Sleep

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The following is taken from The Foundations of , Giovanni

Maciocia, p. 159:

 

" Sleep

 

" Insomnia

 

" Sleep depends on the state of Blood and Yin. Blood and Yin are the

" residence " of the Mind: without Blood and Yin, the Mind has no residence

and it floats at night causing insomnia.

 

" Insomnia in the sense of not being able to fall asleep, but sleeping well

after falling asleep, indicates deficiency of Heart-Blood.

 

" Insomnia in the sense of waking up many times during the night indicates

deficiency of Kidney-Yin.

 

" Dream-disturbed sleep indicates Liver-Fire or Heart-Fire. Restless sleep

with dreams indicates retention of food.

 

" Waking up early in th morning and failing to fall asleep again indicates

deficiency of Gall-Bladder.

 

" As people grow older, it is to some extent normal to wake early, due to the

physiological decline of Qi and Blood. "

 

The most important thing for new students to remember is that sufficiency of

Blood and Yin play key roles in a person being able to sleep well. Also, if

the person has trouble falling asleep, this points to Heart Blood

Deficiency, but if the person has no trouble falling asleep but awakens

frequently during the night, this points to Kidney Yin Deficiency. Those

following the discussion on Gall Bladder Deficiency may also find the part

about waking early and unable to get back to sleep interesting.

 

It can't be stressed enough that the Blood and Yin play key roles in people

being able to sleep well. Something the Chinese call Shen (translated as

Spirit or Mind) resides in the Heart, particularly in the Heart Blood. If

there is not enough Heart Blood, Shen is not " anchored " , and the person

suffers from having trouble falling asleep at night. In practical terms,

this may be a person who replays all the events of the day over and over in

his or her mind before being able to drop off to sleep. Or, it may be more

subtle than this.

 

Sometimes, just the Heart Blood is Deficient. But sometimes the Root of the

Heart Blood Deficiency is in the Liver, the Spleen, or the Kidneys, and the

Heart Blood Deficiency is a branch of one or more of those primary Roots.

 

Among other things, the Liver stores Blood when a person is at rest,

releasing it to all parts of the body when the person is active. If

something is wrong with that storage function - and too much Blood is being

stored or too much shunted to other areas of the body, the Heart will be

Blood Deficient. Or, if there is overall Blood Deficiency, there will be

Heart Blood Deficiency. The Spleen plays the most important role in the

production of Blood, so often Spleen Deficiency is the Root of overall Blood

Deficiency and Heart Blood Deficiency in particular. The Kidneys also play

a role in Blood production, so sometimes the Kidneys are the Root of overall

Blood Deficiency.

 

Something that Maciocia doesn't go into in this section but does elsewhere

in the book is that being afraid of going to sleep points to Liver Blood

Deficiency.

 

Maciocia also doesn't go into hypersomnia (sleeping too much) in this

section. There are different things which can cause hypersomnia, but if

symptoms of Cold are present, this points very strongly to Kidney Yang

Deficiency. Yang activates as well as warms the body. In these cases of

hypersomnia there simply is not enough Yang to keep the person awake.

 

The Kidneys supply the Yang and the Yin for the rest of the body. If one is

present, the other is almost sure to be present though in lesser degree.

 

Yin cools and calms. Waking up very hot at night can be a symptom of Yin

Deficiency.

 

Victoria

 

 

 

 

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