UNAIR NEWS – For some people, getting used to staying up late causes insomnia, especially students during online learning. As the habit reduces the sleeping quality, they are forced to take sleeping pills to solve the problem.

UNAIR sleep specialist from the Faculty of Medicine dr Wardah Rahmatul Islamiyah SpN(K) stated that sleeping pills should not be an alternative to fix sleep disorders. Instead of getting better and more comfortable sleep, sleeping pills, such as CTM, only cause prolonged drowsiness. Sleeping pills are not safe for long-term consumption.

“The side effect includes dependence on sleeping pills. It was fine in the beginning. Two weeks passed, the effect has gone, and the patient will think ‘the pill doesn’t work anymore’ until they increase the dosage. Eventually, it leads to overdose,” she said.

In several cases, a doctor prescribes sleeping pills in the form of exogenous melatonin hormone, which will induce sleep. However, the usage is also limited.

“The usage of exogenous melatonin hormone will last not more than two weeks because of the risk of stopping melatonin production naturally,” she said.

Sleep quality depends on the sleep quantity

Getting back the body clock and resetting the sleeping pattern are not instant tasks. The sleep specialist from the Faculty of Medicine UNAIR said that sleep quality depends on the sleep quantity. Different age requires different sleep duration as well.

“Children need 10 hours a day of sleep, and adolescents take eight hours, adults sleep for about six hours, while elders only need four to five hours. It is unlikely to get more than that unless the sleep quality is poor,” dr Wardah said.

Physical exercises and productive activities from the morning until the afternoon will also improve sleep quality. The tiredness from enduring activities will push the body to sleep better.

Try sleep hygiene

According to medical science, high-quality sleep is the one that reaches stage three or deep sleep, which takes 1.5 hours from the drift off. It is a stage in which the person will not be easily awakened. Sleep hygiene or sleep preparation is one of many ways to get high-quality sleep.

“Eating less than two hours before sleep is discouraged. The digestive system should have a break during that time,” said her.

She suggested exercising not more than four hours before bedtime to avoid the increasing cortisol before sleep. In addition, preparing a comfortable room and moment will also help, for instance, by switching off the lamp or dimming the lights.

“Sleep is a ‘simple thing’ people commonly underestimate. If we cannot wisely maintain the ‘simple thing’, it will cause various illnesses. Therefore, high awareness is necessary to fix the irregular sleep problems,” said dr Wardah.

Author: Alysa Intan Santika

Editor: Feri Fenoria