Dreams Analyzed By TCM

By Li Hua, L. Ac. TCMD.

Every body has dreamed during sleeping. Long, long time ago, Chinese had the earliest medical classic named “The Yellow Emperor’s Canon of Internal Medicine” (B.C. 475 – 221), in Chinese call “Huang Di Nei Jing”. In this medical classic, it mentions that dreams in sleeping can be influenced by Yin and Yang of the body, deficiency and excess of the five organs (liver, heart, spleen, lung and kidney), for example, if excess of Yin, the dream may involve water; if excess of Yang, the dream may relate to fire; if excess of Yin and Yang, the dream may be about fighting. If Chi is deficiency, there are more dreams. If the lung Chi is deficiency, there may be white color stuffs or bloody stuffs in the dream. If the kidney Chi is deficiency, there may be boat, ship or drowning in the dream. If the liver Chi is deficiency, there may be plants or grass in the dream. If the heart Chi is deficiency, there may be fire fighting in the dream. If the spleen Chi is deficiency, there may be lacking foods in the dream.

Some people said that the night dreams are the things thought in daytime. The dreams are that the brain receiving all information in daytime appears in sleeping. This can explain some dreams. But could not analyze all the dreams. If there are happy dreams, there will not be a problem. If there are constant nightmares or bad dreams, and lead to fear with cold sweating, and make people thinking that sleeping is a suffering process, we should pay attention to the negative influence brought by the dreams.

Dreams can be related with many things. But dreams also may tell the information of health. In clinic, no matter what are they, too many dreams or nightmares, patients come to see me because the dreams make them not feeling good and not resting well for long time. Dreaming sometimes results from body long time unbalance, or stress without releasing sooner, taking medications, sensitive body or sentimental personality with holding emotion. Long term with dreaminess, it may lead to various symptoms, such as, restless, palpitation, depression, difficult focus, poor memory, indigestion, irregular bowel movement, disinclination to talk, low voice, etc. The pulse usually is weak and scattered.

The quality of sleeping can affect the quality of health. They are reciprocal causation. There are many methods can help improving sleeping quality. I suggest my patients to select natural methods. Sleeping pills can help immediately. To use it temporarily is OK. But long term to do so is not the best solution. Because, first, it can make patients rely on the medicine. Second, patients have to keep increasing the dosages. Third, it only treats the symptoms without taking care of the root of the real health problem. Forth, it can damage the function of the liver and the kidney more or less, which are the main filters of the body. As acupuncture can be legal to use in Georgia since 2000, I can be licensed to use this magic tool to help many patients. I think, during treatment, head acupoints should be selected, which can regulate the cerebral nerves, the inhibition and excitation of cerebral cortex in order to make sleeping better. I also suggest selecting the concerned organs acupoints on the body to balance the organs’ Chi. Because the human body seems like a chemical factory. The organs’ Chi directly influences the chemical supply and balance in the brain. For example, if the dreaminess caused by the deficiency of the heart and the spleen, it will have better result if adding GongSun (Sp. 4) and NeiGuan (PC. 6). I will suggest my patients to eat “Lotus Seed and Date Soup” to nourish the Chi of the heart and the spleen. I also suggest them to do some proper exercises. All these together may decrease dreams, especially bad dreams and improve the quality of health.