People spend about one-third of their lives sleeping. Sleep is closely related to health and is an essential physiological process for humans. Internationally, sleep, along with physical activity and nutrition, is considered one of the three key factors for ensuring normal development and health of the body, with sleep being the cornerstone of health.
For adults, sleep is crucial for restoring physical strength and enhancing immune function after intense learning, work, and daily activities. For children, sleep is particularly important for brain and nervous system development and promoting growth. Older adults require quality sleep to reduce functional decline and prevent premature aging. During special stages of life, such as pregnancy, sleep promotion is of significant importance for the health maintenance of both generations.
Modern medicine has demonstrated that sleep is associated with the occurrence, progression, and outcome of various diseases. Prevention of sleep disorders can help prevent numerous cardiovascular diseases, neurological and psychiatric disorders, digestive system disorders, endocrine system disorders, immune system disorders, musculoskeletal disorders, otorhinolaryngological disorders, tumor development and metastasis, as well as social issues such as traffic accidents, occupational safety accidents, and accidental injuries. Only by ensuring sufficient sleep duration and sleep efficiency can individuals maintain adequate energy for learning, work, and daily life.
Scientific sleep leads to a healthy life, free from illness!
The journal “EHJ-DH” states that sleep duration represents a potential new risk factor that has not been fully researched and may be an important target for the primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases in public health guidance.(https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjdh/ztab088)
Using a series of Cox proportional hazards models, they examined the association between sleep onset timing and the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD). During an average follow-up period of 5.7 (±0.49) years, a total of 3,172 cases of CVD were reported. A baseline analysis controlling for age and sex found that sleep onset timing between 10:00 p.m. and 10:59 p.m. was associated with the lowest CVD incidence. Another model adjusted for sleep duration, sleep irregularity, and established CVD risk factors but did not weaken this association, yielding a hazard ratio of 1.24 (95% confidence interval, 1.10-1.39; P < 0.005) and 1.12 (1.01-1.25; P < 0.005).
Compared to a sleep onset timing of 10:00 PM, sleep onset timing before 10:00 PM, between 11:00 PM and 11:59 PM, and in the morning at 12:00 PM or later were associated with a higher risk of CVD, with hazard ratios of 1.18 (P = 0.04) and 1.25 (1.02-1.52; P = 0.03), respectively. This means that starting to sleep between 10:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. is associated with a lower risk of heart disease.
How do I achieve healthy sleep?
1. Engage in appropriate exercise to improve sleep. Moderate aerobic exercise helps increase sleep drive. However, avoid vigorous exercise within 2 hours before bedtime.
2. Maintain a consistent sleep schedule, including weekends. Avoid staying up late, as it not only disrupts the sleep-wake cycle and leads to various sleep disorders but is also an important risk factor for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
3. Avoid engaging in non-sleep-related activities in bed. More and more people have a habit of lying in bed watching short videos, TV shows, or playing games, which significantly affects sleep quality. Therefore, to achieve good sleep, refrain from bringing your phone or watching TV to bed, clear your mind, close your eyes, and focus on sleeping.
4. Maintain a healthy diet every day. Sleep and diet influence each other. Avoid heavy meals and the consumption of coffee, strong tea, chocolate, and alcohol before bedtime. Drinking a warm glass of milk before sleep can help improve sleep quality.
5. If you are unable to fall asleep, leave the bed. If you cannot fall asleep within 20 minutes of lying in bed, it is recommended to get up and engage in relaxing activities such as muscle relaxation or breathing exercises.
6. Medication intervention to establish a normal sleep-wake cycle. For patients with chronic insomnia, sedative-hypnotic medications may be necessary to break the vicious cycle and reshape a normal sleep-wake rhythm. However, it is important to follow the guidance of a doctor when taking medication.
TODAY IS WORLD SLEEP DAY. GET SOME WELL-DESERVED SLEEP TODAY!
Post time: Mar-21-2024