Is it any wonder we are a coffee drinking society?
It goes someway to explain why we consume drinks like “V” along with the others has grown in consumption, leading us to a nation of walking zombies?  This might go suggest reasons why we fall so out of touch with ourselves, our true feelings and emotions, as any stimulant acts as a drug over time.

Yes, coffee and other high caffeine drinks will have you beaming, perk you up, give you a break from the real biological senses, but at a cost. Often when a client visits my clinic for an insomniac treatment their ‘verbal’ answers nearly always contradict what their pulse tells me, that is what the body is actually experiencing. A weak pulse can indicate someone is run down, although when the client is questioned on their energy levels, the majority suggest that they have plenty of energy!
Is this real energy, ego, shyness or is it just adrenaline?

The main cause of insomnia stems from the liver. Yes that part of the body that regulates more than just the coffee or stimulate intake, let’s refer to the liver as the gate keeper!
Actually the liver is a good guy, or good gatekeeper, who continually reminds us about the balance going on with our food and beverage intake.

Like an alarm the liver is continually working to ensure we have a balanced intake, it alerts us that more things can go wrong and not just insomnia. We could take this a bit deeper and say that it is the mind that’s the root cause but its almost asking what came first the egg or the chicken?
I vouch for the chicken but let’s not go there.

The mind makes all the decisions that affect our body, what we consume, why we consume various consumptions and how they will make us feel.  Often the liver just sits and awaits the new arrivals.  Not always the best of guests find a greeting at the livers door, as what we think are good for us, or our mind, are not friendly guests to the liver, as they can represent stresses and poison, the very same ingredients that cause one to wake up through the night.

Most people believe they wake for a toilet break, I guarantee you this is not the truth. You could be rested, wet the bed and still not awake, so it’s not your bladder. When you wake up, open your eyes you will get up and relieve your bladder, however it was the mind that was first disturbed by opening your eyes, and so what disturbed the mind?

The body works on an organ clock.  Each organ is running at its peak at a certain hour of the day. When it’s a particular organs time of the day that organ will be doing its best to make sure it supports the rest of the body, but when the organ is weak it under-functions leading the body to other problems. Between the hours of 11pm and 1am is the time of the Gall Bladder and between 1am and 3am it is the livers turn to function at full speed ahead. If I was to ask you “what time do you wake up throughout the night?” 8 out of 10 people will say between 2 and 3am, during the time of the liver hours!

Insomnia is not just waking up; there’s a lot more involved than that. Insomnia is not being able to go to sleep, but once asleep everything is fine. There is the symptom of waking throughout the night where one can easily go back to sleep, or there is waking up and not being able to go back to sleep and they all stem from different causes.

The amount of blood you have in your body will determine how well you sleep. It’s said that “blood houses the mind and the heart houses the blood!” meaning if someone is blood deficient (low in blood) that the mind (spirit) will not be anchored and will float all over the place and sleep will not be restful. When someone is heart blood deficient they will experience anxiety and palpitations as a result causing insomnia.

If you are someone who wakes many times through the night it means your kidney ‘Yin or negative’ energy is weak and will likely be running hot, or ‘yang, overly positive for its condition’, disturbing the mind with heat. You may have heard of Yin and Yang the two opposites that make up the balance of all life. Yin is cool energy and Yang is warm energy. If the cool energy is weak any warm energy will seem hotter and this is what we call Yin deficient heat. So when someone is yin deficient they will normally wake many times throughout the night because of this heat, acting as a disturbance or imbalance.

If you are someone who has nightmares and suffers from sleeping problems, then this is most likely a result of indigestion causing the body to heat up.

If you wake up in the early hours of the morning with disturbing thoughts or a busy head this is what we call Liver fire disturbing the mind.

Lastly, if you wake in the early hours and cannot get back to sleep this is considered a gall bladder problem.

Understand this; there is a common cause to insomnia and that is heat. Heat affects the mind directly and indirectly and is often related to the livers ability to function. I say this because if someone is stressed it will affect the liver, if someone eats poorly it will effect the liver,  as both stress and poor diet can be considered poisons.

If you are rundown, work late or stressed then the kidney ‘yin’ energy will impact on the liver in a negative way, leading the liver to anxiety.  When someone has gall bladder problems it will normally affect the liver because these two organs are yin/yang partners. So somewhere somehow the liver will be affected creating a vicious cycle of heat disturbing the mind leading to insomnia.

Please understand this; Going back to coffee or caffeine ‘rich’ drinks will stimulate heat, which is transferred to the liver, if the ‘poor’ liver is already running over temperature, then rest assured this is going to create and compound the turmoil the liver is already undergoing, or a never ending cycle

Unsure whether or not you are running on adrenalin?  Stop still, look at your hands for a while, are they shaking? That is one clue!

What to do?

Drink water – we always hear the same clue, but many of us don’t listen.  This will help detox the body. Place something green by your computer; this will calm the liver through the eyes, in addition to soaking up any negative Electro Magnetic Radiation, especially if still working with CRT’s and not flat screen technology. Go to sleep earlier, this will strengthen kidney yin. Eat less spice; this will help keep the blood cool. Write all tomorrows activities down before you sleep, this way they will be out of your head, with the added benefit of knowing what needs to be addressed tomorrow.

Stop worrying about tomorrow’s projects because you can’t do anything about them tonight.
By continually mistreating the power plant of your body – the liver, if your liver gives up then there won’t be a tomorrow.

Enjoying a good night’s sleep will enable you to deal with tomorrow in a much more productive, positive and rewarding way. If any of the above suggestions doesn’t work, then perhaps you’re not listening, so come see me and I’ll stick a needle in you, if for no other reason but to give your liver a break!

Actually, acupuncture is very affective in treating insomnia.
It should be, Chinese Medicines Solution to Insomnia has experienced 3,500 years of practice.

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