Insomnia, the black and white of it

Insomnia is a prototypical disorder of Yin and Yang. Yin is night, Yang is day. To be healthy, we are wakeful and active during the day, and passive and asleep during the night. Even with the energy of the sun and moon supporting us, sleep is a troublesome state for many people. Most sleep disorders fall into two categories; difficulty falling asleep and/or difficulty staying asleep. Add to that racing mind, restless sleep, and light sleep and it begins to sound like the eight types of snowflakes we all see when we're just too tired to function. It is a testament to the efficacy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) that major pharmaceutical companies are now marketing a sleep aid, Ambien, with a name amazingly similar to a standard TCM herbal formula. That is prescribing a sleep drug without distinguishing between the different kinds of insomnia, and thus, applying a bandaid, without first figuring out the source of the injury. When treating insomnia TCM practitioner, that is a licensed acupuncturist /herbalist will first determine what kind of insomnia a patient is experiencing and then choose acupuncture points or herbs that treat that kind of insomnia. That could include Anmien, or it could not. But don't let trying to figure it out keep you up at night, give me a call, I'll do the hard part.