Why You Can’t Sleep: The Hidden Link Between Stress Hormones, and Chinese Medicine
“Acupuncture and acupressure points to improve sleep naturally”
Your Body Isn’t Broken — It’s Out of Balance
If you’ve ever found yourself lying awake at night, rehashing the events of the day in your head or worrying about tomorrow, you’re not alone. What drives us to be productive during the day leaves so many of us feeling tired but wired — millions of Americans experience poor sleep, exhausted and unable to gently drift off into deep sleep. You might think it’s a temporary phenomena and chalk it up to stress, age, and or “just how you are,” but here’s the truth:
Your body is designed for deep, restorative sleep, it is crucial for tissue repair and for brain health. If you’re not getting it, something’s out of balance — and it needs your attention.
In Chinese medicine, overthinking and difficulty relaxing at night are signs that there’s too much Yang energy active during Yin time — the natural period for slowing down, recharging, and restoring. And modern science agrees: chronic stress, disrupted circadian rhythms, and hormonal imbalances are major contributors to chronic illnesses. Poor sleep goes against the very nature of your body’s natural cycles and over time causes real damage, especially to brain function.
Let’s unpack what’s really happening — and how you can restore balance, calm your mind, and finally sleep deeply.
The Science of Sleep Disruption
Your body has what is called a sleep-wake cycle that is governed by the circadian rhythm — an internal biological clock influenced by light, darkness, climate and coordinates hormone production and regulation such as serotonin, melatonin and cortisol.
When it’s working smoothly, your system knows when to be alert and when to rest. The result is you feel good in your body, and are resilient emotionally. Our modern lifestyle interfaced with technology disrupts this dynamic balance off:
Staying up late (especially after 11 p.m.) delays melatonin production, making it harder to fall and stay asleep.
Chronic stress elevates cortisol — a Yang-driven hormone that keeps your heart rate and blood sugar up while signaling your body to stay “on.”
Overstimulation from screens, overthinking, and emotional stress keeps the nervous system in fight-or-flight mode long after you’ve turned out the lights
You can improve your sleep and feel great naturally .
Overstimulation from screens, overthinking, and emotional stress keeps the nervous system in fight-or-flight mode long after you’ve turned out the lights.
Diet, foods that are processed and irregular eating times, interrupt the digestive processing that then goes into overdrive at night and can cause waking at 3 or 4 am.
Use of stimulants: Reliance on caffeinated beverages to wake up or boost the afternoon slump can further interfere with our sleep cycle in the evening leading to a pattern of exhaustion but unable to relax.
There is no way to make up for missed sleep during the week, this is known as a sleep defeceit and only by getting deep restorative sleep within a 24 hour window of the sleep loss can you ameliorate the damage of the sleep deprivation to your health.
Without enough downtime, of your parasympathetic nervous system — the “rest and digest” side — it never fully activates. It’s not just the number of hours of sleep it is also when you sleep that counts.
And when that happens, your body can’t properly detox, repair, regulate, or reset.
The Chinese Medicine Perspective
In Chinese medicine, sleep troubles are rarely “just insomnia.” They’re a signal that your Qi — your vital energy or life force — is blocked or not flowing smoothly.
Too much Yang energy at night flows upward keeping the mind racing.
Qi stagnation, often from stress, traps energy in the head and upper body, causing tension headaches, restlessness, and shallow or restless sleep.
Yin deficiency — depleted cooling, nourishing energy — makes it harder to feel grounded and drift into deep, restorative sleep.
When Yin and Yang fall out of alignment, the body’s natural cycles become disrupted — causing physical (pain), energetic (fatigue) , emotional (irritability, anxiety, depression) and spiritually( lack of joy ) disconnected from purpose.
Natural Ways to Restore Restful Sleep
I want to emphasize there are no “magic pills”, short cuts or biohacks that “force” your body to heal faster, often those remedies tend to stress the body even more in the long run. The good news is that you can rebalance Yin and Yang and retrain your nervous system naturally and that can feel like magic. A natural approach means working with your body, you are not going against the current, but going with the flow.
Here’s a start::
1. Acupuncture for Sleep & Stress
Studies show acupuncture is a safe and effective way to improve sleep quality by:
Calming the sympathetic nervous system (fight-or-flight)
Immediately shifting brain chemistry, a reset.
Supporting production of melatonin
Reducing cortisol spikes that keep you wired
Promoting deep, restorative slow-wave sleep
In my practice, patients fall into deep sleep right on the table — their nervous system is finally able to let go and experience deep relaxation. This is a reset. Over time, acupuncture helps your body remember how to return to a deep sleep naturally, without forcing it.
2. Self-Acupressure for Better Sleep
When you’ve had a day where the stress has you spinning, gentle acupressure can ground and nourish your energy and guide your body toward deeper rest.
Try these points before bed:
Kidney 1 (Yongquan / “Bubbling Spring”)
Location: On the sole, between the 2nd and 3rd toes, one-third from the base of the toes to the heel. Massage with medium pressure , it may feel tender.
Why it helps: Connects you back to earth energy, calming racing thoughts and anxiety.Shi Mian (“Lost Sleep”)
Location: Center of the heel on the sole.
Why it helps: Soothes insomnia, eases overactive thinking, and helps release stored tension.Liver 3 (Taichong / “Great Surge”)
Location: Top of the foot between the big toe and second toe, just past the joint.Why it helps: Moves stuck Qi and helps release frustration, irritability, and emotional tension.
Anmian (“Peaceful Sleep”)
Location: Behind the ear, between the mastoid process and the neck muscles.
Why it helps: Eases insomnia, migraines, and nervous system hyperactivity.
Spend 1–2 minutes on each point before bedtime. Pairing these with deep, slow breathing magnifies their effect.
3. Support Your Yin at the right Time
Emphasize activities to support Yin for balance and prepare your body for rest:
Honor your sleep window: Aim to be in bed before 11 p.m. (avoid watching videos before bed)
Dim lights and turn off screens: Reduce blue light exposure at least an 2 hours before bed.
Try a calming ritual: Gentle breathwork, (box breathing) and meditation.
Go analog: Use pen and paper to “dump” what is on your mind. Writing down thoughts and to-do lists helps to discharge the anxious urgent energy, and signals your nervous system to power down.
Nourish Yin energy: Include hydrating, cooling foods and switching to herbal tea in the afternoon.
Your Body Knows How to SleepInsomnia or poor sleep isn’t a personal failing —it can come from a series of disruptions that has turned into a complex feedback loop, such as worry and behaviors like watching videos to wind down that get us dopamine hits or craving certain foods that temporarily make us feel good (chemical reward system). We don’t connect those activities with impacting our sleep quality.
If you are experiencing these patterns know that your body is trying to regulate even though the behaviors are counter productive to sleep.
When we remove activities that create stress, we can restore Yin-Yang harmony, and this supports your nervous system. Your body will naturally go towards a deeply restorative and restful state.
You’re not broken — and you don’t need to force yourself to sleep. Use your innate mind-body awareness to listen to its natural rhythm.
Next Steps to Better Sleep
Book a discovery session to explore personalized acupuncture for stress and sleep.
Follow me on Instagram @integrativehealingartsnyc for tips and mini-breathwork practices.