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📖 Donguibogam > Neijing Pian (Chapter of the Inner Canon)
When the Mind Is Restless and Prevents Sleep
Translation Disclaimer
This content is a carefully translated version of traditional Korean medical records (Donguibogam) and its modern interpretations. While prepared by specialized medical translators, it is provided for informational purposes only. Please consult a qualified healthcare professional before making any health decisions.
Modern Symptoms
Why are we experiencing this pain?
"Do you find yourself staring at the ceiling every night, tossing and turning until dawn? Is your mind flooded with thoughts like crashing waves, keeping you from sleep? And in the morning after a night of intense thirst, does fatigue leave you feeling weighed down throughout your body? Nights when sleep just won't come, as if your body's switch is broken—it's truly exhausting and challenging."
Modern Medical Proof
Insomnia: Brain Science Explains the Link Between Anxiety and Sleep
The stability of the spirit as described in Donguibogam (Principles and Practice of Eastern Medicine) can be meaningfully understood through modern science as the harmony of brain function and autonomic nervous system balance. Experiencing anxiety every night and being unable to sleep can be seen as the result of disrupted complex neurological and endocrinological interactions in our brain.
Specifically, the emotion of anxiety is closely related to the overactivation of the amygdala located deep within the brain. The amygdala acts as the 'alarm center' of our emotions, detecting threats and triggering fear or anxiety reactions. When continuously exposed to stress factors during the day, this amygdala becomes overactive, exciting the sympathetic nervous system and preparing our body for a state of fight-or-flight. The heart beats faster, muscles tense, and the mind remains in a state of arousal.
If this state continues into the night, our body loses the hormone and neurotransmitter balance necessary to induce sleep. The secretion of melatonin, which signals the start of sleep, is suppressed, and the stress hormone cortisol remains high even at night. While cortisol normally helps us wake up in the morning, high levels at night interfere with deep sleep and reduce sleep quality. It's as if the brain is still busy at night as it is during the day.
Furthermore, the brain's Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis is a core system that accommodates the stress response. Chronic anxiety and stress continuously stimulate this HPA axis, leading to increased nocturnal cortisol secretion and the induction of night sweats. This increases nocturnal arousal frequency and disrupts REM and NREM sleep patterns, thereby causing sleep fragmentation. Ultimately, this results in the feeling of 'sleeping but not feeling refreshed'.
Imbalance of neurotransmitters is also a significant cause. The function of inhibitory neurotransmitters like GABA, which plays an important role in anxiety alleviation and sleep induction, can decline. Or, an imbalance in serotonin, which accommodates mood and feelings of happiness, can fuel anxiety and depressive moods. These imbalances lead to changes in electroencephalogram (EEG), causing beta waves (a state of arousal) to dominate instead of alpha waves (a relaxation state) before sleep, thereby inducing insomnia.
In conclusion, what Donguibogam (Principles and Practice of Eastern Medicine) referred to as 'instability of the spirit' can be understood in modern medicine as occurring due to complex factors such as specific brain region overactivation, neurotransmitter imbalance, autonomic nervous system disturbance, and dysfunction of the hormone regulatory system. Modern science agrees that rather than simply taking hypnotic drugs to force sleep, truly achieving sweet sleep involves resolving the fundamental imbalance of the biological system that causes anxiety and finding the 'calmness of mind'.
Insomnia: Try These Tips Starting Today
2 steps you can take right now
1
An hour before bedtime, try washing your feet with warm water 🛀. The feet can be seen as a microcosm of our body. Soaking your feet in warm water helps relax the muscles throughout the body, and the heat that has gathered in the head descends towards the feet, gently stabilizing our spirit. Adding a drop or two of your favorite essential oil and enjoying the aroma can also create a relaxing, meditation-like experience.
2
10 minutes before bed, recall just three things you're grateful for from today 🙏. Anxiety and worry often stem from a feeling of lack of control over the future. Reflecting on small joys from the day can fill your brain with positive thoughts and help weaken the anxiety circuit. They don't have to be grand. Simple things like 'I drank a cup of warm tea' or 'The sky was beautiful' are perfectly fine. Ending your day with this positive energy will help your spirit prepare for peaceful rest.
Traditional Wisdom
The Serenity of the Mind, the Secret to Sweet Sleep: Understanding 'Spirit' in Donguibogam (Principles and Practice of Eastern Medicine)
Our body hosts an invisible but profoundly important aspect: the spirit. In Donguibogam (Principles and Practice of Eastern Medicine), this spirit is seen as the 'master' or 'control tower' that oversees all activities of our body and mind. It goes beyond mere mental activity; it's the very essence of all life activities that allows us to think, feel, and move.
For this spirit, our inner 'master,' to remain comfortable and serene, all functions of our body must find their balance and operate peacefully. It's like how the landscape beneath a lake is transparently reflected when only gentle ripples disturb the surface. But what if this spirit becomes anxious and agitated? Then, like a sea churned by a fierce storm, the mind will churn, and the energy throughout the body will scatter chaotically, losing its peace.
Especially at night, when we need to sleep, if this spirit cannot find calm, we cannot achieve sleep. The daily stresses, unresolved worries, and vague concerns about the future keep our spirit constantly stirred and awake. Donguibogam (Principles and Practice of Eastern Medicine) states: 'When Spirit is calm, sleep comes; when Spirit is restless, sleep does not come.' This may seem like an obvious statement, but it contains a profound truth. Our sleep doesn't simply come from our body being tired; it depends on the state of the spirit, the 'master' of our mind.
When we experience sleepless nights and cannot break the continuous loop of thoughts in our minds, it's precisely because this spirit is unstable and restless. Our body may be lying in bed, but our mind is still in the battlefield of the day or busy worrying about an unarrived future. That's why Donguibogam (Principles and Practice of Eastern Medicine) emphasizes that to sleep peacefully, it's most important to care for this spirit and help it find calm. Just as a mother sings a lullaby to put a child to sleep, our spirit also needs peaceful rest.
Original Donguibogam Record
神靜則眠, 神躁則不眠.
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Author: AI Donguibogam Research Team
We analyze Heo Jun's 'Donguibogam', a UNESCO Memory of the World, using modern data science and AI. Our goal is to reinterpret the wisdom of traditional medicine hidden in ancient texts to suit the lifestyles of busy modern people and deliver it in an easy-to-understand way.
Caution (Disclaimer): This content is for providing health information based on historical literature and cannot replace medical diagnosis and treatment. If you have any health problems, please consult a specialist (doctor/oriental medical doctor).