Insomnia from a TCM perspective

Insomnia or restless sleep affects everyone from toddlers to old age.

From a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective, insomnia is the result of excess yang, or fire, in the heart and liver of the patient. “Such excessive fire will affect one’s quality of sleep and general temperament,”

In the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Cannon- medical classics, the heart is the master of the mind and spirit which house wisdom and consciousness.  The state of the heart governs spirit (shen) which an imbalance can lead to mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, autism, and various health conditions.

Insomnia can happen due to some medical conditions such as

• Sleep Apnoea which leaves the patient waking up gasping for air resulting in restless sleep
• Chronic or acute pain or inflammation from an injury.
• Chronic abuse of drugs such as ecstasy or marijuana etc
•  Other medical conditions affect the patient’s well-being.

All the above can contribute to the heart fire causing insomnia or restless sleep.

A TCM physician seeks to reduce this heart fire by calming the spirit using acupuncture, needless acupuncture, specific tuina techniques, or herbs.  Combinations of these techniques are also used depending on the patient’s condition.

Herbal remedies:

One of the common herbs or food  I used at home are A number of TCM herbs can be used, including lily bulb (百合), red dates (红枣), dried longan (龙眼干), and lotus seeds (莲子). 

Sometimes I will use kiwi fruit which is one of our native fruits to help treat insomnia.

Another method I highly recommend is the use of calming relaxing music to calm the shen. It can be your typical classical relaxing music or holy chants.

In addition, the Chinese have a saying “早睡早起身体好“meaning we will have a healthy body if we rest early and wake up early. Of course, this must also include good dietary and lifestyle habits. Late nights and irregular meals cause the stagnation of liver ‘qi’, which can, in turn, generate internal heat, causing disharmony and disturbed sleep.

Therefore, as long we maintained a balanced lifestyle with a healthy regular diet and adequate rest. We achieve optimal health.