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Sleep well. Wake up refreshed and full of energy for an active day.
Sleep is essential for our physical and mental well-being. Lack of sleep can cause a range of symptoms, including fatigue, irritability, and difficulty concentrating.
If a person is unable to sleep for a week, they may experience more severe symptoms such as microsleeps (brief periods of sleep), uncontrollable eye movements, trouble speaking clearly, drooping eyelids, hand tremors, visual and tactile hallucinations, and impaired cognitive performance.
In addition to these symptoms, sleep deprivation can also lead to long-term health problems such as poor cognitive function, increased inflammation, reduced immune function, and an increased risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Chronic insomnia can lead to many health problems, including cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, anxiety and depression, among others. Insomnia may also affect the immune system and increase the risk of infection.
In this article, as a series of posts, we will discuss
Causes of Insomnia
Solutions – Get Up Early
Solutions – Falling into Sleep Quickly
Solutions – Sleep Disorders Solutions
Solutions – Advice and Practice
Solutions – Practice Taiji for a Tranquil Mind
Solutions – Testimonial on Insomnia and Constipation
Solutions – Testimonial on Insomnia
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Causes of Insomnia
Many people suffer from Insomnia, incessant dreams, and irritability before sleep. What is the likely cause?
If you are unable to sleep at night, lack energy during the day, are easily fatigued and irritable, they may be caused by a certain disease.
People who have difficulty falling asleep, light sleep, easy waking, incessant dreams, seems to be an insurmountable gap with people who have good sleep.
If you are suffering from insomnia, please be patient and read this article.
01 Is insomnia a neurasthenia?
Insomnia refers to difficulty falling asleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, waking up early or unwilling to go to bed at an appropriate time, and affecting daytime function.
There can be many causes, which are generally divided into pathological and primary. Pathological insomnia (insomnia caused by a certain disease) is not difficult to treat. As long as the root disease is solved, the symptoms of insomnia will also be relieved.
However, the etiology of primary insomnia is often the superposition of psychological and physiological factors, which requires comprehensive treatment.
As practitioners of life cultivation, we are similar to one of the causes that is easily overlooked – neurasthenia.
Neurasthenia is a type of neurosis. It is generally believed in medicine that it is a “nervous system dysfunction without verifiable pathological changes.”
The clinical manifestations are easy excitement or fatigue, often accompanied by emotional symptoms such as irritability and worry, and pain, headache, sleep disorders, memory disorders and other psychophysiological symptoms. These symptoms cannot be attributed to other physical diseases, organic brain lesions, or other psychological disorders such as anxiety disorders.
Patients often have persistent mental stress or emotional tension before the disease. It can be understood that this is a sub-health state closely related to mental stress and emotional tension. If it is not dealt with in time, it will easily lead to various discomfort symptoms.
You might say, oops, I know that stress and emotional tension can cause insomnia, so is there any way to solve it? In fact, in traditional herbal medicine, insomnia caused by this reason has long been known.
02 Causes for insomnia
In traditional herbal medicine, there are mainly four reasons for insomnia to happen. First reason relates to the imbalance between yin and yang. The second reason relates to the heart. The third reason relates to the liver. The fourth reason relates to the stomach and spleen.
01 Yang does not enter Yin
On Huangdi Neijing, Ling Shu, The Great Treatise on the Resolving Doubts Pertaining to Acupuncture and Moxibustion, states:
What causes a person to be unable to lie down when sick?
Qi Bo replied: The wei-qi cannot enter the yin, and always stays in the yang. If it stays in the yang, then the yang-qi will be full. When the yang-qi is full, the yang jaundice will flourish, not entering the yin. If it cannot enter the yin, the yin-qi will be deficient, so the eyes cannot close.
Thus, yang-qi cannot be hidden in yin-qi, which can easily lead to insomnia.
When a human body is under high pressure, or high environmental factors, or highly over-worked, over a long period of time, he will suffer from either overworked or over-thinking, leading to damage to the yin and yang energy.
