Insomnia can arise from a combination of poor diet and work stress. Darren, 28, complained of tiredness and depression. The fatigue, he said, was due to the fact that he had been getting only 3 to 5 hours of sleep per night for the last five months. At that time, his hours at work (Darren was a chemical technician) had shifted from a standard day-time schedule to the swing shift from 4 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. His body had still not made the adjustment to the later schedule. As a result, he stayed up late and then would wake a number of times during the night.
Darren’s diet was high in sugars and fatty foods, such as cheese and peanut butter. He frequently felt bloated and gassy and estimated he was 30 pounds overweight. In addition to the insomnia, lethargy, and depression, he had suffered with hay fever since the age of 17, and chronic neck pain from sitting and looking down into a microscope at work.
According to traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis, Darren’s tongue was flabby and wet and slightly pale with a red tip; he also had scalloped “teeth marks” on the sides of his tongue and his pulses were “slippery.” All of these signs indicated Darren’s spleen and stomach were deficient in energy, meaning he was not producing enough blood or digestive power. The deficiency was allowing a condition of “dampness” to build up in his body, causing the energy to stagnate in the Liver meridian, which was creating heat. This dampness and heat, according to TCM, was the cause of his mental restless and insomnia.
Darren was given an acupuncture treatment with emphasis on points along his back to strengthen the spleen, stomach, and liver functions, as well as points on the back of his neck to ease the muscle tension. On his front side, points along the Spleen, Stomach, and Pericardium meridians, as well as a combination of liver and large intestine points were used to release stress and mental tension. He relaxed completely during the treatment, even dozing at times. He was also given an herbal formula called Melakava, which contains melatonin, the sleep-inducing hormone that regulates the body’s sleep-wake cycle, along with the Chinese herbs zizyphus and kava-kava, which have sedative and antidepressant properties.
The night of the first acupuncture treatment, Darren took two tablets of Melakava 30 minutes before bedtime. He was able to fall asleep quickly and slept through the night. He reported at the next treatment that he was averaging six hours of sleep per night and awakening refreshed for the first time in months. Darren also made significant changes to his diet, reducing his intake of dairy products, fatty foods, and sugars. He eventually eliminated cheeses completely from his diet. By the third treatment, Darren was getting an average of eight hours of sleep per night. He was less depressed and was getting enough sleep to help him cope with stresses at work. Darren was also less bothered by bloating and gas and, encouraged by his improved sleep, continued to make positive lifestyle changes by getting more exercise and eating better.
