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Many people have probably experienced difficulty falling asleep despite being busy and tired all day, or waking up soon after falling asleep, making them wonder, "Could I have insomnia?"
When you're sleep-deprived and try to go to bed early, you might find it hard to turn off your brain. This article will explain why you can't sleep despite feeling tired and suggest ways to improve your sleep.
What are sleep and insomnia in the first place?
Why do we need sleep? And what exactly constitutes insomnia? Before concluding that your recent difficulty sleeping means you have insomnia, let's understand the definitions of sleep and insomnia and their effects on your mind and body.
Types and Effects of Sleep
Sleep consists of alternating cycles of light sleep (REM sleep) and deep sleep (non-REM sleep) every 90 minutes. Beyond physical recovery, sleep offers various other benefits.
For instance, during the first non-REM sleep cycle (deep sleep), growth hormones, essential for bone and muscle development and tissue repair, are secreted. Sleep is also said to have positive effects on weight loss and beauty, such as improving skin and hair quality.
On the other hand, during REM sleep (light sleep), memories are consolidated and emotions are processed. These processes are believed to have a beneficial impact on learning and stress relief.
Thus, sleep not only rests the body but also plays many roles such as growth, injury recovery, stress relief, and beauty. Therefore, sleep deprivation can lead to various mental and physical ailments.
Effects of Insomnia on the Body
"Insomnia" refers to a state where sleep deprivation leads to daytime lethargy, fatigue, decreased concentration, and other adverse effects on daily life.
Its symptoms vary, including difficulty falling asleep, feeling tired even after sleeping, waking up multiple times during the night, or waking up earlier than planned and being unable to fall back asleep.
Persistent insomnia can lead to not only decreased concentration and attention but also a risk of various other symptoms such as loss of appetite, depression, and headaches. Therefore, it is important to take appropriate countermeasures according to the cause.
If you want to know more about insomnia, please refer to this article:
Woke up sleepless... Is it insomnia?Is inability to sleep despite feeling sleepy a sign of insomnia?
The necessary amount of sleep varies from person to person, so if you can function without problems during the day even with short sleep hours, you do not have insomnia.
There are various causes for "insomnia," and the following 10 are among the most common:
- Hyperarousal
- Stress and autonomic nervous system imbalance
- Hormonal imbalances in women
- Disruption of daily rhythm and body clock
- Excessive caffeine intake
- Smartphone or computer use before bed
- Lack of exercise
- Alcohol consumption before bed
- Smoking before bed
- Medication side effects
Hyperarousal
When you are busy with work or personal life and go without sleep for an extended period, your body enters a state of hyperarousal, making it difficult to switch into sleep mode. Also, engaging in sports late at night or experiencing severe stress throughout the day can keep your brain activated, making it hard to switch off and fall asleep easily.
Stress and Autonomic Nervous System Imbalance
Strong stress caused by anxiety and tension can disrupt the autonomic nervous system, leading to difficulty falling asleep.
If it routinely takes you more than 30 minutes to fall asleep after getting into bed, you might be experiencing "sleep onset insomnia." Reflect on whether you're being overwhelmed by work, getting enough rest, or dealing with unresolved long-term worries.
Female Hormone Imbalance
For women, fluctuations in female hormones during the menstrual cycle can also contribute to sleep deprivation.
Humans prepare for sleep by lowering their core body temperature. This is why our hands and feet feel warm when we're sleepy; by releasing heat, we lower our core body temperature.
However, during menstruation, the increased secretion of progesterone, one of the female hormones, raises body temperature more than usual, making it harder to sleep.
Conversely, estrogen, another female hormone, decreases during menstruation. Since estrogen plays a role in protecting against stress, some individuals may experience sleep problems due to stress.
Disruption of daily rhythm and body clock
Habits such as waking up at different times on weekdays and weekends, staying up late frequently, or skipping breakfast can disrupt your body clock, making it difficult to sleep.
It is said that "melatonin," a hormone that promotes sleep, is secreted and a resting state is reached approximately 14 to 16 hours after the body clock resets. Therefore, by regulating your daily rhythm and body clock, you can promote smoother sleep onset.
