Insomnia is down to lack of/broken qi?

[Perceiver]

Gerard: it doesnt matter if its a taoist forum or not. If people have problems we should advise them based on common sense, evidence and an open mind - not on a narrowminded idea that taoism is the cure for everything and the only thing that can be recommended.

[Gerard]

Taoism is the cure to most health ailments, Western medicine (namely the germ theory and modern psychiatry) doesn't address the energy-body (microcosm-macrocosm via Nature). It is 4,000 years behind China (check this link)!!

 

Here's a simple tea formula that should work for insomnia until you get a correct assessment for your condition:

 

Long Yan Rou (dried longan fruit)   10 g
Suan Zao Ren (jujube seeds, fried)  10 g
Qian Shi (euryale seeds)  12 g

Gan Cao (licorice root) 3 g

 

Decoction:

 

1. Soak herbs for 60 min

2. Bring tea to a boil and simmer between 40-50 min (cook with the lid on).

3. Filter the tea

4. Fill the pot again with cold water

5. Repeat the process once more

6. Strain tea

7. Mix both batches of tea

8. Drink it warm on an empty stomach once a day

 

Duration of treatment: 15 continuous days.

 

Functions: Nourishes the blood and quiets the spirit, boosts the kidney and astringes/stabilises the jing.

Indications: Suitable for the treatrnent of palpitations, racing of the heart, insomnia, lassitude of the spirit, and fatigue due to a heart and kidney vacuity. 

Contraindications: Contraindicated in individuals suffering from a common cold.

 

Best!

[soaring crane]

hey, I have another tip for Rara for getting a good night's sleep: earplugs. I use them sometimes and always sleep like a dead thing when I do.

 

I've experimented and decided that these are the best:

Howard Leight Max Lite

[Rara]

@Perceiver @Gerard Yes, although I am generally looking for traditional Taoist advice (as I'm more cluless on this) of course, I am open to other western methods. I want to try everything and by having a counsellor, this certainly won't hurt. I am aware the counsellor is in no way going to help in such areas...in fact, when I tell him tomorrow that I want to see a TCM practitioner, I know exactly how his face will look. Similar to when I told him I was lucid dreaming one time XD.

 

Either way, I respect both of your inputs here.

[Rara]

I'm currently suffering from migraines after getting back from Thailand. Joy. However, I've been able to sleep I'm just so broken, wow.

[Rara]

hey, I have another tip for Rara for getting a good night's sleep: earplugs. I use them sometimes and always sleep like a dead thing when I do.

 

I've experimented and decided that these are the best:

 

Howard Leight Max Lite

Hmm, maybe...but a lot of time the noise is in my head as well as outside.

[soaring crane]

Hmm, maybe...but a lot of time the noise is in my head as well as outside.

 

well, in that case you just have to shove them in really far haha :-)

[Rara]

Quick update -

 

I'm going for acupuncture on Friday and am on the waiting list for the herb clinic for the Northern School of Acupunture (York)

 

In the meantime, caffiene and tobacco have been eliminated completely, spicy foods and red meat reduced, alcohol and weed massively reduced (I've been advised to come off these slowly and not to beat myself up about having the occasional)

 

I've also began meditating on breath again and my fiancee is doing 30-40 min yoga sessions with me a couple of times a week.

 

Slowly but surely, I'm improving. I wish to express my gratitude to all of you for helping get myself back on the wagon

[Rara]

Just an update, I have been prescribed Rhizoma Chuanxiong that I take in powder form mixed with hot water twice a day.

 

It has also been recommended that I return to doing my kung fu forms before bed...some form of meditation that works for me.

 

I'm only on day 3 so it is hard to tell but today I feel a lot better and also slept for 7 and 1/2 hours straight last night. Will see how I progress.

 

I'm back at the herb clinic a week on Tuesday so they can monitor my progress.

[Gerard]

Interesting you have been prescribed with a herb that moves the blood. This emphasises the importance of seeking professional help rather than relying on online information (or hearsay) which could be a disaster since everyone is different.

 

Keep going to the herbalist until you feel better, this may take some time.

 

Good luck

[Rara]

Interesting you have been prescribed with a herb that moves the blood. This emphasises the importance of seeking professional help rather than relying on online information (or hearsay) which could be a disaster since everyone is different.

 

Keep going to the herbalist until you feel better, this may take some time.

 

Good luck

I had similar advice yesterday from another cyber-friend of mine. A chinese fella who was bought up with Taoism, TCM, and much more. He says that unlike western medicine, chinese medicine can take 2-3 months to start making a difference and when the change does come, the "disease" won't come back.

