Sleeping during daytime and the definition of Xie and Chi

In Chinese medicine, body energy is defined as “Xie Chi”. Xie meaning blood, and Chi meaning energy. Chinese medicine has a specific definition for blood as blood is tangible, but the definition for “Chi” or energy is rather abstract since Chi is not visible. When a person wakes up in the morning, he is feeling refreshed and full of energy. As the day progresses, the person loses the energy, or chi, and he becomes tired as the day approaches night time.

Xie, or blood, is the most important element of the body. Xie is the carrier of Chi. The more Xie that the body has, the more capacity that the body has to carry Chi. Human body generates Xie through quality sleeping. Sleep can also generate Chi, however the amount of Chi that sleep generates varies according to the sleep quality and the amount of Xie that the person has. The higher the quality of sleep, the higher amount of Xie that is present in the body, and the higher of Chi that can be stored.

If a person had quality sleep the previous night, majority of the time that the person will feel refreshed or in Chinese medicine terms, full of Chi the next morning. As the day progresses, after 4-6 hours of work, the person will feel fatigued as his body’s Chi diminishes. After lunch time, if the person takes a short nap, he will feel energized in the afternoon. Short nap is a good way to replenish Chi.

I have a friend who suffers from severe anemia. He also suffers from insomnia and as a result, he goes through the day feeling fatigued and drowsy. Many people have the idea that if they sleep too much during the day, they will not be able to fall sleep during the night. Yet often times this idea will make it harder for these people to sleep during proper hours. A good number of these people cannot fall asleep until way past midnight.

In order to explain the above situation, let me explain the concept of body energy usage from the Chinese medicine point of view. The main energy source that the body uses is the Chi. The amount of Chi that the body has is defined as above. When the body is low on Chi, it will generate backup energy, called “Gan Huo”. When a person feels fatigue, it means that the person’s Chi is low. If the person chooses not to rest at this point, his body will generate Gan Huo to fill the energy void of the body. In the above example, the people that felt fatigue during the time chooses to stay wake instead of resting. Their body will generate Gan Huo throughout the day. By night time, when the proper sleeping time arrives, their body is still filled with Gan Huo from earlier, thus making it difficult for these people to fall asleep, causing insomnia. Perhaps many people have had the experience of feeling tired early evening, but as the night progresses, the tiredness will fade away.

The advice that I gave for my friend who suffers from anemia is that whenever his body feels fatigued, he should rest immediately. This eliminates the body from generating Gan Huo and it makes it easier for him to sleep at night. As a result, my friend took multiple naps during the day and his insomnia was cured as he fell asleep around 10pm and he slept until 6am the next day.

Sometimes it is not necessary to use medicine to heal an illness. Understanding your body and having a healthy sleeping pattern are the first steps toward a healthy life style.