[Health Column] How to Escape the Days of Insomnia

Seok-Hoon Jeong, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Asan Medical Center, Seoul

When you don't sleep well, your body suffers. It becomes difficult to work the next day, and your concentration decreases. If you feel sleepy during the day, accidents can occur while driving or working. Therefore, getting good sleep is very important. Many patients suffering from insomnia try various methods to sleep well, but few of these methods are actually effective. What should you do to sleep well?

First, you need to keep your bedtime and wake-up time consistent. Especially, you must wake up at a fixed time in the morning. Many people who complain of insomnia say that their morning wake-up time is "daejoong-eopda" (not fixed). They think it is natural not to wake up on time in the morning because they didn't sleep well. However, to go to bed at a consistent time, you must first wake up at a consistent time.

So, when is the best time to sleep? You should go to bed 7 hours before your wake-up time. If you make it a habit to wake up at 6 a.m., you will feel sleepy around 11 p.m. If your morning wake-up time is not fixed, your bedtime will also be irregular.

Second, to get 7 hours of sleep, you need 17 hours of activity. Out of 24 hours in a day, to sleep 7 hours, you need to consider how to fill the remaining 17 hours.

Many people with insomnia lie down during the day to compensate for poor sleep at night. If you don't use your phone and keep it off, it doesn't need charging. To recharge our energy at night, we need to move our bodies and expend energy during the day. Lying down continuously after 1 to 2 hours of intense exercise does not help sleep at all. You need 17 hours of activity.

Third, think of lying down as the same as sleeping. The reason we sleep is to rest. Lying down means the body is resting. Saying "I just lay down without sleeping" is like saying "I didn't eat a meal but only had snacks." Just as you need to reduce snacks to enjoy a meal, your brain needs not to be pre-rested to achieve deep sleep.

Lastly, don't force yourself to sleep. We spend about one-third of our day sleeping. In that sense, sleep is very important, but the more strongly you think sleep is important, the harder it feels to overcome insomnia. Being obsessed with insomnia leads to a vicious cycle where you sleep even less. Cancer patients in Korea often worry that "if I don't sleep well, my immunity will decrease," but this worry causes anxiety and actually prevents sleep. If an athlete thinks it is a disaster not to win a gold medal and feels pressured, the gold medal becomes even more distant. You need to let go of the burden that you must sleep well to fall asleep comfortably.

Sleep is undoubtedly an important element in our lives. However, Koreans who think sleep is important reduce their sleep to study, work, and attend social gatherings. This is evidence that they do not truly value sleep. It is best neither to overlook the importance of sleep nor to overemphasize it. If you maintain regular sleep habits and consistent daytime activity without feeling excessive pressure about sleep, you can overcome insomnia.

Jung Seok-hoon, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Asan Medical Center, Seoul