Excessive Caffeine Intake
As many of you may know, consuming drinks high in caffeine before bed stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, making it difficult to fall asleep. Be cautious if you have a habit of drinking energy drinks, nutritional drinks, coffee, black tea, green tea, oolong tea, or hojicha after dinner.
Smartphone or computer use before bed
Blue light emitted from smartphone and computer screens can inhibit the production of melatonin, a sleep-promoting hormone, thus interfering with sleep. In addition to its stimulating effects, exposure to strong light in bed can disrupt your body clock, leading to difficulty falling asleep.
Moreover, prolonged viewing of blue light sources can strain your eyes. Try to practice digital detox 1-2 hours before bedtime.
Lack of exercise
Even if your brain is tired from work, you might not be able to sleep if your body isn't tired. Especially if you have a desk job or don't move much due to driving, make a conscious effort to get some physical activity.
Alcohol consumption before bed
Some people may have experienced feeling like they sleep better after drinking alcohol, but this is a common misconception. Alcohol temporarily induces sleep by suppressing the central nervous system, but acetaldehyde, produced when alcohol is broken down, has a stimulating effect, making sleep shallow and causing you to wake up in the middle of the night.
Smoking before bed
Nicotine in cigarettes has a stimulating effect. Therefore, it can lead to difficulty falling asleep and shallow sleep, so caution is advised.
Medication side effects
If you are taking medication, side effects can sometimes cause insomnia. The main medications that interfere with sleep include:
- Steroids
- Antihistamines
- Antiepileptic drugs
- Anticancer drugs
- Antihypertensives
- Bronchodilators
- Parkinson's disease medications
These prescription medications may contain ingredients with stimulant or sleep-reducing effects, potentially causing insomnia or daytime sleepiness.
10 tips to sleep soundly on sleepless nights
The keys to falling asleep easily are identifying the cause and controlling your autonomic nervous system. Specifically, here are 10 tips:
- Think about the cause of your stress and ways to relieve it
- Don't force yourself to sleep
- Do light exercises like stretching
- Finish eating at least 3 hours before bed
- Get some morning sun
- Take a lukewarm bath
- Try deep breathing with abdominal breathing
- Try using essential oils
- Play music (BGM)
- Be mindful of your sleep environment
Think about the cause of your stress and ways to relieve it
Excessive stress hinders quality sleep, so it's important to manage your stress. First, consider what situations tend to cause you stress and then explore ways to regularly relieve and resolve it.
From major things like travel to experience something out of the ordinary, to small everyday things like having a slightly luxurious meal, idling at your favorite cafe, or laughing and crying freely while watching movies or dramas, try various stress-relief methods to find outlets for your emotions.
Also, it's a good idea to cultivate a habit of positive thinking. Being stuck in rigid thought patterns can sometimes lead to stress, so learn to think flexibly.
Feeling stressed is unavoidable. If you can relieve and resolve it each time, not only your mind but also your body's tension will relax, and you'll fall asleep more easily.
Don't force yourself to sleep
If you lie in bed but don't feel sleepy or feel wide awake, don't force yourself to sleep; get out of bed for a while. If you force yourself to lie there, it can worsen insomnia and make it harder to feel deeply rested.
If you can't stand daytime sleepiness or lose concentration, taking a 10-15 minute nap is said to improve brain fatigue and help boost productivity.
Also, the appropriate amount of sleep varies from person to person, so if you don't feel sleepy during the day, it's fine even if you're consistently getting short sleep.
Do light exercises like stretching
The autonomic nervous system consists of the sympathetic nervous system, which governs tension and excitement, and the parasympathetic nervous system, which governs relaxation and sleep. Normally, they work in balance with each other, but it becomes easier to fall asleep if you can encourage the parasympathetic nervous system to be dominant before bed.
Static stretches, which involve slowly extending your body, are recommended before sleep as they relax muscles and promote the dominance of the parasympathetic nervous system.
Static Stretch ① Hand Relaxation
Hold your fist clenched for about 5 seconds. Then, quickly relax and feel the tension release.
