What makes me wake up at night?

Many of my clients come to see me because they feel tired and say their sleep is disturbed, often causing them to wake up around the same time every night.

I work within the Traditional Chinese Medicine framework in which we focus symptoms, causes and motivations or limiting beliefs in the meridian system. This relates to the five elements within Chinese Medicine, being Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. Each holding its own psychology, pathway and purpose.

There are 12 main meridians or channels within the body that connect the internal organs. Plus 8 extra meridians which relate to overall balance of the body: its yin and yang, ensuring we as humans remain in Homeostasis - from the Greek words for "same" and "steady," refers to any process that living things use to actively maintain fairly stable conditions necessary for survival.

The Chinese Meridian Body Clock refers to the flow of energy or Qi/Chi flowing through a different meridian. This happens every 2 for each of the 12 main meridians, taking a full 24hours for the whole system to be completed. If the energy is blocked, stagnant or unbalanced in a certain meridian, we may have trouble sleeping during the corresponding time.

See if your common waking time resonates with you by reading on to find the night time factors affecting sleep:

9pm to 11pm – San Jiao / Triple Heater time (Fire - red)

This meridian relates to our external boundaries with others. You may be stuck in the flight or fight mode, feeling too stressed to support you to fall asleep.  This meridian controls intake, transformation, and elimination. It regulates your immune system so if you are feeling sick you may find it hard to fall asleep. Because you may be in “fight/flight” there could be a need to feel safe. Everything could be feeling like a threat to your physical and emotional being so you might find it hard to fall asleep or you could wake up shortly after falling asleep, frightened, and confused.

An affirmation to help you could be: “I let go and relax knowing I am 100% safe”

11pm to 1am – Gall Bladder time (Wood - green)

The Gall Bladder meridian it’s all about looking outward, decision making and putting plans into action. Perhaps you have been overly timid lately or trying to avoid criticism or judgement, so you don’t get rejected? This channel is also associated with perfection – forging ahead trying to make everything perfect. This simply put leads to frustration and possibly anger, both of which will affect your sleep greatly.

An affirmation to help you could be: “I make decisions with ease and flow from forgiveness”

1am to 3am – Liver time (Wood – green)

The Liver meridian is about planning and movement. It’s often about how we see ourselves. We will “do” things well in order to be good enough. This leads to frustration as everything needs to be perfect, so we become hard on ourselves.  The liver supports our plans and directs the flow of blood and Qi /Chi. A liver imbalance may be seen as rage, anger, and frustration – all self-directed as it also governs the eyes – opening us to see ourselves. What does that little voice say to you? Is it mostly positive or negative? Do you accept yourself regardless of what you do? When you connect to your heart and accept what is inside of you, you can then let go of the need to perform and you can “just be”.

An affirmation to help you could be: “I enact the plans of my heart”

3am to 5am – Lung time (Metal – grey)

The Lung meridian relates to our connection to spirit. Do you consider spirit to be outside or you or within? The more separated we are the more we struggle with self-worth and value. This brings guilt and grief. We try to meet others’ expectations or “people please” in order to feel valued. Connecting to something bigger than us, connecting to life and its immense beauty will support you at this time. People who wake at this time maybe experience grief or guilt so given the lungs are involved this is a great time to use deep breathing or meditation to support you.

An affirmation to help you could be: “I value my true self”

5am to 7am – Large Intestine (Metal – grey)

Letting go is the catch phrase of the large intestine. This is often associated with issues of wanting to belong. Not wanting to let go or feeling like you need to hold onto something ultimately leads to feeling powerless as we disregard our principles and values. Do you feel the need to hold onto things or fill your life with possessions? When we go through life feeling disconnected to ourselves, we ultimately feel disconnected to others so we put on a mask to fit in and we become what others expect – not from a true connection of who we are. Large Intestine is about expressing the inner and out world in balance. It is not a surprise that this is a common time to wake up in the morning.

An affirmation to help you could be: “I express the beauty and truth of my spirit”

If you are experiencing disturbed sleep, kinesiology maybe a good place to start to address this by uncovering the reasons behind your sleep patterns. You can enjoy a Free Curiosity Chat or jump straight in and book an appointment now.  Click here to go to Zode’s Booking Portal.

 From my heart to yours x

Zoe Jack

Holistic Kinesiologist

Zode Kinesiology