You always wake up at the same time during the night? This is no coincidence!
In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), each of the 24 hours of the day is associated with an organ or meridian (a “pathway” for life energy). So, if your body always reports at a certain time, there is probably an imbalance or an impairment of the corresponding organ behind it. The whole thing also has a psychological or emotional component, because traditional Chinese medicine assumes that each organ stores a certain feeling.
Problems with falling asleep
Between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., metabolic processes slowly shut down and the body goes into sleep mode. Now is the time of the so-called “triple warmer”. This meridian is not assigned to a single organ, but to the digestive system as well as the respiratory and urogenital systems. Especially at this time, falling asleep or staying asleep is disturbed, for example, by stress. However, from the point of view of traditional Chinese medicine, the cause can also be joy, as this is also a form of arousal and is assigned to the Triple Warmer as an emotion. A notebook or diary in which you record everything that occupies you before you fall asleep can help you here.
Sleep problems between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m
Between 11 pm and 1 am is the time of the gallbladder, which is responsible for fat digestion. If you wake up frequently at this time or have trouble falling asleep, it may indicate that you ate too rich or too fatty a meal and the gallbladder is now especially busy. Another warning signal is heartburn. The first thing to do in this case is to try to incorporate more fiber-containing foods (fruits, vegetables, whole grains) into your diet.
From a TCM perspective, the emotional issue of the gallbladder is anger. Not for nothing there is the expression “spitting poison and bile”. One solution to sleep problems at this time can be a change in the way one deals with one’s anger, for example, by not repressing conflicts but dealing with them head-on (but wisely), or by coming to terms with something that makes one angry but that one cannot change.
Sleep problems between 1 and 3 a.m
Between 1 and 3 o’clock, the liver kicks into action and detoxifies the body. It is negatively affected by toxins such as alcohol and nicotine, but also by eating too greasy food, hyperacidity and stress. To help the liver detoxify, you should only drink high-proof alcohol in the evening from time to time. In addition, one can resort to various home remedies, for example hot lemon, or take fasting days. Just like its partner organ – the gall bladder – the liver is affected by anger.
