Sleep health products

Sleep health products are not "miracle drugs for insomnia", but for more than 80% of people with mild to moderate sleep disorders, they can improve sleep quality through behavioral intervention and environmental optimization. Severe sleep problems must be prioritized to seek medical treatment, and the products can only be used as auxiliary means.

Last year, I helped my mother, who had suffered from menopausal insomnia for half a year, choose a sleep device. She read more than 30 clinical documents, joined four mutual help groups for insomnia patients, and reviewed the parameters of more than a dozen of the most popular products on the market. The final feeling is: this industry is really deep, useful ones are really useful, and the IQ tax can really make people confused.

First, let’s talk about the environmental adjustment products that everyone comes into contact with the most, such as blackout curtains, noise-cancelling headphones, neck pillows, and constant-temperature mattresses. These are actually the categories most recommended by the “environment-first group” in the sleep academia. Scholars in this group generally believe that 90% of episodic insomnia is related to external environmental interference. There is no need to take medicine or use interventional intervention products. When I rented together, I lived next door to a live-streaming anchor who would play music and call the mic every day at two in the morning. At first, I wore in-ear noise-cancelling earplugs until my ear canals became inflamed. Later, I switched to bone conduction sleep headphones and thickened silver-coated blackout curtains. When I lay down, I really felt like I was shutting out the whole noisy world. During that time, my deep sleep lasted 40 minutes longer than before, and I even woke up in the morning with a much lighter breath. Of course, some people think that this kind of product is "useless". I once had a friend who rented a house facing the street. He even had three layers of soundproof glass and a memory foam mattress costing more than RMB 3,000, but he still couldn't sleep well. Later, when I checked, I found out that his difficulty in falling asleep was caused by anxiety. No matter how comfortable the external environment is, it's useless if his mind can't stop.

The most controversial ones in the past two years have been active intervention products, such as microcurrent sleep devices, steam eye masks, sleep aid aromatherapy, and even massage devices with sleep aid functions. I have a friend who is an Internet operator. He stayed up for a week during a big sale. His whole body was sympathetically excited to the point where he could still keep his eyes open for three hours while lying flat. He received a microcurrent sleep device of the same model from a tertiary hospital. He lay down for half an hour and fell asleep the same day. ； But another friend who works in R&D bought the same product and said he felt nothing after using it for half a month. Later, after checking the clinical data, he found out that the effectiveness of this type of product is about 70%. It has obvious effects on people with high neurological sensitivity. People with high neurological tolerance who stay up late for a long time will naturally not feel the difference. One thing to mention here, don’t believe those three-in-one sleep patches that advertise “you can fall asleep in one patch” and “fall asleep in 10 minutes”. My mother initially followed suit and bought two boxes. When she opened them, they were filled with menthol and lavender essence. When applied to the temples, it was so cool that it made your brain hurt. It was useless at all. If you really want to choose this kind of interventional product, give priority to the one with a mechanical brand name and registration. At least the safety is guaranteed.

By the way, there are still many people who are concerned about whether sleep-aid foods are considered sleep health products. There is no unified opinion in the industry. I specifically asked neurologists and Chinese medicine friends who I am familiar with, and the two sides have quite different opinions: Western medicine generally believes that melatonin is only suitable for the elderly who suffer from jet lag or insufficient melatonin secretion. Long-term consumption by young people will suppress their own melatonin secretion. In the end, the more they take, the higher the dose, which will worsen insomnia.； Traditional Chinese medicine says that ingredients such as jujube kernels and lilies, which have the same medicinal and food origins, do have a soothing effect, but they also depend on the body type. For example, jujube kernel ointment is only suitable for people with insomnia who have a weak heart and spleen. If you are unable to sleep due to strong liver fire, anxiety and irritability, you will easily get angry after eating it, and you will even get acne around your mouth.

Let me talk about a pitfall that I have stepped into. When smart watches became popular two years ago, the first thing I did when I woke up every day was to check the sleep monitoring data. When I saw that the deep sleep duration was less than 2 hours, I became anxious. As a result, I couldn’t fall asleep the next day. Later, I simply turned off the sleep monitoring function, which made me feel more at ease. Really, many people buy a bunch of sleep products, but forget that the most important thing is not to put too much burden on sleep.

After all, sleep products are just auxiliary items. You can't expect to fall asleep while wearing a sleep device while staying up until three o'clock watching short videos and drinking ice cream. If you really can't fall asleep for more than two hours in bed for more than two consecutive weeks, or wake up three or four times in the middle of the night after falling asleep, don't blindly think about what products to buy. Go to the hospital and go to the sleep department to find out the cause. It is much more useful than spending tens of thousands of yuan to pile up a house of sleep aid products.