While in recovery a major part of becoming healthy is letting our body heal itself, physically and emotionally.  There is no better way to heal than getting the proper sleep.  But what if you can’t? Then what?

Recovery, of our body, is very important.  For us to heal from working out, from stress, from daily life, we need rest, and we need sleep.  Sometimes though, while “detoxing”, or just because we are so stressed out, sleep becomes something of the past.  “Oh, i use to sleep great when i was younger….” you hear people say.  “I haven’t slept deeply in years” is another one i hear all the time. 

Here is quick blurb about what sleep does for you:

“Sleep appears necessary for our nervous systems to work properly. Too little sleep leaves us drowsy and unable to concentrate the next day. It also leads to impaired memory and physical performance and reduced ability to carry out math calculations. If sleep deprivation continues, hallucinations and mood swings may develop. Some experts believe sleep gives neurons used while we are awake a chance to shut down and repair themselves. Without sleep, neurons may become so depleted in energy or so polluted with byproducts of normal cellular activities that they begin to malfunction. Sleep also may give the brain a chance to exercise important neuronal connections that might otherwise deteriorate from lack of activity.

Deep sleep coincides with the release of growth hormone in children and young adults. Many of the body’s cells also show increased production and reduced breakdown of proteins during deep sleep. Since proteins are the building blocks needed for cell growth and for repair of damage from factors like stress and ultraviolet rays, deep sleep may truly be “beauty sleep.” Activity in parts of the brain that control emotions, decision-making processes, and social interactions is drastically reduced during deep sleep, suggesting that this type of sleep may help people maintain optimal emotional and social functioning while they are awake. A study in rats also showed that certain nerve-signaling patterns which the rats generated during the day were repeated during deep sleep. This pattern repetition may help encode memories and improve learning.”

In Chinese medicine we look at the whole body as to the dsyfunction of why you dont sleep.  It may be as easy as a patient being to “stressed”, or it could be as complicated as a dysfunction of internal organ relationships.  Some common patterns we see in Chinse medicine, are liver issues, kidney and heart realtionships, emotional distrubances, lack of exercise, diet, stomach issues, blood circulation, “stuck” energy, unbalanced systems, and many others.  You can see from the list that not all “difficult sleep” is easy as 1…2….take a sleeping pill. 

Tags: acupuncture, dreams, herbs, sleep

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 9:52 pm and is filed under Acupuncture/Herbs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.