20250214 - 失眠的自制疗法：什么有效，什么无效 - My Deep Sleep Quest I Tried 11 Popular Insomnia Cures. Do Any of Them Actually Work¶
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Clippings - 创建:
2025-02-14 - 标签:
失眠, 健康, 生活方式, 自制疗法, 心理健康
My Deep Sleep Quest: I Tried 11 Popular Insomnia Cures. Do Any of Them Actually Work?¶
摘要 (Summary)¶
这篇文章讨论了失眠的问题，尤其是在封锁期间失眠率的上升。作者分享了自己在失眠方面的经验和自制疗法，包括喷雾、呼吸法、加重毛毯、CBD 滴剂等，表明大多数尝试都没有显著效果。她还提到了褪黑激素、药房的非处方药和其他一些方法，并表达了对这些疗法的怀疑。文章最后指出，或许接受失眠本身是最好的解决办法。
要点 (Key Facts)¶
- 失眠在封锁期间显著增加。 2. 作者每晚睡眠时间通常少于五小时。 3. 尝试了多种自制失眠疗法，大多效果不佳。 4. 提到的疗法包括喷雾、加重毛毯、CBD 滴剂等。 5. 褪黑激素在英国需要处方。 6. 最终得出结论：接受失眠可能是最佳选择。
正文 (Content)¶
Photo by Kilito Chan/Getty Images
图片由 Kilito Chan/Getty Images 提供
How did you sleep last night? Insomnia rates have soared during successive lockdowns: anyone would think facing a constant existential threat isn’t the ideal preparation for a refreshing eight hours. Suggested remedies abound – behavioural, pharmaceutical, nonsensical and bleeding obvious – and I have tried most of them.
昨晚你睡得怎么样？连续封锁期间，失眠率飙升：谁都会认为，面对持续存在的生存威胁并不是为八小时清爽睡眠做准备的理想条件。建议的疗法层出不穷——行为上的、药物的、荒谬的以及显而易见的——而我已经尝试了其中大部分。
Insomnia can be a competitive sport and I am not podium material; I’m a common or garden poor sleeper, rarely getting more than five hours a night (luxury, I hear the real insomniacs hissing in red-eyed fury), often less and sometimes, thankfully rarely, none. That is not exceptional. It’s not the stuff of insomnia memoirs, which do exist, but I refuse to read any in case they give my brain and body ideas. But it is wearing. On nights when sleep just isn’t happening, I’m filled with despair at the realisation that I will not get even a short break from being in my own head.
失眠可以是一场竞技运动，而我并非领奖台的材料；我只是个普通的睡眠不佳者，每晚很少能睡超过五个小时（奢侈啊，我听到真正的失眠者红着眼睛愤怒地嘶嘶作响），常常更少，有时，谢天谢地很少，一点也没有。这并不特别。这不是失眠回忆录的素材，虽然这些回忆录确实存在，但我拒绝阅读任何一本，以免它们给我的大脑和身体带来想法。但这确实令人疲惫。在那些无法入睡的夜晚，我充满绝望地意识到，我甚至无法从自己的思绪中得到短暂的休息。
I have never consulted a doctor about insomnia: I don’t know why, other than it doesn’t seem the kind of thing a harassed GP would be able to do much about. My region isn’t covered by the NHS CBT-based app, Sleepio either, of which I hear good things. In desperate times, I use the Valium I was prescribed for migraines – effective, but not a long-term solution. So I turn mostly to DIY insomnia remedies – and as someone who has given them all a whirl, here is my wholly subjective opinion on what to try and what not to waste your many waking hours on.
我从未因失眠咨询过医生：不知道为什么，除了觉得这似乎不是一位忙碌的全科医生能帮上多大忙的事情。我所在的地区也不在 NHS 基于 CBT 的应用程序 Sleepio 的覆盖范围内，尽管我听说它效果不错。在绝望的时候，我会使用为偏头痛开的安定——有效，但不是长久之计。因此，我大多转向自制的失眠疗法——作为一个尝试过所有方法的人，以下是我对哪些值得一试、哪些不值得浪费你许多清醒时间的主观看法。
Sprays and roll-ons 喷雾和滚珠¶
The insomniac is essentially a primitive, credulous creature; one whose cognitive functions are probably operating at about 3% of optimum capacity. This is how I, an otherwise rational person, have ended up using a Balance Me Beauty Sleep Hyaluronic Mist and a Balance Me Beauty Sleep CBD Concentrate rollerball nightly: each “worked” once (yes, time for me to retake correlation/causation 101), so I can never stop, despite them not appearing to have made any appreciable difference to my sleep since. These potions smell delightful, but the use of the word “beauty” is hilariously wrongheaded: I look like a sentient bowl of porridge because I never sleep. I also heard great things about Elemis’s pretentiously named Quiet Mind Temple Balm but was disappointed: it just smells and feels like expensive tiger balm to me. My unquiet mind does not recommend.
