Rest, Rewired: An Acupuncturist's Guide to Sleep
Ahhh… Sleep.
Ever mysterious, sometimes elusive, it's also one of the main complaints I treat in clinic. Although Chinese Medicine doesn't use the term "insomnia," we have a range of different diagnoses covering varying issues, from difficulty falling asleep, to waking and stirring through the night, disturbing dreams, or waking up still feeling tired. Depending on the root of the issue, which is determined during the consultation, the diagnosis and treatment will vary.
Sometimes, patients aren't even aware they have a sleep disorder — to them, it just feels normal, or something they've lived with for so long they no longer notice it.
Take Jane (not her real name). Her main complaint is a sore shoulder — she has a healthy lifestyle, exercises regularly, and eats well, but experiences stress at work. She also has some difficulty falling asleep, and it can take a couple of hours before slumber takes over. She usually wakes once in the night, around 2am, but dozes back off relatively quickly.
Using Acupuncture, I treat her sore shoulder, but I'm also looking at regulating Jane's nervous system and harmonising her Qi, so that her sleep becomes more restorative and nourishing. Slowly, over three sessions, Jane's shoulder pain subsides — but we continue seeing each other for another four sessions to make sure her new, improved sleep cycle remains stable. The reason we need this number of sessions is that, just like any habit, it takes time for the body to integrate this new information and make it its new normal.
Common Myths
I mentioned dreams earlier and although it's become quite common for people to keep dream journals or even try to train themselves to remember their dreams, Chinese Medicine sees it differently. A dreamless sleep or rather, the inability to recall one's dreams is a sign of deeper, more restful, and more restorative sleep.
Waking up in the night to urinate? No, it's not because of that last glass of water before bed, at least, not according to Chinese Medicine. We're taught it works the other way around: it's not your bladder that wakes you up, it's that your sleep isn't deep enough to sleep through it. If your rest were deep enough, you simply wouldn't hear your bladder's desperate calls.
If any of this sounds familiar, whether it's a racing mind at bedtime, restless nights, or waking up more tired than when you went to sleep, it doesn't have to be your normal. I'd love to help you get to the root of it.
Come in for a chat, and let's see what better sleep could look like for you.
Lucie - Acupuncturist & Neurofeedback Practitioner
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