Haste makes waste. I can't think of a better phrase to describe the process of sleeping. Maybe you have an important test tomorrow, need to get up early to commute, have an important meeting, etc. You are desperate to fall asleep ASAP, however, things just go south.
When I was in senior high school I suffered from insomnia as well, mostly due to the pressure from my studies. Every time I closed my eyes at night, figures and equations popped out like nightmares.
I have some tips for those who suffered from insomnia:
1 Exercise more. The more weary you are, the easier it is for you to fall asleep. You can either ride a bike, go jogging, play balls, or go weight training. Any one of these could do! A long long time ago, when our ancestors were hunting in the forests, their bodies would initiate a “ Fight or Flight '' system to either fight for tonight’s dinner or run away to prevent ending up becoming an animal’s dinner.
In that period of time, it was easy to define the initiation and termination of the “Fight or Flight '' system, the outcomes were clear. However, nowadays most of us live in the concrete jungles. You can’t either fight the arrogant boss or run away from extra working hours. The tense gradually accumulates and results in insomnia. By doing exercises, you are releasing the stress muscles get from the “ Fight or Flight '' . As soon as your muscles feel at ease, so will your mind.
2 Write down all the things that are bothering you. A pen and piece of paper cost nearly nothing, however, if you are a CEO of a big company, the financial loss due to insufficient sleeping might be enormous. Part of your anxiety results from the abstractness of the difficulties you are encountering.
Writing them down is like turning all these difficulties into actual solid target sheets in which you can view them clearly and have some nice shots, decreasing the burdens of your mind.
3 The left part of the human brain is in charge of reasoning and logic while the right part of it manages pictures and intuitions. You can calculate the total colors in your nearby environment when you are suffering from insomnia.
By doing so you can balance the reasoning and sensing parts in your brain. For example you see a red cup, a green sofa, a blue jacket, that makes a total of three colors. It also helps to pull your heart away from anxiety to reality, to know that the only time you can seize is now. The future is yet to come, the past has gone, so make the most out of the present time!!
In Chinese medicine, the heart and spleen governs the blood. If someone works too much to the extent of exhaustion, it may result in the depletion of blood and Q in heart and spleen. The depletion then causes a chaotic state of mind, forgetfulness and insomnia.
The prescription歸脾湯(Gui Pi soup) suits for insomnia caused by the depletion of blood and Qi in heart and spleen. It contains herbs that supplement Qi like
黃耆(Huang Qi,Roots of [Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bge.var. mongholicus (Bge.) Hsiao]、[Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bge.]) or
當歸(Dan Gui,Roots of [Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels]).
It also contains 遠至(Yuan Gi,Roots of [Polygala tenuifolia willd.]、[Polygala sibirica L.]), it channels kidney and heart, and it’s also good at easing the mood.