Why do city dwellers often experience sleep problems?

Today, adults and chil­dren liv­ing in big cities suf­fer from lack of sleep. Among the main caus­es of chron­ic sleep depri­va­tion, sci­en­tists name the wide­spread use of arti­fi­cial light­ing devices, which allow extend­ing day­light hours with­out the need to fol­low nat­ur­al bio­log­i­cal rhythms. If we add to this the need to spend a lot of time at work and on the road from home to the office and back, then there is very lit­tle time left for sleep. Lack of sleep leads to a decrease in per­for­mance and the devel­op­ment of many phys­i­cal and men­tal dis­eases.

Sleep deprivation is a major problem in urban areas.

Sleep time for an adult is 7–9 hours. But mod­ern peo­ple sleep much less, espe­cial­ly if they return late from work, and at the same time devote the remain­ing time to com­mu­ni­cat­ing with fam­i­ly, check­ing school home­work from chil­dren or read­ing infor­ma­tion on the Inter­net. There is less time for sleep, which can­not but affect the state of human health.

Many have heard about famous peo­ple who slept 2 hours a day, and this caus­es admi­ra­tion and a desire to repeat their “feat”. But indi­vid­ual genius­es are only excep­tions to the rule. Most peo­ple need more hours of sleep. Many res­i­dents of large cities are prone to stress, which is often accom­pa­nied by insom­nia, fre­quent noc­tur­nal awak­en­ings or hyper­som­nia. As a result of a vio­la­tion of the dai­ly rou­tine, a per­son feels over­whelmed and con­stant­ly tired.

Chron­ic lack of sleep leads to the devel­op­ment of many dis­eases. Obe­si­ty, hyper­ten­sion, dis­eases of the heart and blood ves­sels, fre­quent colds — this is not a com­plete list of prob­lems caused by the inabil­i­ty of the body to recov­er dur­ing a night’s rest. Even one sleep­less night can have a neg­a­tive impact on the psy­che of a per­son and his loved ones.

Causes of lack of sleep: bad habits and more

One of the most com­mon sleep dis­or­ders is insom­nia. It is char­ac­ter­ized by a decrease in the qual­i­ty of night rest, fre­quent wak­ing up and obses­sive thoughts that occur at night. Among the main caus­es of insom­nia are bad habits, stress, anx­i­ety or improp­er orga­ni­za­tion of the bed.

The list of bad habits that neg­a­tive­ly affect the qual­i­ty and dura­tion of night rest has been expand­ed by read­ing infor­ma­tion on mobile devices, watch­ing TV and play­ing com­put­er games. Many peo­ple pre­fer to fall asleep to the muf­fled sound of a tele­vi­sion pro­gram, but they can­not sleep through the whole night, because the flick­er­ing of the screen has a neg­a­tive effect on the ner­vous sys­tem. Dis­turb­ing news or neg­a­tive infor­ma­tion sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduces the qual­i­ty of a night’s rest.

Con­trary to pop­u­lar belief, alco­holic bev­er­ages do not con­tribute to qual­i­ty sleep. Despite the fact that they have a seda­tive effect on the ner­vous sys­tem and a per­son can quick­ly fall asleep, the qual­i­ty of rest will be unsat­is­fac­to­ry. In addi­tion, alco­hol is a depres­sant that reduces per­for­mance and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty.

Peo­ple sleep poor­ly, often expe­ri­enc­ing anx­i­ety, prone to stress and ner­vous ten­sion, which inevitably accom­pa­nies res­i­dents of large cities. As a result of lack of sleep, peo­ple devel­op bad habits as a way to relieve ner­vous ten­sion — the abuse of alco­holic bev­er­ages, tobac­co, and junk food. The desire to fill the lack of ener­gy with the help of food leads to excess weight, and then to obe­si­ty. Peo­ple who sleep less than 7 hours are prone to fre­quent colds and infec­tious dis­eases.

Cor­rec­tion of the dai­ly rou­tine is an inte­gral part of many pro­grams to main­tain a healthy lifestyle. Peo­ple in a state of chron­ic stress, with neu­ro­sis or oth­er men­tal dis­or­ders, it is rec­om­mend­ed to sleep enough hours. This is nec­es­sary to restore strength and improve over­all well-being.

Getting enough sleep is part of a healthy lifestyle

A healthy lifestyle includes not only a bal­anced diet and phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, but also com­pli­ance with the rules of night rest. It is on these impor­tant fac­tors that the work­ing capac­i­ty of adults, the aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance of chil­dren and the high qual­i­ty of life depend. There­fore, it is nec­es­sary to adjust the regime of the day and the con­di­tions of night rest.

The first impor­tant con­di­tion for qual­i­ty sleep is the refusal to watch TV, use mobile devices and com­put­er games no lat­er than half an hour before the expect­ed time of falling asleep. Get­ting new infor­ma­tion stim­u­lates brain activ­i­ty, and live­ly dis­cus­sions have an excit­ing effect on the ner­vous sys­tem and make it dif­fi­cult to fall asleep. There­fore, time­ly refusal to use elec­tron­ic devices should become a good habit.

Not only chil­dren, but also adults need a rit­u­al of falling asleep. This may include tak­ing a short walk, tak­ing a relax­ing bath, lis­ten­ing to relax­ing music, or doing any oth­er sleep-pro­mot­ing activ­i­ty. Before start­ing a night’s rest, you should not overeat, as this may adverse­ly affect its qual­i­ty.

The sleep­ing place must also be orga­nized cor­rect­ly, in accor­dance with the age of the per­son and his char­ac­ter­is­tics. The bed should be replaced if rest­ing on it caus­es any incon­ve­nience. The mat­tress and pil­low should be select­ed tak­ing into account the anatom­i­cal fea­tures of the per­son. The air tem­per­a­ture in the bed­room should not exceed 18–25 degrees.

A healthy lifestyle depends on the obser­vance of the dai­ly rou­tine. To get good sleep, you need to go to bed and wake up at the same time. There­fore, it is nec­es­sary to aban­don actions that pre­vent you from falling asleep prop­er­ly. The whole fam­i­ly must fol­low the rules of night rest, since pro­duc­tiv­i­ty in work and study, the state of phys­i­cal and men­tal health direct­ly depend on its qual­i­ty. Nor­mal­iz­ing the dai­ly rou­tine will help solve many exist­ing prob­lems and avoid new ones.