Research suggests that improving sleep quality can reduce an individual’s tendency to attempt suicide, the John Tung Foundation said on Sunday, which was World Suicide Prevention Day.
WHO analysis on suicide showed that about 800,000 people kill themselves worldwide every year, while up to 25 times as many attempt to commit suicide, the Taiwan Suicide Prevention Center (TSPC) said
The John Tung Foundation said a study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry in June suggested that treating a person’s insomnia can improve their emotional health, and also reduce the risk of that person committing suicide.
The study was conducted by a research team at Stanford University’s School of Medicine on 50 university students aged between 18 and 23 who had had suicidal thoughts. Their sleeping behavior was monitored for a week, the foundation said.
The results showed that the students who suffered sleeping disorders were more likely to have suicidal thoughts, it said.
John Tung Foundation mental health section head Yeh Ya-hsin (葉雅馨) said the study suggested that sleeping problems can lead to young people having suicidal thoughts and that it could be used for suicide prevention because sleeping disorders can be observed and are not stigmatized like mental health issues.
“Most people have experiences of sleeping poorly... and it can affect their emotions when they awake the next day, such as becoming bad-tempered, impatient, unable to concentrate or acting on impulse,” she said.
Other studies have shown that about 15 percent of people with depression die by suicide and that sleeping disorders are one of the easiest symptoms of depression to observe, Yeh said, adding that parents should pay more attention to their children’s sleeping problems and not neglect them, as they can be warning signs of mental health issues.
Suicide is usually the result of multiple causes and often the person is suffering intense stress and despair, or symptoms of insomnia, anxiety, depression or an inferiority complex, TSPC director Lee Ming-been (李明濱) said
About 30 percent of adults in Taiwan suffer from sleep disorders and many take sleeping pills, but if it is beginning to affect them mentally, they are better advised to seek treatment from a psychiatrist, Lee said.
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
City buses in Taipei and New Taipei City, as well as the Taipei MRT, would on Saturday begin accepting QR code payments from five electronic payment providers, the Taipei Department of Transportation said yesterday. The new option would allow passengers to use the “transportation QR code” feature from EasyWallet, iPass Money, iCash Pay, Jkopay or PXPay Plus. Passengers should open their preferred electronic payment app, select the “transportation code” — not the regular payment code — unlock it, and scan the code at ticket readers or gates, General Planning Division Director-General Liu Kuo-chu (劉國著) said. People should move through the
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) today released images of the military tracking China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA) movements during the latest round of Chinese drills around Taiwan. The PLA began "Justice Mission 2025" drills today, carrying out live-fire drills, simulated strikes on land and maritime targets, and exercises to blockade the nation's main ports. The exercises are to continue tomorrow, with the PLA announcing sea and air space restrictions for five zones around Taiwan for 10 hours starting from 8:30am. The ministry today released images showing a Chinese J-16 fighter jet tracked by a F-16V Block 20 jet and the
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