Different Drummer Acupuncture Marcia Mueller, L.Ac. Acupuncture to relieve pain and stress in Portland

Insomnia

In my practice I see a lot of patients who complain of poor sleep. I know from them and from personal experience how frustrating it is not to get good quality sleep. 
Insomnia is defined as insufficient or poor quality sleep and can manifest as trouble getting or staying asleep, waking too early in the morning or not getting quality sleep.  

From a Chinese medical point of view there are many pathologies involved in insomnia, but on a fundamental level they all boil down to an imbalance of yin and yang.  Night is yin and day is yang.   At rest the yin is on the surface and the yang is interior, but when we have insomnia the yang comes to the surface and we can't sleep.  Another way to think about it is that the yang is the rational, intellectual mind, in other words the left brain.  Yin is the intuitive, artistic and feeling mind, or the right brain.  Maintaining a balace between these two sides of our brains is a challenge.  Modern society tends to value the analytical left brain more than the intuitive right brain.  Technology also allows us to live in a world where there is activity 24 hours per day.  It's no wonder we have trouble sleeping.

Even if we can turn off our rational mind at bed time that often is not enough to enable us to get a good night's sleep.  We also need to nourish or develop our intuitive mind - in other words we need to have some sense of balance between the two.  Acupuncture is great at restoring balance.  Make an appointment >

Some facts about insomnia from the National Sleep Foundation :

• Over 60% of Americans suffer from sleep disorders.
• More women than men report insomnia.
• Stress is the leading cause of short-term sleep problems.
• Insomnia occurs more frequently in those over 60.
• Having a history of depression increases the likelihood of insomnia.
• 25% of Americans take some medication for sleep in any given year.