Sleep health seminar held in Beijing

On September 12, a sleep health seminar led by the China Sleep Research Association came to an end at the Zhongguancun National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone Conference Center in Beijing. The core outcome of this event was not the launch of a disruptive sleep product or a unified "healthy sleep standard", but the clarification of "sleep health priority parameters" The "2024 China Urban Population Sleep Quality Survey Blue Book" released simultaneously shows that nearly 60% of domestic 18-45 year olds have varying degrees of sleep anxiety, and more than 70% of the anxiety comes from non-professional sleep science content circulated on social media.

Interestingly, this event specially invited three representatives of ordinary users to share on the stage. Li Yue, a 32-year-old Internet operator who was the first to speak, took out a screenshot of his sleep monitoring APP. "In order to get 8 hours of sleep, I set an alarm clock for 9:30 every day and forced myself to lie down flat. As a result, I couldn't fall asleep until 1 o'clock, and I felt groggy the next day. I went to the doctor last month and said that I had tortured myself to develop sleep anxiety."

Zhang Cheng, deputy director of the Sleep Medicine Center of Peking University Third Hospital, took over and said that his outpatient clinic encounters about ten cases of this kind every week. "Our clinical view has always been very clear. First check whether there are organic problems, such as sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome. After ruling out, as long as you don't feel sleepy during the day after waking up and it does not affect your work and life, even sleeping only 5 and a half hours a day is still healthy. There is no need to stick to the 8-hour KPI."

Lin Hao, the R&D director of "Sleeping Fruit Technology", a company that makes smart sleep monitoring equipment, also nodded. He said that many consumers now use the sleep data of smart watches as a basis for diagnosis, which is actually a big misunderstanding. "We are well aware of the technology. Most of the current consumer-grade wearable devices can only calculate approximate sleep stages based on body movement and heart rate. The accuracy is far from the hospital's polysomnography monitoring. It can only be used as a daily reference. If you really have a sleep problem, go to the hospital as soon as possible. Don't worry about the score of the watch."

When talking about the issue of sleep aid products that consumers are most concerned about now, there was a slight disagreement at the scene. A representative from a dietary supplement company said that the low-dose (less than 1mg) melatonin in current compliant products is useful for adjusting your work and rest after occasional jet lag or staying up late. As long as you don’t take high doses for a long time, there is no need to kill you with a stick. Dr. Zhang Cheng refuted the case on the spot, citing outpatient cases, saying that he had seen several high school students take melatonin indiscriminately and develop endocrine disorders after half a year. "Melatonin is a hormonal substance. Regardless of the dose, you must consult a doctor before taking it. It cannot be chewed as a sleep aid." In the end, the two sides did not fully convince each other, and only reached a compromise consensus: ordinary consumers should not buy high-dose melatonin on their own, and should consult professionals before use.

Professor Li Man from the School of Public Health of Peking University gave a more practical perspective. Research conducted by her team shows that many people’s sleep problems are essentially lifestyle issues. “For example, if you watch short videos for an hour before going to bed every day, blue light stimulation plus content stimulation, the brain will be in a state of excitement, and it is strange that you can sleep. Many people do not adjust this habit, but spend thousands to buy sleep-aid pillows and sleep-aid sprays. In essence, they are doing away with the good and the bad.”

There was also a 34-year-old mother representative Chen Meng at the scene. She said that she had read the content that "fragmented sleep can lead to sudden death", which scared her so much that she was afraid to get up at night to breastfeed, and she was worried about her body problems every day. Several experts worked together to calculate it for her: she slept for 5 hours every night, and she could make up for 1 and a half hours in the afternoon when the baby was sleeping, which added up to 6 and a half hours. Moreover, she did not feel tired during the day, and she was in a completely healthy sleep state. After hearing this, she deleted all three sleep monitoring apps on her phone that day, saying that she no longer had to worry about her sleep score every day.

There was no solemn signing ceremony or grand initiative at the end of the event. The organizer gave everyone in attendance a printed sleep diary template, asking everyone to go back and record their sleep duration for two consecutive weeks and their mental state the next day, so as to find a sleep rhythm that suits them. The person in charge of the organizer said that he would go to Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu to hold several more in-depth seminars in the future. “We don’t want to turn it into a purely academic closed-door meeting. Listening more to the real sleep problems of people in different professions and different ages is much more useful than sitting in a conference room patting our heads and trying to come up with unified standards.”