I. The concept of insomnia
Insomnia is also known as sleep disorder, which is called “sleeplessness” in Chinese medicine. It manifests as difficulty in falling asleep or staying awake all night, waking up early and not being able to go back to sleep after waking up. Some people have poor sleep quality and seem to sleep, often accompanied by headache, dizziness, fatigue, palpitations, forgetfulness, dreaminess and other symptoms.
Generally speaking, there are five major criteria for insomnia.
1, lying in bed for more than 30 minutes without falling asleep.
2.Waking up all the time in the middle of the night and waking up more than two or three times.
3, waking up before dawn, commonly known as early awakening.
4, nightly dreams and even nightmares.
5.Stay up all night and can’t sleep during the day.
Statistics: It is reported that there are about 300 million people suffering from insomnia disorder in China. Insomnia has become a mental illness that plagues many people and seriously affects the quality of work and life. Insomnia can cause fear, fatigue, general discomfort, slow reactions, headache and dizziness, memory loss, and its greatest impact is mental, which can lead to schizophrenia in severe cases. Long-term insomnia can also lead to other diseases, such as hypertension and endocrine disorders.
Second, the understanding of insomnia in Chinese medicine
From the perspective of Chinese medicine, insomnia is mainly caused by the seven emotions, which are happiness, anger, sadness, thought, grief, fear and fear. Too much of any one emotion can lead to insomnia and corresponding diseases.
Among the five organs, the heart is the “official of the sovereign” and the president of the mind. Chinese medicine believes that the heart is in charge of all the activities of the higher nerves such as the spirit, consciousness and thinking. Therefore, insomnia is mainly located in the heart. All thoughts and worries, too much work, damage to the heart and spleen, weakness of qi and blood, loss of nourishment of the heart and mind; kidney yin loss, yin deficiency and fire, the heart and kidney do not cross; or the spleen and stomach are not in harmony, dampness, phlegm, phlegm heat, phlegm-heat disturbance of the heart and mind, etc. can lead to insomnia.
At the same time, the occurrence of insomnia is also due to poor diet, disorders of labor and rest, physical deficiency after illness and other factors that cause disorders of the internal organs, imbalance of qi, blood, yin and yang, Yang does not enter the yin and the onset.
The typology of insomnia in Chinese medicine
Insomnia can be divided into the following five types.
1. Heart and spleen deficiency type: due to old age, physical weakness, strain on the heart and mind, or after a long illness, resulting in deficiency of qi and blood. Mainly manifested as dreamy and easy to wake up, accompanied by palpitations, forgetfulness, dizziness, fatigue, lack of facial color, light tongue with white fur and weak pulse.
2, heart and gallbladder Qi deficiency type: mostly due to sudden fright, or hearing loud noises in the ears, witnessing foreign objects, or involving in danger, mainly manifesting as palpitations and timidity, good fright and fear, night sleep, dreamy and easy to be frightened, light tongue with thin coating and thin pulse.
3, heart and kidney non-interaction type: mostly due to physical deficiency, excessive indulgence, so that the depletion of kidney yin, heart fire only hyperactive, mainly manifested as disturbed sleeplessness, or waking up when sleeping, hand and foot fever, dizziness and tinnitus, palpitations, forgetfulness, zygomatic redness and hot flashes, dry mouth and less fluid, red tongue with little coating, thin pulse.
4, liver depression and fire evidence: mostly from annoyance and boredom, mainly manifested as heart trouble can not sleep, irritability, chest tightness and dizziness, headache, red face and red eyes, bitter mouth, constipation and yellow urine, red tongue with yellow coating and string pulse.
5, phlegm-heat internal disturbance: often due to poor diet, overeating, overeating fat, sweet, raw and cold, or addiction to alcohol, resulting in heat in the stomach and intestines, phlegm-heat disturbance. The main manifestations are sleep disturbance, distress and chagrin, stuffiness in the chest and epigastrium, bitterness and phlegm in the mouth, dizziness, red tongue with yellow coating and slippery pulse.
