5 Chinese Herbs That Help Insomnia

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) the health of your sleep reflects the health of your mind. Acupuncture aids in restoring proper sleep by harmonizing the yin and yang imbalances in the body that create insomnia. There are different types of insomnia from the TCM prospective. There is the insomnia where you have a hard time going to sleep, but once asleep you sleep well. This is a blood deficient insomnia and other symptoms may include blurred vision, dizziness, shortness of breath, numbness/tingling of limbs. Then there is the insomnia where you fall asleep easily but wake up every hour or two and can’t stay asleep all night. This is due to a yin deficiency, and symptoms may also include hot palms and soles, night sweats, dry mouth, throat, and skin. Since yin is cool and yang is warm, having a deficiency of yin automatically gives you an excess of yang. If yang is warmth and heat rises, it can disturb the mind and create a restless night. Lastly, there is the insomnia where you wake up at 4am and can’t get to sleep no matter what you do. Here we say you have a gallbladder deficiency. Your gall bladder is the organ in charge of courage and you need courage to make decisions. So if you are awake at 4am and cant get back to sleep, muster up some courage and make a decision!! Then you will fall asleep! 

Here are just a few herbs that could help people suffering from insomnia. Often these herbs are used in combination with other Chinese herbs for best results. Some of the herbs are easy to get and others, only your TCM practitioner can get for you. Please consult your TCM practitioner before taking any of the following herbs.

Suan Zao Ren

This herb is good for insomnia where you may experience some irritability, bad temper, palpitations, dizziness, night sweats and a dry mouth. You may also have excessive dreaming, you will be a shallow sleeper with tendencies to wake easily and you will be forgetful.

Mu Li

This is made of oyster shell and will lull you to sleep! Often paired with Long Gu this herb helps to anchor you. This is good for the person suffering from a racing mind. We will refer to it as raising Yang, and since yang is heat and heat rises, it will disturb the mind causing you to have a poor night sleep. You may also experience irritability, short temper, restlessness and even some tinnitus. 

Long Gu

Known as “The dragon bone” Long Gu has the power to calm your mind. As mentioned above it will often be paired with Mu Li because it can anchor the rising Yang, but with this type of insomnia you will have a lot more agitation: there will be anxiety, restlessness, forgetfulness, palpitations and possibly mania.

Wu Wei Zi

In a study Wu Wei Zi showed that is can stimulate our nervous system and thereby increase mental alertness, improve work efficiency and quicken our reflexes. With this herb we can treat both the Yin and Blood deficiency insomnias where you may experience anxiety, dream disturbed sleep, night sweats, spontaneous sweating, thirst…in other words this herb is great for women suffering from insomnia because they are going through menopause.

Dan Shen

This herb is good for insomnia due to Heart Blood deficiency, so you may have a hard time going to sleep but once you are asleep you should sleep well. Because the Heart is the organ that affects this type of insomnia, you may also see other symptoms such as: palpitations, anxiety, dizziness, poor memory or you may be that person that is very easily startled.