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.
Alba says
Hi
I started liking a guy who wakes up early, and I also have stress from exams, and a little bit from work and the business on the side.
However, recently I started waking up at 5 25 or so, even if the weekend. Sucks and i cannot get back to sleep. So i go next to the heater, have worried thoughts, gaze into the horizon and meditate a bit and if I do not have work I can sleep again at about 6 or so.
Can you help me please?
I tried alcohol, sleeping really late and sleeping early and I still do this.
Thank you
Alba
Dana says
I have been waking up exactly every day at 5am, i would sleep at 1am before waking up again but i am well aware now that i actually am feeling the fear of my abusive father threatening to rob me from my college education simply because he’s not the one paying since im on scholarship. i feel anxiety because i have two weeks until university starts and im not sure if i would set foot on campus again because of my cruel father continues to be an extreme threat and verbally abusive.
Kelly says
I wake up at 2 every morning and I’m having trouble with acid reflex makes sense.but want to know what does itmean
Dana says
for the past few weeks i’ve been waking up exactly at 5:00-5:30. and i never used a timer to wake up at that time before. i just don’t get why it keeps happening and whats worse is i cant fall back to sleep and i only had 3 hours of sleep every time before waking up again. finally i now understand why its happening and its because of fear and anxiety .and i admit i have that fear of failing my sats in october and missing my chances of transferring to another university, anxiety ive always had it because of the uncertainty of most things that happen in my life.
Craig says
Not sure why but I think I fear not getting enough sleep. For the past few weeks I only sleep for 6.5 hrs regardless of what time I go to bed, have done during the day and how tired I am. I think it may be due to not going to gym for the past few weeks. Hopefully by starting up again I will tire myself and get back to decent sleeps
Stephanie says
It makes sense and that’s awesome. I wake up every morning/night around 3-4 am. Iv been dealing with loosing my fiance, my nana has cancer in her lungs and brain tumors, and my papa has dementia. And adult education classes at night. My fiance left me when things got hard. He said he wished he could give me the past 2 of 4 years back because he said he didn’t treat me right or deserve me. I’m pretty much a wreck but I don’t want him back. I trust no one but myself and sometimes strangers. It’s really odd that I wake up because I take ambian to sleep.
Tammie Groat says
I have a simallar problem I wake up at 3 am every night .And the number I keep seeing is 666. I hear voices speaking with me they say I am sick with a mental condtion but I think it could be ghost that is just my thoughts on the subject Do you know why I wake up every day at that time and keep seeing that number
sue says
I wake up at 3am each morning and can’t return to sleep. This has been happening around 2 wks now
Kristi says
I’ve waking up a couple minutes after 5 am the past couple of days and my bladder is about to explode. My room is in the basement and I have to walk up and down two flights of stairs to reach the bathroom. By the time I get back to bed, I’m wide awake and it takes me a little while to get back to sleep. I don’t drink anything past ten, with the exception of a small rinse of water after brushing my teeth and I use the bathroom every night before heading down. There’s nothing on this clock that explains to me why this keeps happening, I’m so confused.
Tanisha says
I have been waking up around 4 am every night for years now and I decided to google why it is. It’s very interesting that the chart says “Lungs” because I’ve suffered from Asthma since birth.