Current status of insomnia treatment and advantages of acupuncture treatment
Many patients with severe insomnia and dreaminess are not cured or improved for a long time, forming a sense of fear of sleep. Therefore, the cure is urgent, and a large number of sleeping Western drugs (such as diazepam, i.e. Valium, clonidine, alprazolam, eszopiclone, dexrazoxane, melatonin, etc.) are used regardless of the consequences. Although, from the temporary point of view, can take a certain effect. However, long-term use of a large number of, not only side effects, damage to the liver and kidney organs, reduce white blood cells; and extremely form a dependence on drugs, once the interruption of drugs, insomnia symptoms will recur, or even more serious. This is also the root cause of many insomnia patients who have difficulty in healing.
Advantages of acupuncture treatment.
Acupuncture treatment for insomnia has the characteristics of safety, certain efficacy and non-toxic side effects. It is a natural treatment aimed at restoring the self-regulation function of the brain and improving the body’s self-healing ability, and is now widely used in domestic and international clinics with more certain efficacy. Acupuncture treatment also includes auricular acupuncture, water acupuncture, plum blossom acupuncture, and moxibustion with ginger, thermal moxibustion and other treatment methods.
Five, insomnia patient’s life conditioning
First of all, to develop a good sleep habit, try to go to bed before 11:00 p.m.; bedtime behavior should also pay special attention to.
① Do not drink tea or coffee 4 to 6 hours before going to bed.
② Do not smoke and drink alcohol in excess before going to bed, as it can lead to excitement and more lapses in sleep.
③ avoid oversaturation of drinking too much water before going to bed and falling asleep.
④ Do not have strenuous exercise before going to bed. During sleep noise, light, temperature, etc. should be reduced to a minimum or appropriate state. In addition, dinner can be as simple as possible, drink more millet porridge; before going to bed, you can drink some warm milk, you can also bubble feet with slightly hot water to promote blood circulation and improve the quality of sleep. Soothing, quiet music can also help you sleep.
Here, teach you a few acupressure methods to make you sleep better:.
Chinese medicine believes that the brain is the house of the gods, so you should also pay attention to the head of qi and blood supply. In rest or watching TV and other leisure time, we can use one hand to comb the scalp several times. The direction starts from the hairline of the forehead and ends along the scalp to the hairline of the neck. In this way, five fingers can stroke the head of the Governor, Bladder and Gallbladder meridians to achieve a calming and tranquilizing effect on the liver and Yang.
According to the meridian attribution, the following points can be pressed with the thumb: Neiguan, Shenmen, and Sanyinjiao. The Neiguan point is located on the palm side, 2 inches above the transverse wrist line (the same as the body inch, i.e., the width of each person’s own thumb is 1 inch, same below), between the long palmar tendon and the radial wrist flexor tendon. The Shen Men point is located on the palmar side of the transverse wrist stripe, in the radial recess of the ulnar carpal flexor tendon. Sanyinjiao is on the medial side of the calf, 3 inches above the tip of the inner ankle of the foot where the tibia can be felt, and it is just behind the tibia. These three points work in conjunction with each other and can be pressed for 5 to 10 minutes a day to calm the mind and calm the spirit.
Finally, we recommend a meal “tranquilizing and brain-supporting millet porridge” to regulate sleep.
Take 50 grams of fried jujube seeds wrapped in gauze, add the right amount of water and decoct for 30 minutes, take out the jujube seeds, add 200 grams of millet and 50 grams of lily to the jujube seeds water, then add the right amount of water to cook the porridge, add 25 grams of brown sugar after the porridge is done, and take it 1 hour before bedtime. Lilies have the effect of clearing the heart and calming the mind. The sour date seed is sweet in nature, flat, has the effect of nourishing the liver, calming the heart, tranquilizing the mind and astringent sweat.