A Good night Sleep Does More Than You Can Imagine to Take Care of the Symptom
By Winston Lee L. Ac, Ph.D., KMD
In the 1970s through the 1990s, there were not many things to do after sunset. It was a daily routine to go home before dinner time, eat, do school homework, read a book, or listen to the radio before going to bed. But what about our kids these days? YouTube with millions of things to see, Netflix with thousands of dramas and movies, stimulating PC games that often stay up all night, smartphone games that can be played in the car or even in the bathroom, etc. to be. Thanks to the 21st century’s media, children never have a moment to be bored.
Because of this circumstance, rhinitis has become very notorious these days. We have learned through various modern studies and experiments that the mucous system of the nasal cavity has a characteristic that is quite similar to that of the skin. So, just as your skin improves when you get a good night’s sleep, you can maintain a healthy nasal mucosa throughout the day through a sufficient amount of sleep. If you stay up all night or go to bed very late and only sleep for a few hours for the various excuses above, then even an adult will likely have a stuffy nose or a cold the next day.
The skin and nasal mucous system belong to ‘yin’ rather than ‘yang’ in Eastern Medicine, so there is no problem throughout the day if you charge the yin (陰气) well at night, not during the day. However, as I mentioned above, if you do not sleep well at night while watching YouTube or playing games, the nasal mucosa does not have enough yin. The mucous system’s ciliary movement and regeneration do not work well, so inflammation occurs easily. It is called ‘rhinitis.’
In light of the experience of seeing patients with rhinitis, in the case of police, nurses, and soldiers who work at night and rest during the day. There are many cases where a simple cold or rhinitis does not heal well in a short time. The prognosis is even worse for the students who have to study late at night and sleep less than the same age group. In the case of a patient who works or studies at night, the treatment requires a longer period, and the improvement of symptoms is evident only when the work or study at night is stopped or rested.
On the other hand, what is known through various studies is that growth hormone is also secreted when they sleep at night. In particular, in the case of growing children, growth hormone is best secreted between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m., and it is known that normal growth can be achieved only when sleeping well at this time. Therefore, children need to sleep well at this time, but it can be a great help to their growth. The conclusion is that going to bed at 3 a.m. and oversleeping until the next morning does not help much for growth.
In the end, rhinitis is able to be treated when the whole body becomes healthy. If the patient uses a drug to open up the nostrils because their nose is stuffy, and if the patient uses a drug to dry their runny nose, they can never treat the root cause of the symptom. When your patient has rhinitis, it is essential to find the cause of their weakened immune system, provide intensive treatment for it, and at the same time fix the unhealthy lifestyle that caused the bad situation.
In fact, it is a recent study result that the human eye, nose, mouth, and ear itself have very few diseases due to their organic changes. Even in the case of a viral or bacterial infection, if the person’s basic immunity is sufficient unless it is very specific, it is usually normal not to develop it. When a patient is overworked or has trouble sleeping properly, even minor viruses or bacteria may be infected easily, and it can cause inflammation, which leads to conjunctivitis, rhinitis, stomatitis, and middle ear infection. Therefore, even in the case of rhinitis, it is necessary to use drugs to focus on symptoms by controlling the runny and stuffy nose and find an appropriate treatment or behavior modification method by carefully examining constitutional problems, dietary problems, exercise, and sleep patterns.
In Eastern Medicine, as mentioned above, in the case of ‘Yin insufficient’ rhinitis caused by fatigue or lack of sleep, if you prescribe an herbal medicine called ‘nourishing yin(補陰)’ that tonifies yin, it is not difficult to improve symptoms and maintain a good condition for a long time.
