Insomnia is characterized by inability to acquire normal sleep, which results from the heart being deprived of nourishment or from mental disturbance. It is manifested as insufficient sleep, shallow sleep and failure to relieve fatigue and restore the physical and mental strength by sleep. Mild insomnia refers to difficulty to fall asleep, or broken sleep, or inability to resume sleep once waking up, while severe insomnia refers to inability to fall asleep the whole night.

The causes of insomnia include emotional disorder, improper diet, weak constitution after illness, infirmity of age, congenital insufficiency and timidness. It involves the heart and closely related to stagnation of liver qi, deficiency of the gallbladder, spleen and kidney and dysfunction of stomach qi. Its main pathogenesis associates with imbalance between yin and yang and disorder of qi and blood in the heart, gallbladder, spleen and kidney, resulting in the inadequate nourishment of the heart or mental disturbance.

The following description on the syndrome differentiation and treatment for insomnia can serve as reference for the diseases with insomnia as the chief symptom in Western medicine, such as neurosis, menopausal syndrome, sequela of brain concussion, hypertension, hepatopathy, hyperthyroidism, anemia, cerebral arteriosclerosis, chronic intoxication and schizophrenia in the early stage.

Western medicine and Chinese medicine are different. People agree to say: Western medicine is standardized and evidence-based, while Chinese medicine is experience-based. Western medicine uses a reductive and analytical approach, while Chinese medicine uses an inductive and synthetic approach. Western medicine is a pure science, while Chinese medicine is more of a healing art. In any case, both have their own advantages. Perhaps you are unfamiliar with TCM, yet it is not important at all. If you have been suffering from a disease for a long time, and you have tried many ways of western medicine but failed to cure the disease, so it is suggested that you change your mind to try TCM. We try what we can to help you with the disease by Chinese medicine. So, here we present you some useful, practical but fresh information from TCM point of view. By doing so, we hope you could understand better how TCM diagnoses and treats a disease, how effectively TCM treats a disease.