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Wellness for Adults

Insomnia

Medical Disclaimer: The information and advice published or made available through this website is NOT intended to replace the services of a physician or a health care professional acting under a physician’s supervision, nor does it constitute a doctor-patient relationship which has been established by an in-person evaluation of a patient.

Sound Sleep tells a lot about person’s Physical and Emotional Health. Sleep is one of three freshness (Eat/Sleep/Bowel Movement), we in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) focus our treatments on your eternal wellbeing.

Insomnia is defined as difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, or both. It may be due to inadequate quality or quantity of sleep, which is typically followed by functional impairment while awake.

TCM Points of View

  • Difficulty falling asleep: Yang qi has been blocked from yin portions of the body, preventing complete relaxation.
  • Waking up during the night: This problem occurs when your body traps internal “heat.” When this energy can’t dissipate, insomnia occurs.
  • Waking too early: This is associated with poor yin energy from the kidneys. It’s often associated with lifestyle problems.
  • Vivid and disturbing dreams: This is attributed to “heart fire” or “liver deficiency heat,” problems that prevent you from relaxing and keep your brain too active.
  • Complete inability to sleep: Acupuncturists say that this problem is caused by problems in the spleen or liver, which reduce the quantity and quality of blood in the body.

Treatments

Acupuncture & Moxibustion, Herbal Medicine, and Herbal Bath: TCM doctors will focus on treating the heart, liver, spleen or kidney organs and meridians when insomnia is a patient’s main complaint. In TCM, the heart and liver both house a specific aspect of the spirit. When these two organs are out of balance, the spirit may wander from not being housed properly. When the spleen, which is in charge of absorbing postnatal energy, is injured, the subsequent blood deficiency will lead to insomnia.

The kidneys are in charge of generating the Yin fluids or calming aspects of the body. When the kidneys are disrupted, there will be more relative heat at night, causing insomnia.

Western medical research has shown that acupuncture is associated with a significant nocturnal increase in endogenous melatonin secretion and reduces insomnia and anxiety. Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone and is important in the regulation of the circadian rhythms of several biological functions, including sleep.