 

And yes, they took my pulse for ages. I was sceptical when I first researched what I was taking but then again, I'm not the expert am I?

 

So yes, thank you, I will persist until I'm finally better

[Zhongyongdaoist]

I don't know how I missed this one before, but bearing in mind your first post:

 

I wonder how close I am here, and if anyone has any further knowledge.

Having had a year of mixed, extreme emotions - some difficult family issues at the centre of it, I was finding my meditation hard to bear. I stopped for about five months and insomnia (a recurring issue) has returned.

Any input is highly appreciated. I feel I'm on to something here and am on my way to extinguishing the root cause.

PS I stopped meditating because in a sad and angry time back in May, I felt so many overwhelming negative emotions that it put me in to shock. I think I'm still recovering. This is why I've been away from the forum for a while and occasionally eratic

This prescription makes a lot of sense to me:

 

Just an update, I have been prescribed Rhizoma Chuanxiong that I take in powder form mixed with hot water twice a day.

It has also been recommended that I return to doing my kung fu forms before bed...some form of meditation that works for me.

I'm only on day 3 so it is hard to tell but today I feel a lot better and also slept for 7 and 1/2 hours straight last night. Will see how I progress.

I'm back at the herb clinic a week on Tuesday so they can monitor my progress.

The emotional extremes and anger and sadness which you mentioned in the beginning are very much associated with Liver/Gallbladder stagnation which can both be caused by feelings of frustration, but can also turn into a chronic "mood" of feeling angry and frustrated and moving the qi/blood is a good single herb to start treating this.  The Liver and Gallbladder hours are 11:00 pm to 3:00 am (Local Mean Time, not standard time) and problems with them have a well known association with insomnia.  Good luck with your treatment.

[Gerard]

Just an update, I have been prescribed Rhizoma Chuanxiong that I take in powder form mixed with hot water twice a day.

Stay away from powders and pills, fresh herbs please! Far more effective (quicker results).

 

I missed that comment.

 

He says that unlike western medicine, chinese medicine can take 2-3 months to start making a difference and when the change does come, the "disease" won't come back

Not quite right:

 

"Doctor, thank you! My hand is totally healed now. Next morning I was tempted and put my hand in the fire...

Later that day: Hello again doctor..."

 

There is no cure for foolishness.

Edited February 29, 2016 by Gerard

[Rara]

I don't know how I missed this one before, but bearing in mind your first post:

 

 

This prescription makes a lot of sense to me:

 

 

The emotional extremes and anger and sadness which you mentioned in the beginning are very much associated with Liver/Gallbladder stagnation which can both be caused by feelings of frustration, but can also turn into a chronic "mood" of feeling angry and frustrated and moving the qi/blood is a good single herb to start treating this. The Liver and Gallbladder hours are 11:00 pm to 3:00 am (Local Mean Time, not standard time) and problems with them have a well known association with insomnia. Good luck with your treatment.

As much as I am slowly learning...I seem to remember my acupuncture therapist mentioning something along the lines of liver...gallbladder...qi stagnation.

 

Your post makes perfect sense to me though, thanks!

 

Part 2 is me actually letting go as well. As they said to me, "there is only so much we can do". So I chilling more, caring less and am generally happier.

 

Still not sleeping well but hey, I'm only a week and a half in.

[Rara]

Stay away from powders and pills, fresh herbs please! Far more effective (quicker results).

 

I missed that comment.

 

 

Not quite right:

 

"Doctor, thank you! My hand is totally healed now. Next morning I was tempted and put my hand in the fire...

Later that day: Hello again doctor..."

 

There is no cure for foolishness.

They said that research shows that the powders were just as effective. Plus, preparing the herbs takes a while and my schedule won't really allow it....

 

About my friend that said about it not coming back... I think he may have been talking generally...foolishness aside, the medicine should be enough to fix a problem long term. We have been known to have communication breakdowns due to the language barrier though. And he is slightly dogmatic and biased!

Edited March 3, 2016 by Rara

[Gerard]

It can't be! Don't forget the golden rule: the closer to Nature the merrier. Herbs mimic the spirit of the plant world, hence they are more powerful. Unless you are able to extract their essence and nourish the resulting "pill" and transferring the highly developed spiritual energy of the healer and then combining it with full moon and sacred mountain energies. But how many do have access to this sort of highly advanced shamanic healing. Herbs are a better and feasible way of healing organ disharmonies.