Static Stretch ② Foot Relaxation
Lie on your back, pull your ankles towards your body, hold for about 5 seconds, then relax. When pulling your ankles, feel your Achilles tendons stretching.
Static Stretch ③ Full Body Relaxation
Lie on your back, clench your fists, and point your toes towards the ceiling. Hold this position, tensing your whole body, for 5 seconds. Then, exhale and completely relax your entire body. Repeat this 2-3 times to loosen muscles and relax.
All of these can be easily done in bed, so try them before bed or when you're having trouble sleeping.
Finish eating at least 3 hours before bed
To get good sleep, it's wise to avoid both feeling too full and too hungry. Eating right before bed, in particular, can stimulate the brain due to rising blood sugar levels. Since it takes 2-3 hours to digest food, it's best to finish dinner at least 3 hours before bed.
Also, if you're hungry and can't sleep, it's recommended to eat something that won't cause a rapid rise in blood sugar, such as udon, ochazuke, or soup.
Get some morning sun
When you wake up, first open the curtains and expose yourself to sunlight for about 15 seconds. Exposing yourself to strong light in the morning resets your body clock, and approximately 14-16 hours later, the sleep-regulating hormone "melatonin" will be secreted, allowing you to establish a natural sleep cycle by night. This is effective even on cloudy or rainy days.
Take a lukewarm bath
Taking a bath in lukewarm water at about 38 degrees Celsius for 25-30 minutes, 1-2 hours before bedtime, promotes the dominance of the parasympathetic nervous system and enhances relaxation. Also, the temporary rise in body temperature from bathing, followed by its decrease, can induce sleepiness. For a half-body bath that reaches your abdomen, bathing in water at about 40 degrees for 30 minutes has a similar effect.
However, be careful, as taking a hot bath at 42 degrees Celsius or higher right before sleep will activate the sympathetic nervous system.
Try deep breathing with abdominal breathing
Abdominal breathing is a breathing technique that uses the diaphragm, the muscle that separates the chest and abdomen, to take deep breaths. Repeating deep breaths allows you to activate the parasympathetic nervous system and relax your body. Also, by focusing on counting your breaths, you might unknowingly fall asleep.
Here's a simple way to do abdominal breathing:
- Exhale deeply through your mouth.
- Once you've slowly exhaled completely, inhale through your nose.
- Exhale slowly through your mouth again, taking about twice as long as you inhaled.
The key is to feel your abdomen flatten as you exhale and expand as you inhale. By exhaling as if releasing all the bad things and unpleasant feelings from your body, you can refresh both your body and mind.
Try using essential oils
Incorporating the habit of diffusing essential oils every night before bed is also recommended. Lavender, chamomile, and clary sage are generally considered good for relaxation, but try various options to find the scent that helps you sleep best.
Play music (BGM)
Incorporating music into your bedtime routine is also said to be beneficial. You can find many background music options by searching for terms like "sleep induction" or "sleep-inducing" on YouTube or music streaming services.
Be mindful of your sleep environment
Sleeping in loungewear like sweats or tracksuits might be contributing to difficulty falling asleep. Also, performing a fixed action like "changing into pajamas before bed" is said to signal your brain to prepare for sleep, making you naturally sleepy.
When choosing pajamas, opt for comfortable fabrics with good absorbency and quick-drying properties, such as cotton or silk, or recovery wear that aids in fatigue recovery. Regardless of the season, wearing long sleeves and pants helps absorb and evaporate sweat, leading to a drop in body temperature that enhances sleepiness.
Furthermore, paying attention to your bedding can also lead to higher quality sleep. Choose pajamas and bedding that suit you and help you relax.
When you can't sleep, focus on the quality, not the quantity, of sleep.
Generally, about 7 hours of sleep is said to be necessary, but for busy modern people, it's often difficult to get long hours of sleep every day. Therefore, recently, attention has shifted from just sleep duration to sleep quality.
When sleep quality is high, you can efficiently rest your body and brain within a limited sleep time, maintaining a clear state of mind the next morning. This also leads to improved work performance, such as increased concentration and a stable, less irritable mental state.
