Traditional Chinese Medicine Interpretation of Depression and Insomnia

Clinically, it is difficult to fall asleep, easy to wake up after sleeping, unable to sleep after waking up, sometimes waking up, or staying up all night, often accompanied by listlessness, unresponsiveness, physical fatigue and even upset during the day, which seriously affects physical and mental health and work, study and life. Physicians in past dynasties believed that the main cause of insomnia was internal injury of seven emotions, involving viscera other than heart, spleen, liver, gallbladder and kidney. Its pathogenesis always belonged to disharmony between ying and Wei, and imbalance between yin and yang was the root cause, or yin deficiency could not absorb yang, or yang excess could not enter yin. As "The Great Confusion of Spiritual Pivot" said: "Wei Qi can't live in Yin, but always live in Yang. Stay in the sun, the sun will be full, the sun will be full, and the sun will flourish; If you can't enter the yin, you will be weak, so your eyes are too busy. " "Lingshu Xie Ke" points out: "If you are angry with the five zang and six fu houses today, you will defend your qi and do it in Yang, but not in Yin. When you walk in the sun, it will be full, and when it is full, it will be sleepy. You must not enter the yin and yin, so that you will not be embarrassed. " It can be seen that the disharmony between Yin and Yang is the key to insomnia. The understanding of insomnia harmonizing yin and yang is as follows.

Sleep can be regarded as a process of balance between yin and yang. There are many reasons for insomnia, and there are three reasons recorded in Neijing:

(1) The influence of other diseases, such as cough and asthma, abdominal distension, etc. , make people can't lie down quietly;

⑵ It is caused by the invasion of viscera by pathogenic factors, and the defensive qi cannot enter the yin;

(3) Visceral injuries, disharmony between Yin and Yang, and restless sleep at night. For example, Su Wenbing can say, "What's wrong with people being restless when they lie down?" ..... Dirty injury, fine delivery, is safe. Old friends can't get sick. People think that "sleepiness" means "defending qi" by walking in the sun for 25 weeks, walking in the shade for 25 weeks, walking at night for 25 weeks and walking in the sun for 25 weeks.

It can be seen that people's normal sleep is the result of the natural and regular transformation of yin and yang. If this rule is broken, it will lead to insomnia. The main reason why this rule is broken is that external evils such as fire, heat, qi and blood interfere with the normal operation of Wei and Qi, and internal injuries make the five internal organs lose qi, qi and blood are not harmonious, and yin and yang are not harmonious, leading to insomnia. Most pathological factors are qi, blood and phlegm. Zhang Jingyue said in "Eighteen Insomnia in Jingyue Quanshu Volume": "Insomnia is mainly covered with yin and towel. If God is safe, he will sleep; if God is uneasy, he will not sleep. " And this divinity refers to the mind, that is, the master of human physiological and psychological activities. The heart is the place and master of human emotions. Heart governs mind, liver governs emotion, and spleen governs thought. If the mood is uncomfortable, excessive thinking will not only affect the excretion of the liver, but also cause liver depression and qi stagnation, disturb the mind, further consume sad blood and damage the spleen. In the end, there will be failure of true yin and true essence, loss of heart and kidney, and mental disorder, which will lead to deficiency of five internal organs, excess and deficiency, and lingering.