We all know how important sleep is to building the body of your dreams, but for many of us the quality of sleep that we need is easier said than done. I for one absolutely cannot sleep without medication unfortunately. Alpha-wave intrusion is what I am diagnosed with. I am always looking for new things to try and alleviate my need for sleep meds and the latest I have been looking at has been researching acupuncture meridians and meridian time flow.

The short and nasty with the meridian time flow is that the body functions like a clock and certain things happen based upon the time of day, essentially a circadian cycle. If certain times of this meridian flow are being interrupted, this can be used to help nail down and treat illnesses. So let’s put this to work with our sleep cycle if you are having issues sleeping well.

First off, let’s define what is a good night’s sleep is so we are all on the same page here? A good night’s sleep means we should be falling asleep easy, not waking up until the morning, and have plenty of energy when we do wake up. So, if you’re having trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, waking up, or God forbid all the above, it is a sign that you have issues you need to deal with to get back to sleeping soundly.

Ok, now let’s just assume we should be getting a good 8hrs of sleep every night. Let’s start with a 10pm bedtime. Like I mentioned, waking up now at different times of the night can be indicative of a certain problem that needs to be addressed to help get you back to sleeping soundly. These are the things you may want to try and address based upon if you are not sleeping soundly.

Waking up from 11pm-1am is usually a sign of something messed up with your sugar/glucose levels. Nasty cortisol is likely spiking in an effort to balance your sugar levels in the bloodstream. Here is something you can do to try and fix this problem. Include more veggies in your diet and eliminate sugary foods closer to bedtime, i.e. no high GI carbs or just try eliminating all carbs before bed. The other thing is your last meal before bed may be just too large, so tone it down if need be or just don’t eat before bed and see if that corrects it.

Waking up from 1am-3am is a sign of liver toxicity. Liver detox is a priority for you. Try laying off the orals and get on some liver supps.

3am-5am is usually a sign of oxidative stress. Get a good multi-vit and take some antioxidants.

Waking up from 5am-7am is usually related to the large intestine and/or, hang on here, the triple warmer meridian. Usually though, if this is around the time you normally wake up to go to your daily grind, it really shouldn’t be a concern.

Now the silver lining here is that are natural ways to improve your sleep and obviously your health at the same time. Some of the simplest and most effective ways to help improve sleep are making sure you have adequate nutrient levels of magnesium and zinc, D3 and eliminate stimulating activities immediately before bed such as TV, the computer, or being on your phone. I think it is has something to do with the blue light those devices emit that fire up the brain and make it hard to sleep afterwards. So get your nutrients in order, stay off the phone and computer before bed and consider the suggestions above if you are waking up during the night to hopefully get you back to sleeping soundly again and maximizing your gains.