"I always feel that my sleep is intermittent after a night's sleep", "I am asleep, but I feel like I am not asleep", "I always wake up in the middle of the night, and I can't sleep for half a day when I wake up...... This kind of "fragmented sleep" has been experienced by many people.

Some studies have found that long-term "fragmented sleep" can lead to accelerated brain aging, memory loss, and increased levels of systemic inflammation.

What are the dangers of "fragmented sleep"?

"Fragmented sleep" refers to a variety of reasons that cause interruptions or multiple awakenings at night. People who experience "fragmented sleep" are very aware that they are awake and have difficulty falling asleep every time they wake up.

Yu Xiang, head of the first ward of the Department of Neurology of Hunan Provincial People's Hospital and chief physician, introduced that "fragmented sleep" cannot enter the deep sleep period, but is in the period of thinking and light sleep, which cannot achieve the purpose of relieving fatigue, which is not conducive to the brain to clean up "garbage", and will also affect the body's metabolism.

This is also the reason why people with long-term "fragmented sleep" are prone to symptoms such as drowsiness, memory loss, and poor concentration during the day, and even further induce metabolic, cognitive, cardiovascular, and immune system problems.

He Guohua, chief physician of the Department of Neurology of Changsha Central Hospital in Hunan Province, introduced that there are four main harms of "fragmented sleep":

Impaired cognitive function: Leads to memory loss, unresponsiveness, and affects daily life and work efficiency.

Metabolic disorders: increase the risk of chronic diseases such as hypertension and obesity;

Increased risk of cardiovascular disease: increases people's risk of cardiovascular disease;

Weaken the body's immune function: increase the probability of infection, tumor and other diseases.

What kind of sleep is good sleep?

In general, there are four criteria for determining whether you have a good night's sleep:

The time from lying down to falling asleep does not exceed half an hour.

Wake up no more than twice between falling asleep and before waking up.

Don't wake up early. Early awakening means waking up more than half an hour earlier than usual.

When you wake up, you feel relaxed, which is often referred to as "resurrection".

How to improve "fragmented sleep"?

He Guohua, chief physician of the Department of Neurology of Changsha Central Hospital in Hunan Province, introduced that "fragmented sleep" is not only related to individual genes, age and underlying diseases, but also inseparable from people's living habits. Bad habits such as looking at mobile phones for a long time, staying up late, and lack of exercise may exacerbate the situation of "fragmented sleep".

Doctors suggest that improving "fragmented sleep" can:

Develop a regular work and rest time: go to bed and wake up on time to form a stable biological clock.

Avoid looking at your phone for a long time before going to bed: The blue light emitted by the phone screen can affect the body's melatonin secretion, which in turn affects the quality of sleep.

Avoid coffee and alcohol before bed: Stimulant drinks such as coffee and alcohol, or spicy foods can interfere with sleep.

Keep exercising: Exercise not only improves physical fitness, but also helps improve sleep quality.

Relax your mind and avoid anxiety: Learning to relax your mind, relieve stress, and reduce anxiety and tension is also an important way to improve sleep.

(CCTV News)