It is best to sleep in the cold winter months

This is the 4748th article of Da Yi Xiao Hu

The recent weather is a bit like a roller coaster, and it is still hot and cold in the coldest days of winter. As I get older, I seem to cherish time more and more. What I envy most is the sound sleep of children. I think the days when I wanted to stay in bed the most were the middle of winter. However, the "China Sleep Index Report" in recent years shows that 49.2% of Chinese people have serious sleep problems, and only 13.8% have sweet sleep. Among them, 25% of Chinese people often suffer from insomnia. At the same time, it presents the current situation of "the younger you are, the worse your sleep quality"; the 2023 report shows that going to bed late and staying up late have become one of the typical characteristics of contemporary young people and college students.

Recently, I treated a patient like this, a 35-year-old female white-collar worker. She used to come to the doctor for insomnia, but now she comes for insomnia and sleepiness. She doesn't sleep at night, she is sleepy during the day, she is listless at work, and she breathes heavily when driving. She feels that if she continues like this, an accident is imminent. Her tongue coating is white and greasy, and her pulse is thin and stringy. Symptoms: liver depression and spleen deficiency, dampness and internal obstruction. Treatment: soothe the liver and strengthen the spleen, promote blood circulation and calm the mind, and provide psychological cognitive guidance. The doctor's advice: combine movement and stillness, and do outdoor activities. The patient recovered after seven doses, and now it is winter, and she is willing to spend money on the ointment prescription for conditioning.

In the coldest days of winter, the climate changes from cool to cold, and the body enters a periodic rest stage. The body's water metabolism is significantly reduced, and the flow of the cardiovascular system is reduced. However, many people are lazy and lack oxygen to the brain, and the body has an indescribable fatigue, which is what people often call "fatigue" and "inability to wake up". In fact, this is the natural physiological reaction of the human body in different seasons. After a period of adjustment, the phenomenon of sleepiness will naturally disappear. However, it is difficult to eliminate drowsiness in a closed air-conditioned environment for a long time without outdoor activities. It is necessary to exercise and recuperate under the guidance of a doctor's syndrome differentiation and treatment.

For winter treatment of chronic diseases, Chinese medicine paste is a good choice. Chinese medicine believes that humans and nature echo each other and also experience the rhythm of "spring growth, summer growth, autumn harvest, winter storage". Therefore, taking medicine paste in autumn and winter can promote the absorption of nutrients, transform qi and blood, and store essence, which can achieve twice the result with half the effort in conditioning the body. Chinese medicine believes that the constitution and symptoms of the human body are different, and the formulation of paste prescriptions naturally needs to be adapted to the person, time and place. Only through syndrome differentiation and treatment can the medicine be guided to the meridians and truly play a role in conditioning and tonic.

Sleeping is a kind of collection behavior, and the most suitable season for collection is winter, so winter storage is the most effective time for sleep. The three hours of Hai, Zi, and Chou (i.e. 21:00 to 3:00) are like the winter of a day. It is the darkest period of the night, the temperature is the lowest, and it is easiest for people to enter deep sleep and achieve the highest efficiency of sleep. It is also the standard sleep time.

The coldest months of winter are the coldest months of the year, with snow and frost flying everywhere. Adjust your mindset and take good care of yourself in winter to ensure that you can sleep soundly during the day and sleep till dawn!

Author: Xu Liang, chief physician of Shanghai Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and chairman of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Sleep Medicine Professional Committee of the Chinese Sleep Research Society.