Having trouble sleeping doesn't necessarily mean you have insomnia! To sleep better and more restfully, start by writing a "sleep journal".

When you feel sleepy, it feels like you could sleep through the whole night – that's "happiness"; but when you actually fall asleep, you only sleep for two minutes – that's "insomnia". Tonight, you may have already checked your phone for the 365th time, feeling tired yet alert as you realize that time seems to be counting down to dawn. You only have three hours left to fall asleep. Whether you stay awake or fall into a deep sleep, you tell yourself with frustration that it's another sleepless night, another mental state a mixture of exhaustion and listlessness. Perhaps the aroma of triple-strength espresso from the coffee shop around the corner in the early morning can bring back some clarity.

Have you started a sleep diary?

If you wanted to lose weight today, what would you do? Exercise? Diet control? Besides these, you'd definitely step on a multi-functional scale to measure your weight, body mass index, or body fat percentage (otherwise, how would you know if you've successfully lost weight? Although it takes courage to step on it). If you wanted to improve your sleep, have you ever kept a sleep log? When asked this question, you might wonder, what exactly does a "sleep log" contain?

A sleep log, or sleep diary, is a self-recorded record of your sleep patterns each night. For example: What time did you go to bed? How long did it take you to fall asleep? Did you take any sleeping pills? How deep was your sleep? Did you wake up in the middle of the night? What time did you wake up in the morning? How long did you stay in bed after waking up? Did you take a nap in the afternoon? ...etc. At this point, you're probably feeling even more anxious, thinking, "I'm already anxious enough about not being able to sleep at night, do I really have to constantly monitor my sleep schedule?" Actually, a sleep log isn't as complicated as you might think. It uses a few symbols and only requires a rough recollection of the previous night. Let's introduce some common symbols!

A "sleep diary" sounds impressive, but what does it look like? Actually, it's like the table below, using simple geometric shapes, symbols, and lines to depict our daily sleep patterns.These records only need to be filled out roughly based on the impression from the previous day.You don't need to keep staring at the clock, so don't worry! It's much simpler than writing a diary.

The sleep diary example above, when translated into Chinese, actually means: I had a few drinks at 9:00 PM, and lay down in bed at 10:00 PM to go to sleep. However, I didn't fall asleep immediately and didn't fall asleep until 12:30 AM. I woke up at 3:00 AM and stayed in a light sleep state for about 30 minutes. I didn't wake up until 6:00 AM, but I didn't get out of bed immediately. I stayed in bed until 9:00 AM before getting up. I had a cup of coffee around 1:00 PM, and took a nap around 2:00 PM. I lay in bed and kept falling asleep until 3:30 PM. I didn't get up until 4:00 PM to end my nap.

Which of these three types of insomnia do you have?

Why is sleep recording an important reference in the treatment of insomnia? Because to cure a disease, you need to know how it came about or what its symptoms are like. Let's first briefly introduce three types of insomnia: "difficulty falling asleep", "inability to fall into a deep sleep", and "early morning awakening".

• Difficulty falling asleep After going to bed, people struggle to fall asleep, often for more than 30 minutes. Those with difficulty falling asleep will toss and turn in bed, initially in a light sleep state. Like the example in the sleep diary, lying in bed at 11:00 pm, it takes an average of 1.5 to 2 hours to fall asleep, and the first half of sleep is in a light sleep state.
• Difficulty staying asleep The patient experienced frequent awakenings throughout the night. Although there was no difficulty falling asleep, the sleep was consistently light or interrupted. Patients with this sleep disorder can fall asleep easily in bed, but their sleep is easily interrupted in the middle of the night, or they are unable to fall into a deep sleep, feeling like they are in a state of light sleep. Like the example in the sleep diary, the period from 3:00 AM to 6:00 AM was a relatively restless sleep.

• Early morning awakening type I wake up before dawn and can't fall back asleep. I'm an early morning waking type; I can fall asleep easily in bed at night and the quality of my sleep is pretty good, but unfortunately, I wake up very early and can't fall back asleep. Like the example in the sleep diary, after waking up at around 4:00 AM, I couldn't fall back asleep, and I didn't even experience light sleep. Most people would say that they just lay in bed with their eyes closed, but they still couldn't fall asleep, so they just treated it as rest.

Most people who experience insomnia intuitively feel that they can't sleep well, but what exactly is causing this problem? Many insomnia sufferers can't clearly explain it, mostly because they're immersed in their painful experience of insomnia. However, using a sleep diary can easily help identify your insomnia patterns, and medical professionals can better plan effective, personalized treatment steps!

Not being able to sleep doesn't necessarily mean insomnia.

Insomnia isn't always caused by insomnia, as it can sometimes be due to other underlying medical conditions or simply a problem with your biological clock (please refer to:"The Matter of Sleep" - Why do we suffer from insomnia?Don't believe that not being able to sleep isn't necessarily insomnia? Let Jason show you this sleep diary:This case of insomnia is not actually due to sleeplessness, but rather a problem with the body's biological clock. The body's clock suggests that the person should fall asleep around 3:30 AM, but they are in bed around midnight, which naturally leads to 2-3 hours of insomnia. In addition, they rely on caffeine to stay awake during the day, and even after drinking coffee, they still feel drowsy. However, the insomnia or daytime drowsiness disappears by the weekend. It is not difficult to see from this example that...He tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep, and it took him 2-3 hours to finally drift off. However, he could usually fall asleep around 3:30 AM. If we moved his bedtime later, would he be able to fall asleep easily? You see, on weekends, if he goes to bed later, he doesn't have trouble falling asleep and can even sleep until noon!

Many people experiencing this condition mistakenly believe it's "difficulty falling asleep" type of insomnia and therefore start taking sleeping pills.However, sleeping pills cannot improve sleep problems caused by the body's biological clock; what is needed is...PhototherapyTo adjust your biological clock.

So you're saying, isn't sleep tracking important? all in all,The first step to improving insomnia is to "record your sleep patterns"! Only by understanding how you can't fall asleep can you use different strategies to deal with it.

News Source:Manager Monthly