Sleep health seminar held in Beijing

On September 12, a sleep health seminar jointly sponsored by the China Sleep Research Association and the National Health Industry Enterprise Management Association concluded at the Beijing International Convention Center. The core consensus of this event was that there is no "standard sleep plan" suitable for everyone. In the past, it was generally believed that The well-known conclusions such as "you must sleep for 8 hours" and "going to bed early is good for health" must be flexibly adjusted according to different ages, occupations, and underlying diseases. Nearly 70% of ordinary people who are troubled by sleep problems do not suffer from pathological insomnia, but are dragged down by the anxiety created by rigid sleep standards.

The sharing at the event was much more vivid than the dry academic report. Many practitioners asked questions with their own pitfalls, directly bringing the conflict of views of different schools to the table. When I entered the venue, I happened to meet a young man who was doing server operation and maintenance. He raised his microphone and asked a question. He said that he always works the night shift. I read popular science before and said that "11 a.m. to 3 a.m. is the golden period for beauty sleep."

This question directly brought up the discussion point at the scene. The deputy director of sleep direction from the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine at Peking Union Medical College Hospital was the first to answer. He was holding 2,300 pieces of sleep data from different occupational groups that were surveyed in advance for this event: "Let me give you reassurance first. For people who need to work shifts for a long time, forcibly changing their schedule will disrupt the circadian rhythm. , as long as the total daily sleep time reaches the standard and the proportion of deep sleep is between 15% and 25%, even if you sleep during the day and work at night, the impact on health is not as exaggerated as what is reported online. Many people feel that they cannot sleep well and feel uncomfortable. The essence is that the anxiety of "I stay up late will make me sick" first affects the state. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, a researcher from the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences took up the topic. He cited a case he received last week: a girl who works in cross-border e-commerce follows European and American schedules all year round. After taking melatonin for more than half a year, she still wakes up with a headache every day. After checking her pulse, it was found that it was due to liver qi stagnation and irregular diet, so she adjusted the time of her three meals. Add moxibustion to soothe the liver twice a week, and it will be fine in half a month. "We don't agree to say "sleeping late is not enough", but the time period of sleeping is not important, which does not mean that the living habits can be arbitrary. Many people keep drinking iced coffee and milk tea when they stay up late. When they wake up and have a headache and fatigue, they blame poor sleep. In fact, it is the fault of eating habits. ”

Concerning the issues that everyone is most concerned about, "should I take medicine for insomnia and whether I can take melatonin?", the debate on the spot has not stopped. Some clinical doctors in psychiatry said that patients who have been diagnosed with pathological insomnia should take medicine as long as they need it. There is no need to worry about side effects, but it will be more harmful to the body. There is also a consultant who does sleep cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT-I), saying that 80% of transient insomnia does not require medication at all. He had received one before. In the case of a senior high school student, his parents forced him to go to bed at 11 o'clock. As a result, the child could not fall asleep for an hour, and the more he lay down, the more anxious he became. Later, he was adjusted to go to bed at 12:30 and wake up at 6:30, and then added a 20-minute lunch break at noon. After a month, not only the quality of his sleep improved, but his mock test score also increased by more than 30 points. As for melatonin, the consensus on the spot is that it can be taken as an emergency after short-term jet lag or staying up late occasionally. Long-term use of large amounts will indeed suppress one's own melatonin secretion and worsen insomnia. It is especially not recommended for minors to take it casually.

During the intermission, I met a little girl who works in operations in the corridor and was squatting in the corner to catch up on her sleep. There was half a bottle of melatonin and a steam eye mask exposed in her bag. She said that the company gave her half a day off to participate. "I always felt that I would collapse if I only slept 6 hours a day. Today, I heard an expert say that as long as I wake up without feeling sleepy, there will be no problem, and I suddenly breathed a sigh of relief." "The experience area on site was also crowded with people, some were trying out sound and light sleep aid equipment, and some were experiencing ear acupoint pressure beans. I leaned over and pressed the Shenmen point, and the soreness and swelling immediately came up. The Chinese medicine practitioner in charge of the experience said with a smile that many people feel flustered and unable to sleep after staying up late. Pressing this acupuncture point for two minutes is more effective than drinking half a cup of warm milk. "Don't always think about finding some magic sleep aid. Use less short videos about "sudden death after staying up late", which are better than any sleep aid products. ”

To be honest, when I participated in similar health seminars before, I always felt that they were just theories floating in the sky, but this time there was a lot more grounded content. At the end of the event, no lofty "sleep guide" was released. Instead, a free public welfare sleep self-assessment applet was launched. Ordinary people can fill in their work and rest habits and physical conditions and get targeted adjustment suggestions. They no longer have to worry about unified standards on the Internet.

At the end of the show, I heard two HR people from the Internet company chatting next to me. They said that they would adjust the company’s lunch break from one hour to one and a half hours, leaving 20 minutes for everyone to lie down and sleep. Don’t always let everyone lie down on the table to work. In fact, there is no perfect sleep standard. Compared with the empty slogan of "paying attention to sleep", if you can give ordinary people more room for flexible adjustment, you can truly put sleep health into practice.