 

I once met a guy who is living in Arunachala who got sick very bad and visited a yogi living in one of the mountain caves. He told this guy: you got bad karma, take this pill. The illness went away after just a few hours. He couldn't believe his own eyes. This is related to the Tibetan Buddhist link I referred earlier on. It's all in the mind!

 

On the other hand, emotions, fetters and rooted thoughts resulting from social conditioning (part of the ego) are the ultimate cause of illness, address these and you'll be a "free man!"

 

Happy healing.

Edited March 4, 2016 by Gerard

[Rara]

It can't be! Don't forget the golden rule: the closer to Nature the merrier. Herbs mimic the spirit of the plant world, hence they are more powerful. Unless you are able to extract their essence and nourish the resulting "pill" and transferring the highly developed spiritual energy of the healer and then combining it with full moon and sacred mountain energies. But how many do have access to this sort of highly advanced shamanic healing. Herbs are a better and feasible way of healing organ disharmonies.

 

I once met a guy who is living in Arunachala who got sick very bad and visited a yogi living in one of the mountain caves. He told this guy: you got bad karma, take this pill. The illness went away after just a few hours. He couldn't believe his own eyes. This is related to the Tibetan Buddhist link I referred earlier on. It's all in the mind!

 

On the other hand, emotions, fetters and rooted thoughts resulting from social conditioning (part of the ego) are the ultimate cause of illness, address these and you'll be a "free man!"

 

Happy healing.

I will certainly raise that with the TCM lady when I see her on Tuesday...I see your point.

 

As for your latter paragraph...agreed!

[Andrei]

As much as I am slowly learning...I seem to remember my acupuncture therapist mentioning something along the lines of liver...gallbladder...qi stagnation.

 

Your post makes perfect sense to me though, thanks!

 

Part 2 is me actually letting go as well. As they said to me, "there is only so much we can do". So I chilling more, caring less and am generally happier.

 

Still not sleeping well but hey, I'm only a week and a half in.

 

A good treatment should have effects in a couple of hours as soon the active substance reaches your liver.

If it doesn't work it means it is the wrong approach.

It does not matter if the specialist is an acupuncturist, there is so much bullshit outthere especially the Chinese ones, they just want to take your money. 

I had the same problem with liver and gallbladder Qi but it is not " Qi stagnation". It is exactly the opposite but hey I am not the "acupuncturist". I asked the acupuncturist, "can you recommend me some herbs or some food ? He told me "I am not a herbalist I am acupuncturist".... What the heck I payed 95$ for the treatment and I was supposed to go 10 more times for the treatment "to have effect". My girlfriend had insomnia and spent lots of money on acupuncture which was effective only one day and the herbs she was taking were very expensive, but with my recommendations she could control her insomnia which I say again is because cortisol levels in your blood and adrenals exhaustion due to stress, not "liver Qi stagnation".

[Rara]

A good treatment should have effects in a couple of hours as soon the active substance reaches your liver.

If it doesn't work it means it is the wrong approach.

It does not matter if the specialist is an acupuncturist, there is so much bullshit outthere especially the Chinese ones, they just want to take your money.

I had the same problem with liver and gallbladder Qi but it is not " Qi stagnation". It is exactly the opposite but hey I am not the "acupuncturist". I asked the acupuncturist, "can you recommend me some herbs or some food ? He told me "I am not a herbalist I am acupuncturist".... What the heck I payed 95$ for the treatment and I was supposed to go 10 more times for the treatment "to have effect". My girlfriend had insomnia and spent lots of money on acupuncture which was effective only one day and the herbs she was taking were very expensive, but with my recommendations she could control her insomnia which I say again is because cortisol levels in your blood and adrenals exhaustion due to stress, not "liver Qi stagnation".

And thank you for the warning

 

But can we assume that extreme cortisol levels may be a cause of "liver qi stagnation"? I've cut caffeine and alcohol and am replacing more yang foods with yin, and also practicing not-working myself up. So far I'm still barely better at all, other than my heart rate doesn't raise as much these days.

