Everyone needs to sleep, and sleeping hours have a major part in the self-repair and adjustment of various organs and tissues of the human body. Bad-quality sleep may, however, raise the health burden on different tissues, thus, potentially indicating that there are some underlying problems. Besides, monitoring one’s sleep can also reveal that person’s health problems at the very early stage, thus, enabling easy maintenance and care.
Warning Signs for Older Adults: Early Morning Waking
For older people, a conspicuous reduction of sleep time together with waking at 3 or 4 a.m. frequently and an inability to get sleep again may herald a signal to watch out for health problems. Such a pattern could be a signal that mental health conditions are at the basis of the problem.
1. Pulmonary Abnormalities
Sleep at night is the main time when the body’s tissues that have been stressed during the day get their adjustment and detoxification. The lungs are, generally, the organ, which undergoes detoxification between 3 and 5 a.m. A person who often wakes during this time might be experiencing problems with lung function. Lack of qi and blood in the lungs not only affects the pace of whole blood circulation, but also blood supply is limited in the entire body. When such a state is detected by the brain, it can very well react with arousal to meet oxygen needs of the body.
2. Spleen and Stomach Imbalance
“Treatise on the Spleen and Stomach: Treatise on the Rise and Fall of the Spleen and Stomach” describes the origins of diseases from the downgrading of spleen and stomach functions. The two organs are pivotal in the digestive and absorptive processes of food, which in turn influence sleep quality directly. An overindulgent dinner may cause difficulty in falling asleep through the mechanism of spleen and stomach disharmony. Such disturbance can cause waking at night coupled with nightmares. Not only is it vital to maintain the good condition of the spleen and stomach so as to get quality sleep, but also it is necessary to practice moderation in eating habits.
3. Cranial Nerve Fragility
The contemporary lifestyle predisposes people to having hectic work and life schedules and the problem thus arising is the activity and rest imbalance. One particular effect of long periods of stress and tension is a reduction in the robustness of the cranial nerves, which, in turn, results in the normal sleep patterns being disrupted. The problem of sensitivity, in particular, is often associated with the phenomenon of waking at around 3 or 4 a.m. during the night.
4. Depression and Sleep Disturbance
Depression can be termed as a highly common psychological disorder the main feature of which are long-lasting negative emotions, among which sadness and helplessness are most notable. The extreme cases may even go as far as causing the person to kill him/herself. Clinical evidence shows that insomnia and early waking are most of the time the very first signs of depression. Awareness of these signs is of paramount importance. Initiatives that are beneficial to mental health such as taking care of ourselves, helping others, alleviating tension by healthy means, and doing things that make you happy and boost your self-esteem are what keep us sane and steady.
Knowing reasons for early waking can not only lead to health problem identification, but also help to improve the overall quality of sleep. Being conscious of sleep patterns is an integral part of good physical and mental health.
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