How to deal with insomnia during the Covid pandemic

Undergoing quarantine at home during the COVID-19 outbreak is not as easy as it sounds. Not a few people reported stress causing insomnia during the pandemic. Why can this condition occur and how to overcome it?

The phenomenon of insomnia during the COVID-19 pandemic

Sleeping late at night is indeed the most frequent sleep disorder humans experience. Whether it's because of work, too busy watching movies, or just having trouble sleeping.

Recently, the issue of insomnia has been experienced by most people who are undergoing home quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 outbreak has now caused more than two million cases and hundreds of people have died. The news about the coronavirus also contains a lot of negative content that worries some parties, especially risk groups.

In order to reduce the number of cases spread, the governments of almost every country limit the movement of their citizens and urge them to implement it physical distancing .

In fact, not only physical health, the effects of COVID-19 also have a major impact on the economic sector, which makes many people lose their jobs.

Naturally, this makes people even more stressed and worried, resulting in insomnia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reporting from UC Chicago Medicine, this condition is also caused by receiving excessive information that makes the mind stressful. As a result, the response of the body's stimulation system increases to trigger insomnia.

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What's more, most people spend their time during quarantine looking at their cellphone screens. Whether it's for work, study, or getting the latest news.

The light from the cellphone screen turns out to make the brain stop producing the hormone melatonin, so you have trouble sleeping.

For some people it may be used to work at home. However, this does not apply to those who carry out their daily routine of going to the office. Losing this routine can make waking and sleeping times inconsistent.

As a result, mood being ugly, motivation, and decreased energy which in fact can cause a person to take too long naps Of course taking too long naps can disrupt your sleep schedule, right?

The importance of getting enough sleep during a pandemic

It is no longer common knowledge that insomnia can increase the risk of various diseases, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though getting enough sleep is as important as exercising regularly and getting enough nutrition to deal with COVID-19.

The result of lack of sleep can make the mind easily stressed and may decide things that don't make sense. You may become more irritable and have an impact on relationships with other people, including family, friends, and partners.

This condition also affects your physical health, especially the immune system which is important in fighting this respiratory disease. This is because sleep helps the body fight infection. If you do not get good quality, the immune response will be impaired.

Therefore, insomnia must be addressed immediately, especially when undergoing home quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tips for dealing with insomnia during a pandemic

Efforts to prevent COVID-19 are not limited to using masks and washing hands using soap and running water. You need to keep your body healthy so that your immune system can ward off disease.

Difficulty sleeping during a pandemic can indeed be one of the factors that makes the body unfit and may increase the risk of disease. So that this does not happen to you, there are several ways to get enough sleep even if you are undergoing quarantine at home.

1. Create a sleep schedule

One way to deal with insomnia during a pandemic is to create a sleep schedule. Most people probably feel very differently when they go into quarantine and require them to work at home.

In fact, not a few of them were laid off from work which of course affects mental health.

In fact, one thing you need to remember and pay attention to is to keep your life as close to a normal routine as possible. Starting from showering before work to bedtime during normal life.

Try to figure out your sleep needs by experimenting with different amounts. Then, try to prioritize the hours of sleep that you think are best, whether it's 6 or 9 hours, all according to your individual needs.

Working and being quarantined at home during a pandemic shouldn't require you to stay up late and make it difficult to sleep. So, try to make the most of this to improve the quality of your sleep.

2. Set daily news intake

One of the reasons why you feel so stressed that it makes it difficult to sleep during a pandemic is to spend your time reading too much news.

Not reading the news will make you miss information, especially about the pandemic that has spread throughout the world. However, it never hurts to limit exposure to news, especially things that contain negative content and can damage the mood.

Here are some tips that can help you manage your daily news intake.

• compares the number of times a day checks the phone with the duration of reading the news
• start looking for positive news and limit news containing negative content
• read less news before bed
• reading news contains facts, not gossip or content that is not necessarily true

3. Reduce the use of cell phones before bed

Difficulty sleeping during the COVID-19 pandemic can also be caused by playing too much cellphone right before bed, especially in poor lighting.

By limiting reading the news, it also affects the use of cellphones before bed.

What's more, you may feel bored during quarantine, so the only savior is communication with friends and games on your cell phone. Even though staring at the cellphone screen all day long will only make your sleep quality worse.

Try to change the habit by reading books or listening to songs that help you fall asleep better.

4. Limiting the duration of naps

Not having too many activities while working from home makes most people tempted to spend their time napping. As a result, insomnia during the COVID-19 pandemic is inevitable.

Therefore, you may want to start limiting the duration of your naps. Normally, a good nap can last about 30 minutes to an hour and take place before 2:00 p.m.

If you are among those who experienced sleep problems before this pandemic, try not to take naps so that you can rest at night.

Actually, overcoming insomnia during a pandemic is not much different from getting quality sleep. The four methods above also need to be balanced by adopting a healthy lifestyle, such as exercising and consuming healthy foods to avoid stress.