In this case, it can be due to insufficient yin-energy, or too much yang-energy floating around without sinking. Therefore, if both yin and yang are deficient, or one of them is deficient, symptoms of neurasthenia will appear, which will lead to the failure of yang to enter yin, resulting in insomnia.
Insufficient yin are prone to yin-deficiency and hyperactivity of fire syndrome, mainly characterized by difficulty in falling asleep or light sleep, accompanied by upset and insomnia, palpitations, hot flashes and sweating at night, weakness of the waist and knees, etc.
If there is too much yang-qi, it is prone to excessive fire evil syndrome, leading to difficulty in falling asleep. This kind of situation is often accompanied by restlessness, insomnia, and palpitations due to the usual emotional tension and irritability, resulting in dry mouth, short red urine, mouth sores, etc.
In the case of yang-energy floating around without sinking, which is usually accompanied by coldness, the exhibited syndromes will show tiredness seemingly falling into sleep. However, the main symptoms will be difficulty sleeping all night, often accompanied by a lack of qi and lazy speech, coldness at the extremities, chills and fear of cold and other symptoms.
02 Heart without anchor
Huangdi Neijing points out:
The heart governs the spirits.
Traditional herbal medicine believes that the function of the heart is closely related to the mental state, and heart dysfunction can also cause neurasthenia and insomnia.
In this scenario, one of the following situations will usually arise.
01 Insufficient blood in the heart
Jingyue Quanshu Insomnia, a medical book, stated:
If there are no evil factors but insomnia, there must be a lack of nourishing-qi. Nutrients feed the blood. If the blood is deficient, there is no way to nourish the heart, and if the heart is empty, the mind will not be in place.
The most common thing is that the heart and blood are weak, so the mind will be wandering around, leading to insomnia.
It is especially prone to occur in women who are recovering from an illness, or the elderly women who are chronically ill with blood deficiency.
The main symptoms of insomnia include (1) easy startling in the middle of the night, (2) dreamy and easy to be awakened, and (3) accompanied by timidity, palpitations, fatigue, spontaneous sweating and other discomforts.
02 Hyperactivity of the heart fire
Liu Wansu, one of The Four Great Masters of the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, believed that
The five emotions can be turned into fire if they are too extreme.
It is said that if the five emotions of anger, joy, sadness, thought, and fear are too much, they may stagnate and turn into fire (or inflammation in some literature.)
The heart is characterized by fire. If the heart fire is too high, high spirits may occur at night, leading to sleeplessness, accompanied by symptoms such as hyperactivity and irritability. Thus, it is very important to keep the emotions stable.
03 Liver lost spirit
With insufficient blood in the liver, the spiritual and emotional activities of the human body will not be properly housed in the liver.
Huangdi Neijing, Lingshu Benshen, recorded:
The liver stores blood, and the blood houses emotions. Deficiency of liver-qi leads to fear. Excess liver-qi leads to anger.
The liver, when sorrow is in motion, will hurt the spirit. If the spirit is hurt, it will lead to arrogance and incompetence.
The liver is responsible for storing blood. At night when people lie down and sleep, the blood will flow to and stored in the liver, nourishing the spirit. Therefore, the human spirit and emotions are closely related to the functionality of the liver.
If the liver is weak, symptoms such as easy fear, timidity, and mental fatigue are prone to occur, leading to distraction and insomnia.
If the liver is functioning below par, symptoms such as mania, irritability, red eyes, dry stool, dry mouth and bitter mouth are prone to occur, leading to restlessness and insomnia.
04 Stomach and spleen disharmony
This is one of the most common reasons for insomnia in our modern society.
Huangdi Neijing, Su Wen, Ni Tiao Lun Pian recorded:
If the stomach is not in harmony, you will feel restless when you lie down.
The stomach and spleen are located in the middle section of the human body. They are the hub for connecting the yin and yang energy and the organs housed in the upper and lower parts of the human body. If the stomach and spleen are not functioning properly, it can affect the normal sleep process of yang-energy entering the yin-energy.
At the same time, the stomach and spleen are the source of qi and blood biochemistry. The spleen is related to anxiety. With deficiency in blood and qi, or excessive anxiety, symptoms of neurasthenia are prone to occur, leading to insomnia.
