing Daily Client | Reporter Sun Leqi