失眠者本质上是一种原始、轻信的生物；其认知功能可能仅以最佳状态的 3%运行。这就是我，一个在其他方面理性的人，最终每晚使用 Balance Me Beauty 睡眠透明质酸喷雾和 Balance Me Beauty 睡眠 CBD 浓缩滚珠的原因：每样东西都“奏效”过一次（是的，我该重修相关性与因果关系的入门课了），所以我无法停止使用，尽管它们似乎并未对我的睡眠产生任何显著改善。这些药剂闻起来很香，但“美容”一词的使用却荒谬至极：我看起来像一碗有知觉的粥，因为我从不睡觉。我还听说了 Elemis 那故作高深的“静心庙宇香膏”的好评，但感到失望：它对我来说闻起来和感觉上就像昂贵的虎标万金油。我那不安宁的心并不推荐。
Pillow sprays 枕头喷雾¶
In my experience, a pillow spray is the weakest insomnia Hail Mary out there. Conceivably, if the stuff were 99% Calvados and I soaked my pillow with it then sucked it, it might work. As it is, while my This Works: Deep Sleep Pillow Spray with its “superblend of lavender, camomile and vetivert” is pleasant, I am sorry to say This Does Not Work: On Me.
根据我的经验，枕头喷雾是应对失眠最无力的最后一招。可以想象，如果这东西 99%是卡尔瓦多斯酒，我把它浸湿枕头然后吸吮，或许会有效。但事实上，尽管我的这款“This Works: Deep Sleep Pillow Spray”含有“薰衣草、洋甘菊和岩兰草的超级混合配方”闻起来很舒服，但很遗憾，它对我并不奏效。
**The 4-7-8 breathing technique¶
4-7-8 呼吸法**
Plenty of research suggests breathing exercises are effective for relaxation. This one is simple: breathe in for four seconds, hold your breath for seven seconds, then breathe out for eight. For me, however, any attempt to focus on breathing leaves me unable to breathe normally at all. Can I trust my lungs, which are just eerie flesh crumpets, to send me to sleep? Wouldn’t it be horribly easy just to stop breathing? You can imagine how relaxing yoga classes are for me.
大量研究表明，呼吸练习对放松很有效。这个练习很简单：吸气四秒，屏住呼吸七秒，然后呼气八秒。然而，对我来说，任何试图专注于呼吸的尝试都会让我完全无法正常呼吸。我能相信这些只是诡异肉饼的肺部能让我入睡吗？停止呼吸不是很容易吗？你可以想象瑜伽课对我来说有多放松。
Weighted blankets 加重毛毯¶
I love the idea of a weighted blanket, a sort of heavy fabric hug, albeit one with scarcely researched relaxation and sleep benefits. I acquired a 14kg one secondhand, but was sad to discover (not) sleeping under it feels like being implacably crushed to death by boiling lava. It took all my strength to drag it into a cupboard, so it won’t be coming out again any time soon.
我喜欢加重毯子的概念，它像是一种厚重的织物拥抱，尽管其放松和助眠效果鲜有研究。我二手购入了一条 14 公斤的毯子，但遗憾地发现（并非）在它下面睡觉的感觉就像被沸腾的熔岩无情地压死。我费尽力气才把它拖进柜子，所以它短期内不会再出来了。
CBD drops CBD 滴剂¶
The wonder compound CBD is in everything now: crisps, lipstick, toothpaste (all of these actually exist). CBD puts me in mind of a family anecdote in which [redacted relative] gave my mother [redacted controlled substance] one Christmas morning. “It hasn’t done anything!” she complained, some time that evening. “Of course it has, you haven’t cried once,” replied [redacted relative]. This informs my relationship with CBD: I don’t think it’s doing anything to aid my sleep, but perhaps I’d be even worse without it.
