Insomnia and getting a good night's sleep!

Insomnia and getting a good night's sleep! Do you suffer with insomnia?Getting a good night's sleep? If your one of the millions of Americans who desperately are looking for help in getting a good night’s sleep, you might have read or even tried some over the counter supplements such as melatonin, valerian root, or passionflower. You might have had some results with this approach but you are not seeing the results you are really looking for, then read why some of these supplements. This is a real problem because sleeping problems are on the rise.SLEEP DISORDERS ARE A SIGN OF SEVERE BODY EXHAUSTIONLack of sleep is a sign of severe body exhaustion. Not just because you are losing sleep but because the process has been a slowly dwindling spiral that started 5, 8, 10 years earlier! For most people they start to ignore other signs of stress, live a rough life style and only becomes noticeable until your mid 30’s to 40’s. But there aren’t any real symptoms till you hit the wall somewhere in your 40’s or even earlier if the decline is worse. Poor diet, living it up late at night, constant stimulation from TV, work, smartphones, work, family work, long work hours, lack of exercise and lack of any down time takes it toll well before actual signs of it occur.BEFORE AGE 35 YOU CHEAT DISEASE, AFTER AGE 35 DISEASE CHEATS YOU!There is a saying that before 35 you cheat disease, after age 35 disease cheats you! As you age you start to exhibit the signs of stress and a breakdown of the body. As your body gets depleted of your innate ability to handle stress, starts to break down, affecting your nervous system and show signs of stress. This decline starts to happen at age 35 for most people, or even earlier for other people. The question you need to really ask yourself is how much is “dis-ease” cheating you out of life?IMBALANCE BETWEEN THE SLEEP AND WAKE CYCLEFor people with insomnia there develops a breakdown in the balance between the sleep and wake cycles. This balance is between the part of the nervous system responsible for alertness and the part of the nervous system responsible for relaxation. One part is responsible for the fight –or-flight response, the emergency state, where your body is primed to attack or run. The other part of the nervous system is responsible for the “rest and digest” phase (digestion of food is part of the relaxation response). When these two parts of the nervous system are in balance, your body can successfully balance the sleep and wake cycles. When stress starts to strip away the body’s functioning, there is an imbalance between the sleep and wake cycle, and insomnia occurs. In Chinese medicine they call the relaxation part of the nervous system, yin, and the excitation part of the nervous system, yang energies. So in Chinese medicine there is an imbalance between the yin and yang energies, usually a lack of yin calming energies.YOU’RE NERVOUS SYSTEM CAN'T CALM DOWNWhen ongoing stress chips away at the body, your nervous system becomes imbalanced. The part of the nervous system that is activated by stress causes your body to secrete short and long term stress hormones which totally messes with your sleep cycle. This chronic heightened “state of emergency” in your body makes it impossible for you to shut your mind off or to relax and certainly to sleep. This process is very deadly. Our nervous systems were made to deal with short lived stressful situations. Your fight or flight response is only supposed to be short acting. Your nervous system is supposed to come down from this to re-energize. Enter the 21rst century! The demands on us, has increased exponentially with the advent of things moving in a more frantic state. We remain in a heightened stressed state for many hours, days on end and even years at a time! When your body doesn’t come down from the stress, back into a relaxed state, you become trapped! Your body goes though the stress cycle day after day, and leads to very deep and severe exhaustion of your body. When stress overcomes the body’s ability to handle stress, it stops working. This process overtakes the body’s ability to deal with stress and then the body starts to succumb to the stress. Severe exhaustion occurs and this weakens and depletes the different organ systems of your body. You start to age quicker, packing on weight, developing high blood pressure, blood sugar issues, feelings of overwhelm, frustration, and irritability.HYPERACTIVITY OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM:Ever coast down a road either on a bike or in a car, and you suddenly have to hit the brakes. It stops your motion and your flow. You get annoyed and extremely frustrated. This pattern has everything to do with things getting so stressed that everything feels stuck. Stress causes you to feel more irritable, more angrily, more withdrawn, or more moody. Physically, this can be associated with headaches, tight muscles in the neck and shoulders, and a general lack of enjoyment “because who has time to “enjoy” things! In these cases treatment consists of gently nudging the nervous system to relieve the mental and emotional constraint! Additionally, Chinese herbs can offer quick relief as well. There is a whole of herbal formulas using the herb buplerum that can have this effectively. In this pattern, valerian and passionflower CAN benefit but they don’t do enough to help treat the stuckness which is part of this picture and you perpetuate the stress by being frustrated, down and out, or just angry all the time! It’s the rat race wheel, the stress keeps perpetuating the condition and the condition prolongs the stress, until you “conk out” for a weekend, then continue the same cycle. Does this sound like you?HOW CAN ACUPUNCTURE HELPS PEOPLE WITH INSOMNIA?