Obviously the risks around not getting enough sleep are serious, and so getting the best medical care treatment is essential. Luckily, acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) have now been treating sleep issues for 1000s of years. Sleep concerns which are often treated with TCM include (note that the word ‘insomnia’ could relate with several these symptoms):
In TCM, it is your Spirit (capitalized here to differentiate from other definitions), also called your Mind, or in Mandarin, your ‘Shen’, which your quality of sleep depends upon (note that this can be a simplification: other sources may distinguish between the Spirit and the Mind as two separate entities). The organ system responsible 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). If your Heart Yin has been nourished properly your sleep is going to be okay, but if it’s deficient or agitated, you will suffer with sleep concerns.
Deficiencies in your Heart organ system generally come from genetic predisposition, poor diet, childbirth, and the after-effects of external pathogens. Agitating factors usually involve emotional disturbances such as for instance stress, anger or depression, but could also involve natural TCM elemental disturbances, such as for instance 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 can also affect your sleep. 睡眠呼吸機專家
Dream-disturbed sleep (i.e. dreams which 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 is 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 mean an excess in your Lung organ system (the emotion associated along 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 frequently correlated to an excess pattern.
When pursuing acupuncture as cure for sleep issues, it is essential to seek assistance from someone who’s a qualified TCM practitioner, as a proper diagnosis is essential to getting adequate results. Proper diagnosis of your sleep issue will first determine whether your condition is certainly one of deficiency or excess, and furthermore which type thereof. For instance, difficulty in dropping off to sleep usually indicates one type of deficiency, whereas dropping off to sleep easily but getting up frequently in the evening may indicate an alternative type of deficiency altogether. By asking several questions, taking your pulse and possibly even considering your tongue, a TCM practitioner can diagnose you quite accurately, and therefore choose the correct length of treatment specific to your needs.