Life in a big city is constant stress and pressure, a desire to become better and achieve more. At the same time, all these emotions and constant tension provoke insomnia. This is a problem, because after a sleepless night, a person loses energy, a clear mind, mood, and physical well-being. Psychiatrists in Los Angeles will share how to restore sleep and regain good health. More about this will be told by i-los-angeles.
Insomnia
This is a sleep disorder, problems with falling asleep, which affects the quantity and quality of rest. Several types of insomnia are distinguished:
- initial insomnia, when a person is just beginning to experience problems with falling asleep;
- maintenance insomnia, which is characterized by frequent awakenings or early awakenings;
- chronic insomnia. This is a condition that lasts for more than three or more nights. This type is a signal from the body about hidden psychological or even medical problems;
- acute insomnia. This is a condition that lasts for several days or weeks. Usually, this type of sleep disorder is caused by stress or sharp changes in life. Acute insomnia can go away on its own, but it can worsen if this condition is ignored.
Insomnia increases the risk of developing depression and excessive anxiety, provokes the occurrence of heart diseases and other health problems.
Los Angeles – a city without sleep
Why is the risk of developing insomnia in Los Angeles significantly higher than in a small city? Let’s consider the reasons why city residents are increasingly seeking help from a psychiatrist.
- Pressure of a big city, driven by constant and rigid deadlines, image, and ambitions.
- Constant stimulation. This refers to digital devices, especially social networks, which broadcast that one can achieve more, live better, fulfill dreams. This reinforces disappointment in one’s own abilities, stimulates to work and do more. However, often this is an illusion, and the ideal picture of a better life is a fiction.
- Residents of Los Angeles who are employed in the entertainment, healthcare, and technology sectors have irregular work schedules. This affects and pressures people. The same can be said about shift work and freelancing.
- Severe competition in the labor market, where every day you have to prove that you are worth something. Because it seems that as soon as you relax a little, others will take your place.
- High cost of living, financial pressure.
All these reasons cause anxiety and lead to night reflections.
Brain Health USA – mental health in Los Angeles
This is a leading provider of mental health services, serving the citizens of Los Angeles and communities throughout California (over 50 branches). Brain Health USA has a network of doctors across the country to help individuals, organizations, and employees. The main goal is to create a favorable environment where each patient feels heard and valued, and can take responsibility for their mental health.
A team of highly qualified psychiatrists in Los Angeles provides the following mental health services: psychiatric evaluations, recommendations for treatment and support for the prescribed plan, therapeutic services (individual, group, family, child, adolescent therapy), specialized treatment. Citizens often turn to specialists with sleep disorders. They implement integrated care models that include support from psychiatrists, sleep specialists, and nutritionists. A comprehensive approach helps achieve recovery faster.
Brain Health USA uses advanced treatment methods, for example, CBT-I (cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia), neurostimulation, and biofeedback. The use of such methods helps restore sleep naturally.
How to understand that something is wrong?
Sleep diaries help track sleep patterns and associated emotional states. Psychiatrists may recommend the use of diagnostic tools to obtain objective data on the quality and duration of sleep. This refers to polysomnography and actigraphy. During polysomnography, a specialist records important physiological indicators during sleep: brain activity, eye movements, breathing, blood oxygen level. If necessary, a psychiatrist can refer the patient to other specialists: pulmonologist, neurologist, somnologist for additional examinations and consultations.
For successful and effective treatment, it is necessary to understand the causes of insomnia. For example, the cause may be sleep apnea, when breathing periodically stops or becomes shallow and the person wakes up. Another reason is restless legs syndrome with characteristic unpleasant symptoms that disrupt normal falling asleep and maintaining sleep. Parasomnias are also distinguished, characterized by sleepwalking or night terrors.
Each of the causes of insomnia requires different treatment approaches.
Advice from Brain Health USA psychiatrists
Professional treatment is extremely important, but lifestyle changes can improve the sleep of Los Angeles residents.
- Sleep hygiene. This refers to simple and completely understandable rules. It is worth adhering to a schedule, namely going to bed and waking up every day at the same time. An hour before bedtime, it is important to give up screens (phone, TV, PC, etc.). Instead, choose reading or a warm bath with essential oils to stimulate the body to rest. Thus, you send a signal that you are preparing for sleep. To the recommendations for sleep hygiene, it is worth adding a favorable atmosphere in the room. This refers to a cool temperature, the use of dense curtains and avoidance of noise sources.
- Nutrition and physical exercise. In the evening, you should avoid heavy food, caffeine, and alcohol, as these elements disrupt the sleep cycle, reducing its depth. In nutrition, choose foods rich in magnesium (almonds, spinach, bananas). Even slight physical activity will improve the quality of sleep. These can be walks, bike rides, and other activities.
- Using meditation programs, guided breathing. Before going to bed, you can write down what worries you most. Thus, you will transfer your worries to paper.
- The last piece of advice concerns therapeutic support. A psychiatrist from Los Angeles will help strengthen emotional regulation and teach positive thinking.
Implementing these strategies in life will help protect yourself from insomnia or significantly reduce the frequency of its manifestations.
If you experience several nights without sleep, then this may be the norm. However, in situations where bad sleep or its absence becomes the norm – this is a signal that help is needed. All this is reinforced by other problems that accompany lack of sleep, for example, irritability, depression. Sometimes city residents use solutions such as sleeping pills or alcohol for better falling asleep, which will also have the opposite of expected consequences in the future.
Self-love
We often hear that we need to love ourselves. This is a common phrase, but how much meaning it holds. We learn to build relationships with colleagues, managers, partners, children, but we forget about ourselves. Insomnia is a signal from the body that something is going wrong, somewhere you need to stop.
Turning to psychiatrists in Los Angeles for help is not a sign of weakness, but a manifestation of self-care. You cannot take a pill and forget about the causes and symptoms. You need to understand the sleep pattern and learn to build strong relationships with rest. And do you even know how to rest? In a metropolis, this can be difficult. Perhaps it’s time to learn to take pauses, setting aside space for self-love.