神奇的化合物 CBD 如今无处不在：薯片、口红、牙膏（这些确实都存在）。CBD 让我想起一个家庭轶事，某年圣诞节早晨，[隐去亲属]给了我母亲[隐去管制物质]。“它一点用都没有！”那天晚上她抱怨道。“当然有用，你一整天都没哭过，”[隐去亲属]回答。这影响了我对 CBD 的看法：我不认为它有助于我的睡眠，但或许没有它我会更糟。
Melatonin 褪黑激素¶
The hormone melatonin is produced by the pineal gland in the brain to prepare the body for sleep. The mysteries of international regulation mean you can buy a truckload of it in the US in your local Whole Foods (along with a $28 watermelon or some “deliciously dippable kale shapes”), but here it is prescription only, so I am forced to procure it from a friend in the US who sends it to me in exchange for Marigold bouillon powder, which, puzzlingly, is unavailable in US Whole Foods branches. The melatonin itself – chewable and mildly peppermint flavoured – has not rocked my sleep world noticeably. If you wish to take something similarly underwhelming, you can get 5-HTP at health food shops here in the UK. It’s an amino acid that indirectly stimulates your production of melatonin, through a mechanism too complex for my insomnia brain to understand.
褪黑激素是由大脑中的松果体分泌的，用于帮助身体准备入睡。国际监管的奥秘意味着你可以在美国的 Whole Foods 超市买到大量褪黑激素（同时还能买到 28 美元的西瓜或一些“美味可蘸的羽衣甘蓝形状”），但在英国，它却属于处方药，因此我不得不从美国的朋友那里获取，他用它来交换万寿菊汤粉，奇怪的是，这种汤粉在美国的 Whole Foods 分店却买不到。这种可咀嚼且略带薄荷味的褪黑激素并没有显著改善我的睡眠。如果你想尝试类似效果平平的东西，可以在英国的保健食品店买到 5-HTP。它是一种氨基酸，通过一种复杂到我失眠的大脑无法理解的机制，间接刺激你的褪黑激素分泌。
**Counting backwards from 1000 in 7s¶
从 1000 开始倒数，每次减 7**
Sure, 2am maths is definitely the best maths. No.
当然，凌晨两点的数学绝对是最好的数学。不。
Over the counter pharmacy remedies¶
I swear if anyone else tells me how “powerful” Night Nurse is, I’ll be making a blood sacrifice to Morpheus. It’s not that I don’t believe them – susceptibility levels do vary enormously. My stepfather gets stoned and delirious if he takes any over-the-counter pain relief. But for me, Night Nurse, Nytol and similar are basically useless. Many of these over-the-counter remedies are antihistamine-based. For me, any antihistamine strong enough to make a difference to my sleep leaves me a dry-mouthed walking corpse the next day, incapable of coherent thought and forced to sit down to shower (much like my stepfather after a baby aspirin, actually).
The US army technique¶
This “hack” is all over the internet, along with the claim that it works for 96% of people within two minutes after six weeks. Impressive numbers. The basics: you tense then relax your face, make your body go limp, try to think of nothing, then visualise a canoe in a calm lake, or lying in a black velvet hammock. If these visualisations don’t work, you’re supposed to say “don’t think don’t think don’t think” to yourself until your mind empties, then voilà, sleep. I get very angry when I think about it because I spent several long, farcical wasted nights muttering “black velvet hammock, black velvet hammock, black velvet hammock” to myself for hours, like some kind of deranged 1980s magician because I got confused and am bad at following instructions. Obviously, I have never made it to six weeks so cannot vouch for the technique properly, but I have developed a visceral aversion to hammocks.
Lettuce water¶
I only tried the daft TikTok tip to drink lettuce-infused water before bed because it seemed completely ridiculous. I wish I could surprise you with the revelation that it gave me my best night in a decade – lettuce seed oil is traditionally used as a sleep aid, so it’s not utterly outlandish – but I drank an unpleasant lukewarm cup of lettuce juice last week then slept very poorly: I don’t think there’s a viral TikTok in that.
Cognitive shuffling¶
The concept behind “cognitive shuffling” is that focusing on a series of random, unconnected words replicates the visual images and “micro-dreams” that immediately precede sleep. I tried it twice recently, but thought you were simply supposed to think about unrelated innocuous nouns (sausage, paperclip, lamp-post, say). My exhausted brain was defeated by around the eighth noun: success.
But reading more carefully, I now see you are supposed to choose a letter, think of a noun starting with that letter, then visualise the noun before moving on to the next one. Are you kidding me? I don’t come to bed to follow a complex and exacting set of instructions. I come to bed to heat to the temperature of the Earth’s core and wipe underboob sweat on my pillow, feel murderous at the sound of my husband’s peaceful breathing, then contemplate the time I overheard my neighbours discussing how filthy my house was in 2009 for three hours, as is right and proper. Conclusion: sometimes the remedy is worse than the cure.
So, what’s left? I suppose I could still try a cooling mattress topper, white noise machine or dog’s earwax, which was apparently the Beauty Sleep Hyaluronic Mist of the 16th century. For now, my most restful nights are the ones when I convince myself that it doesn’t really matter. The best medicine, I fear, may be acceptance.