 

I'm realising that it will take some time, whether it's my lifestyle and how I react to things that needs to change, or me trialling TCM. I figure that at least if I make the attempt with the herbs over a few months, if I see no improvement then at least I can rule it out for myself. If I cure the problem on the journey, even better Win/win situation lol

[Andrei]

https://www.drlam.com/blog/chronic-tiredness-and-insomnia-in-adrenal-fatigue/4133/

https://www.drlam.com/blog/adrenal-fatigue-and-sleep-part-2/4134/

[Andrei]

This explains a lot:

https://www.drlam.com/articles/adrenal_fatigue.asp

 

Don't get me wrong, TCM works but insomnia is a complex issue, mostly because of a hormonal imbalance. Just that TCM explains things in a different paradigm. I would suggest you to read and learn books about TCM/accupunture at least the 5 element theory how they interact. You don't need to enter into the meridian and points details, all you need is just understand how organs influence each other. In western medicine they say is the hypotalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis which in TCM is explained through Shen-Qi-Jing paradigm. Basically insomnia is an excess of Shen which is the Heart energy, which is Fire element nourished by the Wind and Wood energy of the Liver which is nourished by the Water element of the Kidney. But Qi in this paradigm means Yang Qi which dries up the adrenals, making Yang energy of the kidney to dry the liver and taking fire that spreads up to the heart and from the heart to the head producing Shen which is lucidity, which obviously is the opposite of sleep. In my experience the best herb that made me asleep almost instantly was Lingzhi tea with Goji berries. Ling zhi /Reishi is that black mushroom in form of a ear or kidney that is used in TCM to nourish the kidney, but actually what is it doing is nourishing the Yin Water of the kidney lowering the Yang Qi of the kidney. Goji berries is doing exactly the same thing but for the blood and liver, it is nourishing the Yin Wood of the liver and cools down the blood. So there you have it, less Fire in the blood and heart, instant sleep.

There is another mechanism here which is basically the opposition of Cortisol to Serotonine. Basically if the cortisol levels are high the serotonine is low and the other way arround. This is why some therapists recommend HTP-5 which is a precursor of tryptophane which is the precursor of serotonine which is the precursor of melatonine which regulates the sleep circadian cycle in the pituitary. The thing is the adaptogen herbs do exactly the same thing, they influence the balance of serotonine to cortisol levels in the blood and they regulate the circadian rythm. This is why the life style is very important, like the timeing of what you eat and when you go to sleep. Usually when you eat meat that contains a lot of tryptophan you get some drowsiness because the serotonine levels start to rise while the cortisol levels go down. If you observe those rythms in your life and regulate the timing through the correct diet and sleep patterns I bet you will get rid of your problems. But this is something that nobody else can fix you, you have to do it yourself but you have to understand how these things work.

[Andrei]

Another thing that I was doing myself is that most of the time I was too rested, I was eating well and going to bed at 10 PM and I was sleeping the best hours between 10PM and 1AM and then gradually or sometimes suddenly I was waking up at 3 AM or 3:30 AM. This is the time when the melatonine has the peak levels and usually at this time the lucid dreaming starts, but I was having some violent dreams that made me wake up. What I was doing is I was meditating for 30 minutes then the serotonine start to rise again and the cortisol drops down and I could sleep the rest of the night from 4:00 to 7:AM. Sometimes I feel this time of sleep very restful although during the day the tiredness accumulates but I force myself to have a normal schedule and next evening I go to bed at the same hours. This is how I went through very stressful periods in my life.

[Gerard]

Andrei, insomnia is not only caused by imbalances in the Wood element. The main culprit is the Heart (Fire element). Both Liver and Heart have a deep relationship since the former generates the latter. Also 3-4am is the time when the Liver Qi peaks before exiting even though 1-3am are the official Liver Qi hours. That happens with every single organ.

 

I also suggest you watching the highly informative video:

 

 

 

There is so much Chinese Medicine can do. One must then work with meditation at a highest level using all the tools available. Serious practitioners who are really keen to advance in their practices often attend long term retreats or become renunciates since the complete healing of the Hun and Shen system requires a lot of energy and time, a lifetime of practice (and beyond).

 

Working with trees is a magnificent tool everyone should use. The last Buddha wouldn't have attained his goal without the last push of tree spirits.

 

All the best!

 

 

Rara, I just noticed the TCM practitioner you saw only prescribed you one herb. This is a bit unusual. Anyway, see how it goes.

[Rara]

@Andre Thanks, I watched the first video and these are definitely things I'm working on. I will watch the other later and have a read through your article/post.

 

@Gerard.....I was wrong! I didn't get Rhizoma Chuanxiong! It was written on the box so I assumed that's what it was...but they just reuse boxes. They are tweaking the formula based on my self-evaluation from the last 2 weeks so I'll be taking a slightly different mixture as of later today. They said they can give me a list of its contents if I like but I've decided against it. Otherwise I'll just end up over-analyzing which is probably a part of my problem anyway.

Edited March 8, 2016 by Rara

[Rara]

Another thing that I was doing myself is that most of the time I was too rested

Oh, by this do you mean that you were rested enough which didn't make you tired come bed time to get a full night's sleep?