As a person suffering from sleep deprivation will tell you, sleep is essential for normal day to day mental and physical function.

Chinese medicine identifies the period of time between 10pm and 2am as a phase of maximum yin and a crucial time for rest. Developing our bodies Yin, is important for nourishing and cultivating energy. If we aren’t asleep during this period, we are burning Yin, not replenishing it, and therefore accelerating the aging process. The idea here, is to be well rested during the time when the body is naturally wired to work within the day/ nighttime, yin/ yang shift.

Chinese medicine is firmly of the view that for optimum health, we are asleep by 10pm for the replenishing stage, and are rising with the sun at 6am to commence the yang or expenditure stage.

From a western medicine perspective, these are also the hours when we enter our deepest sleep. Melatonin is a hormone, which controls your body clock or natural cycle of sleeping and waking hours. Our melatonin production syncs with natural light exposure in your environment, and steadily rises after sunset (roughly 6pm), making us sleepy. At 10pm, melatonin levels have really kicked in, peaking at 12am and declining around 2am, where we shift into a different phase of sleep.

Melatonin, is a powerful antioxidant, responsible for clearing and repairing the cells after a hard days work, like the nourishing nature of yin. It is this repair function that is so essential to your health, both mental and physical.