The necessary amount of sleep actually varies depending on age, daytime activity level, and physical condition, so rather than focusing on sleep duration, it's important whether you feel sleepy during the day. Focus on the quality of sleep, not the quantity.
How to improve sleep quality?
Here are four tips to improve your sleep quality, which can lead to better work performance.
Avoid things that cause difficulty falling asleep
Excessive stress, lack of exercise, and disruptions in the autonomic nervous system and body clock can cause difficulty falling asleep and insomnia, so be careful. Also, avoid caffeine, smartphone and computer use, alcohol, and smoking before bed. First, it is important to identify the causes of your inability to fall asleep.
Engage in actions that promote good sleep
The best way to improve insomnia is to address the cause appropriately. For example, if stress is considered a cause of difficulty falling asleep, eliminating the source of stress or finding effective stress relief methods can be beneficial.
If you can't pinpoint a specific cause, incorporate sleep-promoting habits into your daily routine, such as getting morning sunlight or taking a lukewarm bath, to improve sleep quality. Also, creating a pre-sleep routine, such as using essential oils or listening to music, is recommended. Try various methods from the 10 tips mentioned above to find what works best for you.
Also, be careful not to force yourself to sleep if you don't feel sleepy, as this can potentially lead to insomnia. Get out of bed, do some light stretching, or practice deep breathing.
Wear recovery wear
Recovery wear is a special type of clothing designed to help the body recover from fatigue just by wearing it. Wearing it during relaxation at home, while sleeping, or during travel can help alleviate muscle fatigue, swelling, and promote blood circulation.
Be particular about bedding
Sleep, said to occupy "one-third of life," is a crucial time for healing daily fatigue and recovering both mind and body. Therefore, it's essential to be particular about bedding, which significantly affects sleep quality. Here's how to choose the most important items: pillows and mattresses.
For pillows, height and firmness are key.
The most important thing for a pillow is whether its height matches the curve of your neck. Since you rest your head on it for extended periods, a pillow with the wrong height can strain your neck and shoulders, causing neck pain and stiffness, so be careful.
Also, cooling your head improves sleep quality, so choose a pillow that doesn't retain heat or moisture and maintains high heat dissipation.
For those who want to improve sleep quality or have severe sleep problems, custom-made pillows, though slightly more expensive, are recommended, as they can be tailored to the curve of your neck and your preferred firmness.
For mattresses, check how much your body sinks and how easy it is to turn over.
When choosing a mattress, it's important to test it out and assess the comfort: whether it feels too hard, too soft, comfortable, painful, strains your lower back, creates pressure, or is easy to sleep on.
Check not only immediately after lying down, but also after some time, to ensure there's no strain on your body, or any discomfort with how much your lower back sinks or how closely it conforms to your body.
Another key point is the ease of turning over. While lying on the mattress, try turning to your side or stomach and check for stability and pressure on your body. Sleeping on a mattress that suits your body can improve blood circulation and the removal of waste products that accumulate during the day, which can help alleviate fatigue and swelling.
The compatibility between your pillow and mattress is also important. When trying either in a store, it's recommended to consider the differences from the height of your home pillow or the firmness of your home mattress before making a purchase.
For more information on how to choose pillows and mattresses to improve sleep quality, please refer to the related articles below:
How to Choose the Right Pillow to Improve Sleep Quality: Selection Criteria You Won't Regret
Wake Up Refreshed! How to Choose a Mattress that Elevates Your Quality of Life
If you want to improve your sleep quality, check out Brain Sleep's recommended items!
Brain Sleep has developed various bedding products tailored to our customers' sleep needs and concerns. Here, we'll introduce the features and highlights of our recommended items.
Don't worry if you can't sleep at night
When you want to sleep but can't, you might feel anxious, thinking, "I have work tomorrow..." and lonely due to the quiet of the night.
However, dwelling on "I must sleep quickly" can lead to a vicious cycle where tension activates the sympathetic nervous system, making it even harder to sleep.
Try to relax with the mindset of "I'll wait until I feel sleepy," or if you really can't sleep, get out of bed for a while to clear your head.
There are various lifestyle habits that promote good sleep, from things you can do during the day to pre-sleep routines. Try different methods and find what works best for you.
