Occasionally not being able to sleep at night is not insomnia. To determine whether one has insomnia, you can refer to the following criteria: if you lie in bed for half an hour and still can't fall asleep, or if your total sleep time is less than six and a half hours, or if you wake up in the middle of the night for more than half an hour, and these issues significantly affect your life and work the next day, causing irritability and forgetfulness, you can basically be diagnosed with insomnia. Why emphasize the latter? Mainly because there is a great individual difference in sleep. A small number of people only need four or five hours of sleep a day and are still energetic the next day. This situation does not affect their life and work, so it is not considered insomnia.

Among those who have experienced insomnia symptoms, half are occasional insomniacs. Occasional insomnia is not terrible, but what needs to be watched out for is that many chronic insomniacs develop from occasional insomnia. If you have insomnia for more than three days a week for more than a month, you should seek medical attention. However, many people do not take insomnia seriously at first and only go to a specialist when the condition becomes more severe. Doctors often prescribe sleeping pills, but many people are afraid of them, thinking they have too many side effects and can be addictive. In fact, this is a misunderstanding about sleeping pills. Studies abroad have long shown that memory loss and decline caused by insomnia are far greater than those caused by taking sleeping pills. Many times, people think their memory problems are due to taking sleeping pills, but in fact, it is mainly because their treatment is not appropriate, only treating the symptoms and not the root cause, leading to more and more sleeping pills, more and more severe insomnia, and eventually obvious memory decline.

A survey on the sleep status of Chinese doctors showed that nearly 70% of doctors had experienced insomnia symptoms in the past 12 months, with 62.8% of doctors believing that their health problems may be related to sleep issues, and 47.8% of doctors believing that their sleep problems affect the doctor-patient relationship. Although they all take insomnia seriously, the survey also shows that even doctors themselves are "unclear" about how to take sleeping pills. Some doctors take benzodiazepine sleeping pills, some take non-benzodiazepine sleeping pills, and some take traditional Chinese medicine or health products. How to choose medication, many doctors do not base it on the diagnosis of their own diseases, but on the recommendation of friends. In addition, doctors' practices for treating insomnia are also different. Among them, 9% only prescribe sleeping pills when patients ask for them, while others do not.

In fact, sleeping pills have developed to include many types. In addition to common benzodiazepine sleeping pills (i.e., tranquilizer sleeping pills), there are also non-benzodiazepine sleeping pills. From the development trend abroad, benzodiazepine sleeping pills have gradually been eliminated, replaced by non-benzodiazepine sleeping pills. Benzodiazepine sleeping pills are cheap, but they can also lead to drug dependence and rebound insomnia, while domestic non-benzodiazepine sleeping pills cost at least 1 yuan per pill. Although the price is slightly higher, the side effects are smaller, and they can be taken on demand. Insomnia patients do not need to panic about sleeping pills. If they are afraid of causing drug dependence, they can choose non-benzodiazepine sleeping pills.

It is often seen that patients complain to doctors about their struggle in their hearts every time they take sleeping pills. Originally, insomnia was caused by anxiety, but the issue of taking sleeping pills has caused new anxiety. In this way, they often go to bed without taking medicine, but after a while, they can't sleep and start to worry, repeatedly thinking about what to do. In this psychological tug-of-war with themselves, more and more anxiety accumulates together. By the time they decide to take the medicine, the accumulated anxiety has overwhelmed the effect of the medicine, and they still can't sleep well even after taking the medicine. Therefore, after dispelling patients' doubts about sleeping pills, some doctors will ask patients that if they haven't taken the medicine before going to bed, as long as they haven't fallen asleep within 10 minutes of going to bed, they should get up and take the medicine immediately.

In addition, there are many drugs and health products on the market to treat insomnia, and many patients buy a pile of them without understanding their own situation. In fact, many so-called sleep aids are actually placebos, and their effectiveness is hard to guarantee. Because each person's cause of disease is different, the treatment method is also different. If insomnia symptoms occur, it is best to consult a specialist for targeted treatment.