Have you ever wondered why you always seem to be waking up during the night at particular times?
And it’s not just an odd night here and there. After a while you begin to realise you’re waking up again and again, the nights of sleeping through a distant memory. You start to look at the clock and find it’s always at the same time – 2:55am or between certain hours like 4am to 5am. You’re not drinking coffee late in the afternoon, you’ve cut down on your much loved sugars and you’re fairly active during the day (incidentally if you are drinking coffee all afternoon and you’re dipping into refined sugars, consider stopping and then see how you sleep!). Sure, life’s a bit stressful but how is it that it’s always 2:55am?!
Those who use Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) would tell you “that’s easy – look at the Chinese Medicine ‘Meridian Clock’”. It’s one of my favourite tools to use in Kinesiology. The great thing about the Meridian Clock is you don’t have to be a Kinesiologist or a practitioner of TCM to understand it or gain insight from it. Here’s a basic explanation to get you started.
What’s your time?
Firstly, have a look at the clock above and find the time you’re waking up. Take note of the name that sits directly beneath it. For example, if you’re waking between 1am and 3am then you would look at the information about the Liver meridian. Don’t worry – it doesn’t necessarily mean there’s something wrong with your liver, it’s just the way they’re named in English.
14 major meridians – our electrical system
There are 14 major meridians or flows of an energy substance (you may have heard of Qi/Ch’i which sustains life) with 12 of them sitting within the 24 hour clock. All are constantly flowing with energy from your environment and penetrating your body through your skin, central nervous system and organs. These portals on the skin are what acupuncture and acupressure use. Each has a two hour period where they are the primary meridian. Each meridian is linked to particular parts of the body, mechanisms of the body, other meridians, thoughts and emotions, colour, sound, seasons and other spiritual aspects. They’re also partnered together as Yin (receiving energy) and Yang (expressing energy) of an element – Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, and Fire.
Think of it like electrical circuits – when the energy of a meridian is not flowing well due to a block (like stress), you’ll find that you’ll experience a sign or symptom from the meridian(s) involved. This block will also cause an imbalance in the flows between meridians. So when waking up in the night at the same time, or becoming exhausted with 3:30-itis in the afternoon, you can look at the meridian at work and what may be happening with you. Here’s a list of the basic emotions of each element (the ring below the meridians).
- Earth – Empathy, sympathy, balanced giving and receiving
- Metal – Grief and loss
- Water – Fear and anxiety
- Wood – Anger, frustration and resentment
- Fire – Love, hate and joy
What now?
Self reflection people! It can be quite simple; you just need to stop and listen. Your body is trying to tell you something by waking you up at the same time. Back to our previous example, if your time is the Liver meridian and the Wood element – ask yourself “What am I angry or frustrated at?” Or think of the Liver organ and apply this to your life “What is toxic in my life that I need to get rid of?” Perhaps you have symptoms that your digestive system is not working so well?
I’ll leave you with this as food for thought. Spend some time to reflect on your life and what’s keeping you awake based on the ancient wisdom of Traditional Chinese Medicine. I will cover this in more detail in the next post Why You Wake Up At The Same Time Every Night (Part II). If you’re having trouble falling asleep at night, have a read through the Sanctuary of Sleep Series Part One Sleep & Stress: Why You Can’t Fall Asleep
If you’d like to read more about Traditional Chinese Medicine start with ‘The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine’ by Ted Kaptchuk.
This post is the first instalment of a series I’ll be writing on Traditional Chinese Medicine and how you can use it to help you in daily life. Easy!
Why You Wake Up by Kate Pamphilon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Wesley Kuang says
Paige Keller, I had the same thing too and I sometimes wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning. I’m kind of scared of the dark so I’m guessing that’s how I wake up almost night. When I looked at the chart, it says liver and wood. I don’t get why I’m mad when I wake up but it took me a while to realize that my grandpa died about two years ago with LIVER cancer! I was shocked and I tried to read it again and again but it’s not a dream. I need help!
Lauren says
I am going through a rough patch at the moment and everything seems really hard… I wake up at 1-5am every day, so fear and anxiety and love, hate and joy are my reasons. But I don’t understand the joy; everything seems just bad. Any advice to help?
Cheza says
Lauren sorry to hear of your pain, there are some things you can do meditate, deep breathing, Pilates,,being thank ful for good things, I know that time will change and good will happen for you. Praying for your turn around blessings over you.
JOYCE MOHRHARDT says
For the past year and a half I’ve been waking up around or at 5:30am. Turns out I have Kidney problems related to colitis problems.I’m going to try and go to bed earlier to see if I can get more that 5 hours sleep a night. I need about 9 hours in order to function semi-normaly.
Jim Senka says
My understanding is that the body secretes several healing hormones at 4 am – while this causes a degree of awakening, you should stay resting to allow the healing process to continue. thoughts?
Bethany Swett says
My best friend recently passed away ( -and I’ve lost countless others ) so when Karen’s daughter and I discovered we were both waking at the same time every night I looked it up and found your chart !!! 3 Am is grief and loss, it all came together for me. Thank you for the answer. I now know why !! I’ve got a lot of that to deal with !!! Here’s to hoping I can let go of some of the sadness that has plagued me for years!!!!
Mark says
I wake up at 2.38am quite often during the week & i get really tired during late morning or early afternoon so tired in fact I can’t seem to keep my eyes open and I seem to have no energy, i lost my mum to cancer just over 2 yrs ago and I think about her everyday we were very close and it has affected my life in a big way, i have tears in my eyes just typing this, i need some help!
Sylvia says
What about people who can’t get to sleep before 3 am? Terrible when one has to get up at 7 am to go to work! How does one know where to start looking and what to do about it?
Thanks for any input.
Linda M Benchley says
It doesn’t matter what time I go to bed, I will wake up every morning about 1:15 a.m. Sometimes it is easy to get back to sleep and sometimes it isn’t. I normally don’t eat for at least 3 hours before going to sleep.
Joe says
I have muscular dystrophy and use a bipap machine at night and wake up between 2am and 4am which ties in with the liver and lungs, any advice would be grateful.