The most common symptoms are (1) insufficiency of stomach and spleen energy, (2) loss of transportation and transformation functions of nutrients, (3) poor appetite, (4) easy abdominal distension, (5) acid reflux, (6) belching, (7) hiccups, (8) heartburn, (9) dull pain in the epigastric cavity, (10) loose stools and other symptoms.
Western medicine often diagnoses it as chronic gastritis, etc. Although the symptoms are not serious, they will recur.
Emotional problems such as anxiety and overthinking often occur, resulting in insomnia.
03 Solutions to insomnia
Adjust our body internally and externally, and we will end up with a good sleep.
We all know that emotions are closely related to insomnia caused by neurasthenia, so what other methods can help us solve it?
01 Heart and liver needs to be smooth
The heart-qi and liver-qi are akin to wood and fire. If they are suffocated in the human body, they will be similar to a simmering pot. If it is not relieved, it will somehow explode. Under this condition, sleep will not be good.
Therefore, we should adjust our mood at ordinary times and avoid being overjoyed or angry. We may use cassia seed pillows when we sleep, which can help relieve liver heat, calm heart fire, and help comb the heart and liver.
At the same time, the height of the pillow will affect liver dredging.
Xian Dao Jing, a medical book, once pointed out:
The liver shrinks when the pillow is high. The lungs congested when the pillow is low.
That is to say, if the pillow is too high, it will affect the dredging function of the liver. If the dredging of the liver vessels is not smooth, emotional problems will easily occur.
Lao Lao Heng Yan · Pillow, a medical book, pointed out:
With regards to the height of the pillow, it should be so that lying on the side is just at the level of the shoulders, and even lying on the back feels comfortable.
Therefore, the general pillow height should be slightly lower than the distance from the shoulder to the neck when lying on the side.
02 Deficiency of blood needs conservation
Insomnia caused by heart and liver blood deficiency and neurasthenia is the most common type.
As recorded in Synopsis of the Golden Chamber by the medical sage Zhang Zhongjing: Suanzaoren Decoction is used to treat insomnia.
In the prescription, the herb suanzaoren is sweet and sour. It runs in the heart and liver meridians, nourishing blood and the liver, calming the mind and tranquilizing the nerves.
There is an alternative treatment: a mid-afternoon nap. We should have a deep sleep at midnight and a short nap at noon. This is one of the ancient sleep regimens. Sleep at midnight and noon every day to achieve longevity.
Traditional herbal medicine believes that at the time of midnight, yin and yang merge, with one peaking and the other declining. Moreover, the heart meridian is active at noon. Therefore lying quietly at midnight and noon will ensure the smooth connection of yin and yang, and nourish the heart.
Modern research has also found that from midnight to four in the morning, the activities of various organs in the body are minimized. From noon to one in the afternoon, the human sympathetic nerves are the most fatigued.
According to statistics, taking a nap for the elderly can reduce the incidence of heart and cerebrovascular diseases. Therefore, when we sleep at midnight and noon, the quality and efficiency of sleep are good. As practitioners of health preservation, we follow this practice.
03 Spleen knotted thinking hinders transformation
The spleen governs thinking. Excessive thinking will hinder the transformation and movement of nutrients, and vice versa. Therefore it is very important to maintain the normal functioning of the spleen and stomach.
In addition to dietary and drug therapies, we can try to choose the right sleeping position when we sleep, which will also help our spleen and stomach in their normal functions of transforming and moving nutrients.
The correct position to sleep is to lie on the right side. It will minimize the pressure on the heart in the chest cavity, which is beneficial to reduce the load on the heart and increase the output of blood.
In addition, when lying on the right side, the liver is at the lowest position, which strengthens the digestion of food and the metabolism of nutrients.
In addition, when lying on the right side, the outlets of the stomach and duodenum are below, which is conducive to the emptying of gastrointestinal contents.
As stated in Lao Lao Heng Yan:
If you must lie down after eating, you should use the right side to relieve your spleen and stomach.
Lao Lao Heng Yan
End of part one. To be continued.