Sleep time is restorative time. If you’re not getting enough sleep, and waking up still feeling tired, your body didn’t get a chance to fully recover and heal throughout the night. Short term worry or travel disruptions aren’t usually a problem. It’s the long term sleepless nights, or difficulty falling asleep or easy to wake that cause a disruption in our lives.

Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture can help! There are many patterns/imbalances in the body that can cause insomnia. Your Chinese Medicine Practitioner will be able to assess and diagnose your particular situation. In general though, we say that insomnia is a Shen disorder, or a heart spirit mind disorder. During sleep, we would like our Shen to reside and settle in our heart for a good nights’ sleep. If the heart is deficient and lacking in Qi, blood or yin, the Shen has no where to lie and remains restless and ungrounded.

Some Simple Tips for getting to sleep

Tip #1 Avoid stimulus and eating before bed

Tip #2 Have a routine so the body gets used to winding down

Tip #3 Minerals like Magnesium can help relax the body and bring energy out of your head down into the body

Tips #4 Massage your feet to further promote the energy out to your head down into the body (this one is my favorite)

Tip #5 Use your breath along with a mantra/song or visualization to help your body let go of your day

Happy Sleeping! For more information or help with your sleep imbalances contact Gigi Vincentine Dr. TCM Dip. at Simple Remedies. Her hours in the clinic are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday or visit her website http://www.gigivincentine.ca