Obviously the risks around not getting enough sleep are serious, and so getting the right health care treatment is essential. Luckily, acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) have now been treating sleep issues for tens of thousands of years. Sleep concerns that are often treated with TCM include (note that the term ‘insomnia’ could relate solely to numerous the following symptoms):
In TCM, it’s your Spirit (capitalized here to differentiate from other definitions), also known as your Mind, or in Mandarin, your ‘Shen’, which your quality of sleep is determined by (note that this is a simplification: other sources may distinguish involving the Spirit and the Mind as two separate entities). The organ system accountable for nourishing your Spirit can be your Heart, and specifically the Yin portion (each of your 5 major organs in TCM have both a Yin and a Yang side to them). 鼻敏感 致敏原 塵蟎 If your Heart Yin has been nourished properly your sleep will undoubtedly be okay, but if it is deficient or agitated, you will have problems with sleep concerns.
Deficiencies in your Heart organ system generally originate from genetic predisposition, poor diet, childbirth, and the after-effects of external pathogens. Agitating factors usually involve emotional disturbances such as for example stress, anger or depression, but could also involve natural TCM elemental disturbances, such as for example Fire or Wind. Essentially, emotional issues as well as Fire and Wind in many cases are related to your Liver, and so Liver Yin deficiency also can affect your sleep.
Dream-disturbed sleep (i.e. dreams that are so intense or disturbing that the sleep is affected), while usually indicative of a deficiency, may sometimes be the explanation for an excess as well. For instance, it’s said in ancient TCM texts that dreaming about flying while seeing strange objects made from gold or iron indicates a Lung deficiency (your Lungs govern your breathing and immune system). Dreaming about crying however, can indicate an excess in your Lung organ system (the emotion associated with your Lungs is sadness or grief). Incidentally, it can be believed that the sleeping position, i.e. if you prefer to sleep in your stomach, your back or one side, this might indicate a particular deficiency or excess pattern. Snoring affecting your sleep is often correlated to an excess pattern.
When pursuing acupuncture as cure for sleep issues, it is essential to get the help of someone who is a qualified TCM practitioner, as a suitable diagnosis is vital to getting adequate results. Proper diagnosis of your sleep issue will first determine whether your condition is among deficiency or excess, and furthermore which type thereof. For instance, difficulty in dropping off to sleep usually indicates one kind of deficiency, whereas dropping off to sleep easily but waking up frequently through the night may indicate an alternative kind of deficiency altogether. By asking numerous questions, taking your pulse and possibly even taking a look at your tongue, a TCM practitioner can diagnose you quite accurately, and therefore choose the appropriate course of treatment specific to your needs.