Do you have trouble sleeping at night? Do you lie awake tossing and turning? Do you wake up unable to fall back to sleep? Do you constantly feel exhausted and tired?
Well you’re not alone - roughly 50 to 70,000,000 Americans suffer from a sleep disorder and out of adults surveyed, only one third felt they got an adequate amount of sleep each night. Those are pretty scary numbers when you consider how sleep is a vital function for the health and maintenance of our lives. In Chinese medicine, sleep is one of the three pillars of health (eat, sleep, and let it go.) If you don’t have those three, you don’t have a solid foundation to build your health. But Chinese medicine isn't alone. Western medicine medicine has also found lack of sleep to be tied many illnesses, such as mental distress, depression, anxiety, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cholesterol - and those are just the highlights. If you’re not getting enough sleep every night, chances are you’re heading down a dangerous road.
Most people want a great night sleep, but most people resign themselves to poor or inadequate sleep and just accept it as normal. Some people are desperate enough for a good nights sleep that they resort to taking medications. Medications can work, but sometimes they leave you feeling groggy and out of it in the morning. But these medications do not treat the root problem and the insomnia comes back as soon as you stop taking them, or sometime after. I understand your frustration - there was a period in my life when I had trouble sleeping and no matter what I did I couldn't seem to fall asleep. Luckily it happened at the time when I had Chinese medicine and I was able to treat it quickly.
There are many medications you can take for insomnia and most of them give you results. Since they do not treat the root cause, you become dependent on the medication and eventually need the medication to just get even a decent nights sleep. The other problem with this method is that eventually the root cause of the insomnia will develop into more serious health conditions. It’s like if your child was crying because they were hungry, would you see them or would you put them in a room and close the door until eventually you couldn't hear them anymore? Both solutions would solve the immediate problem, but one of them would treat the root and I think we can both agree which would be the better option.
The challenge of insomnia is that there are many different types. While each cause the same effect, the root cause is different for each one. This means that each would need a different type of treatment. Since there are at least 12 different types of insomnia in Chinese medicine, the key to treating each type correctly is understanding the root cause. Once the root cause is determined people notice their insomnia goes away, as well as an overall improvement in other minor health concerns.
Can Phoenix Acupuncture help you or a person you love with insomnia? Call and mention this article to receive a free consultation and examination ($50 value). We will determine your root cause for insomnia and decide the best course of treatment for you.