By
Kathy Thorpe, MA, CHom, Boulder, Colorado
It’s midnight and you’re still awake. You’ve been
tossing and turning in bed for the last hour, and you can’t seem to fall
asleep. Then your mind throws you a curve: “You’re not going to be able to fall
asleep! You have a busy day tomorrow and you won’t be able to function!” With these thoughts, your heart starts racing
and pounding, you experience palpitations in your chest. Sure enough, you can’t
fall asleep.
A good night’s sleep is vital to your overall
health, vitality, energy, memory and cognitive function. If you are among the
70 million Americans suffering from insomnia, you may be wondering if there are
natural ways to restore your sleep before you resort to sleeping pills.
Approximately nine million U.S. adults take prescription sleeping medications
which bring their own set of risks. According to a study in the
journal BMJ in 2012, in addition to being addicting, sleep medications bring a higher risk for certain cancers, a higher risk of death,
increased insulin resistance and risk of developing diabetes, weight gain and a
greater incidence of depression, confusion and disorientation.
So what are the causes of insomnia? We know that age is a factor as insomnia
increases as people get older and experience a disruption in the body’s
circadian rhythms. Anxiety and
heightened stress are other causes. When a person is stressed or anxious, the
body’s “fight or flight” mechanisms take over even if there is no real threat. Adrenaline
and cortisol are released, the heart beats faster, one becomes hyper-vigilant
and mentally alert. Unfortunately, this isn’t the time to escape from the tiger
– this is the time to sleep. Short-term insomnia can be caused by an injury,
illness, surgery, medications, divorce, the death of a loved one, trouble at
work, financial problems or traveling, for example. Typically, good sleep
returns once one recovers from the temporary situation, but for many people,
the sleep disturbances continue and the insomnia becomes chronic.
David Scrimgeour, acupuncturist and Chinese medical
practitioner in Boulder, Colorado, says that he sees more cases of insomnia these
days than ever before. He maintains that the rates of insomnia are growing
astronomically as more people experience prolonged states of high stress, anxiety,
poor diet, over-work and too little exercise. Burnout develops gradually as a
person’s vital energy erodes and results in a failure to adapt to the changes and
stresses of life. Once sleep, which was the great restorer, is affected, all
other issues escalate.
Scrimgeour sees that insomnia can be treated
effectively by acupuncture, Chinese Medicine and lifestyle modifications. According to David Scrimgeour, acupuncture helps restore sleep in two ways. First, it calms
the “spirit” when there is an imbalance in the body’s energy system. This enables
the body to calm down, relax and fall asleep. Secondly, acupuncture regulates
the autonomic nervous system or the involuntary functions of the body. When the
sympathetic nervous system is activated, it controls the body’s responses to a
perceived threat and is responsible for the “fight or flight” response. Once
the sympathetic nervous system is upregulated, it becomes impossible to relax
because of the adrenaline and cortisol pumping through your body to keep you
alert. Acupuncture has the effect of bringing your body into the
parasympathetic mode, which controls homeostasis and is responsible for the
body’s digestive, rest and sleep functions. In this mode, you can relax and
fall asleep.
David Scrimgeour also recommends specific Chinese
herbal formulas in conjunction with acupuncture for insomnia. “It is a process,”
he says, “of first calming down the nervous system and enabling the person to
sleep with a formula such as Calm ES by Evergreen or Lights Out by Dragon Herbs. Once a person is able to start
sleeping better, we can work on the underlying imbalances.” For chronic
insomnia, Scrimgeour says that it is essential to address adrenal deficiency
with certain Chinese herbal formulas that can restore function to the
adrenals over time. Supreme Immune Tonic by Six Persimmons Apothecary is an excellent formula for adrenal deficiency. Once the adrenals are functioning better, sleep is restored
and a person’s energy, vitality and mental acuity are also improved.
Through
the use of acupuncture and Chinese herbal formulas, David Scrimgeour has been
able to help many people sleep better and enjoy enhanced health as a result.
David
Scrimgeour practices acupuncture and Chinese Medicine at his clinic in Boulder,
Colorado. He also serves the Longmont, Louisville, Lafayette and Erie areas in
Colorado. For more information about sleep disturbances and insomnia, he can be
reached at 303 413-9596 or through his website: www.davidscrimgeour.com.
Kathy
Thorpe is a natural health writer and blogger who has been writing about
alternative approaches to health and wellness for the past ten years. Prior to
that, she taught English at U.C. Berkeley and at the University of
Colorado. She can be reached at 303
583-0179.
