Headaches & Insomnia

Headaches

As we fight to keep up with the demands of modern life, we impart stress on ourselves both mentally and physically.  

Many people have developed frequent or more stubborn headaches due to this stress. They range from a tension headache to a full blown migraine with light and sound sensitivity, making it impossible to work, or do daily chores, causing us to fall further behind on our to do list. No matter what the classification your headache is, your East Asian practitioner wants to know how you experience it. We will ask you if it is across the forehead or behind the eyes, squeezing your whole head like a crown, or throbbing at the temples. 

We work with the information you are able to give us and feel your pulses to determine the Chinese Medicine imbalance happening for your exact case and help to reduce both frequency and severity of headaches. This often includes some changes in diet or lifestyle and we may offer herbs to help further between acupuncture treatments. 

Insomnia

Insomnia is not only trouble falling asleep. It includes trouble staying asleep  such as waking frequently through the night, waking up feeling like you haven't slept, or waking and staying up for multiple hours only to fall sleep again near sunrise or not at all.

In East Asian medicine, the distinction between these different patterns, allows us to figure out the best method to getting your sleep back on track. 

Insomnia due to stress: After an extended time, even low level stress from "adulting" can lead our stress hormone, cortisol, to go awry and cause short term insomnia to become a lifelong problem. Many patients consider insomnia to be "just who I am" because they have had it since their preteen or teenage years. Even then, we have to recall what life was like in those years that started the habit.

Cortisol is supposed to be higher when we wake up to get us ready for our day, and to be lower in the evening to prepare us for bed. It is not inherently a bad hormone. However when thrown off, we end up with symptoms like insomnia and waking at night, yet fatigue and tiredness during the day. Some who experience this begin to rely on pick me ups such as sugar or caffeine to keep going or over the counter medicine to cause drowsiness at night. From our body's perspective, these are not fixing the problem, just patching it. 

We help your body navigate fixing itself while you make changes to allow it to do that. There is no right amount of exercise or perfect way of eating that fits everyone. The beauty of East Asian medicine is that we aim to harmonize you based on what you come in with, and comparing your progress to your own goals. If you feel burned out or overwhelmed, its never too late to work on it.