Coping with insomnia

Fifty-six-year-old housewife Choi Eun-hee cannot go to sleep at night.

She said she is usually ready to sleep long before she actually falls asleep.

“From around 10 p.m. I wait to fall asleep but stay awake all through the night. It’s only around 4 a.m. that I finally get some sleep,” she said.

Choi said her problem is negatively affecting her life.

“When I was able to sleep I did not realize that it was so important. Now I feel lethargic and sometimes depressed. The harder I try to fall asleep the lower that I feel in myself,” she said, adding that she tried medicine but quit because of the symptoms.

“I did not want to rely on drugs,” she added.

Choi is not the only one.

According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment, more than 380,000 people last year reported sleepless nights to their doctors.

The number of people treated for insomnia jumped by almost 17 percent each year between 2007 and 2011. It marked 207,559 in 2007 and 383,150 in 2011. About 40 percent of people who visited psychiatrists complained about insomnia.

The report showed that women suffered more from sleeplessness. Six to seven out of 10 patients were over 50 years old.

HIRA officials said women tend to be more vulnerable to stress.

“Women undergo drastic changes in their bodies as well as mentalities after menopause. This may explain why female patients outnumber men,” the agency said.

Sleep deprivation can lead to lowered immunity. Research suggests that a lack of sleep can worsen diabetes and hypertension and possibly affect the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Sleep is important not to only maintain health, but for quality of life. Dr. Han Jin-kyu of Seoul Sleep Center said an hour less sleep can lower a human’s brain function by 30 percent.

Here are some guidelines suggested by the Korea Association of Health Promotion to get back to sleep at night.

1. Control what you eat: It is widely known that caffeine prompts your nerves and deters sleep. Refrain from eating or drinking caffeinated or alcoholic drinks or foods before you go to bed. Don’t overeat at dinner. Drink a cup of warm milk if you feel hungry, rather than late-night snacks.

2. Keep yourself cool: The best environment for sleep is around 20 degrees Celsius. But don’t overdo the air conditioning.

3. Take a short stroll or shower before bed. Don’t use water that’s too cold or hot. Mildly warm water will help your blood circulation and help you feel dozy. Refrain from taking long naps before bed time.

4. Don’t drink alcohol: Many men mistake fatigue after binge drinking as sleepiness. However, alcohol lowers your chances of having a quality sleep. Therefore, don’t turn to alcohol for sleep.

Most of all, don’t become obsessed with getting to sleep. Instead, read a book for distraction. Don’t take sleeping pills unless authorized by doctors for very specific use.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)