· Acupuncture can lower stress hormone levels: When we are under severe stress, our bodies produce more adrenaline and norepinephrine, the fight or flight stress hormones that increase your heart rate and ready your muscles for a fight! These stress hormones keep exciting us and wearing us out with successive ups and downs in the handling of stress. This directly wears us out and degrades our quality of sleep.· Acupuncture can increase serotonin levels: Serotonin is a hormone that induces relaxation and sleep. It is often depleted in a stressed person. SSRI drugs like Prozac, Zoloft and Lexapro seek to make serotonin levels higher in the blood stream by blocking the body’s ability to take them into the nerve ending receptor sites. Acupuncture has been shown to actually increase serotonin levels to help you get into deeper sleep· Acupuncture can improve blood flow to the brain: Researcher have found that a lack of sufficient blood flow to the brain leads to lower blood sugar levels which cause spontaneous waking from sleep. Even people with “normal” blood pressure on the arm can still have low blood pressure in the head and experience sleep disturbances. Acupuncture can correct this imbalance by improving blood flow to the brain to reduce spontaneous waking in the early hours of the morning.· Acupuncture enhances the relaxation response: Acupuncture releases a neuropeptide or a signaling protein called “substance “ which is responsible for triggering the “rest-and-digest response so your body flips into relaxation and helps induce your nervous system to restore and relax. Over time your body re-learns the relaxation pathways that it lost. Effects are cumulative.Additionally, Chinese herbal formulas can be prescribed in treating insomnia quite effectively: Using herbs, you can target the underlying pattern of insomnia, to treat the insomnia more effectively. Herbal combinations are wonderful adjunct to the acupuncture because they help speed up the process. Here are 5 reasons why more and more people, like you, are turning to Chinese medicine to treat their insomnia.· All Natural: It is an all-natural way to treat insomnia with fewer side effects than drugs. It helps build up the nervous system so it can start working again, and being able to deal with stress again.· Herbal purity ensured: A good herbalist, uses Chinese herbs that are certified Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), so you can be assured that the herbs are safe to use without any adulterations, heavy metals or contaminants. Unfortunately, due to the unethical practices of some herbal companies, many of the better ones have adopted a strict checking process and are in compliance with good manufacturing standards.· Professional guidance: When prescribed under the guidance of a certified Chinese medicine herbalist, you can be assured that the herbs are prescribed in a safe and ethical manner. Ever read about something, try it and have it NOT work? Getting professional guidance to help you.· Tailor made and individualized to help your condition: Best of all herbal formulas can be tailor made and individualized to your condition. Tailor made herbs are the cornerstone of Chinese herbalism. What gets mixed for one patient, is not the same thing for another patient, because the ingredients have to change to mirror the actual underlying cause of diseases.This is actually the main reason why a lot of the remedies out there don't work fo a lot of people, they don't ffully match what your body needs for sleep.· Convenient: Herbs can be mixed into concentrated powders where you only need to mix the herbs in hot water and “presto” an instant tea! Pills may be made as well for those who do not like tasting the mixture. The herbs are made up of powders that have a concentrated potency. They are mixed into what is called a formula and the herbs are then measured to the therapeutic dosage and then taken It is easy to do and convenient for the patient. It has become popular in Hong Kong to use herbal powders from concentrate in this method because it is so convenient and it is being used here in the states, more and more.Ask yourself- has your valerian, passionflower or other over the counter sleeping aids failed you? Want a more comprehensive approach? Call now and start sleeping better! 201-444-7150. I look forward to speaking with you!