Classical Chinese Sleep Hygiene
Originally published Dec. 5, 2019
This brief exploration of advice on sleep hygiene from classical Chinese medical and Daoist texts originated with my translation project on the “Hundred Questions on Gynecology.” In Question 49 on the “Thirty-Six Diseases Below the Belt,” the author discusses “harm from sleeping” as one of the seven harms that cause women’s illnesses. When a curious reviewer of my manuscript asked me to explain, I had to go down that rabbit hole, at least briefly. Here is what I found and write in my discussion:
How could sleep have been conceived of as harmful? To answer this question in a culturally and historically sensitive manner, we must explore the ways in which the ancients thought about sleep hygiene. Clearly, there are important differences to our own ideas about sleep, starting with Zhuāngzǐ’s famous statement:
古之真人，其寢不夢，其覺無憂，其食不甘，其息深深。
Oh the Perfected People of ancient times! Their sleep had no dreams, their awareness had no worries, their food had no sweetness, and their breathing was very very deep.
This same sentiment is also expressed by the Warring States philosopher Shèn Dào 慎到, who similarly said:
晝無事者夜不夢。
Those who have no affairs during the day do not dream at night.
In other words, the ideal healthy sleep in early China was one in which the person rested calmly and was not disturbed by dreams. This same sentiment is also expressed in Língshū 43 on “Excess Evils Effusing in Dreams,” where the content of dreams is used to diagnose specific states of excess or deficiency that must then be treated by draining or supplementing, respectively. What follows is my translation of the beginning of this chapter. Much of the rest of this chapter has already been translated in a slightly different version above in the discussion on the condition of “dreams of intercourse with ghosts” in Question 47, where it is part of the last quote from the Zhūbìng yuánhòu lùn on the “signs of vacuity taxation and tendency to dream” (虛勞喜夢候 xūláo xǐmèng hòu). For that translation, see my blog post on “Women’s Dreams of Intercourse with Ghosts” here.
黃帝曰：願聞淫邪泮衍，奈何？
岐伯曰：正邪從外襲內而未有定舍，反淫於藏，不得定處，與營衛俱行，而與魂魄飛揚，使人臥不得安而喜夢。氣淫於府，則有餘於外，不足於內；氣淫於藏，則有餘於內，不足於外。
黃帝曰：有餘不足，有形乎？。。。
The Yellow Emperor asked: “I would like to hear what one can do about excess evil spreading out.”
Qí Bó answered: “Straight-forward evils invade the inside from the outside. Before taking up a fixed residence, they instead seep into the zàng organs. Unable to settle in a fixed location, they move together with yíng Provisioning and wèi Defense, and rise up flying with the hún and pò souls, keeping the person from finding peace in their sleep and causing a tendency to dreaming. When their Qì seeps into the fǔ organs, there is excess on the outside and insufficiency on the inside. When their Qì seeps into the zàng organs, there is excess on the inside and insufficiency on the outside.”
The Yellow Emperor asked: “These excesses and insufficiencies, do they take shape?”
For the rest of this chapter, Qí Bó proceeds to list the correlations between specific dreams and the locations where evils settle in the body due to various excesses and insufficiencies, such as excess in the Yīn versus the Yáng aspect and above versus below, hunger versus starvation, excesses in each of the five zàng organs, and insufficiencies in the zàng and fǔ organs, etc.
In addition to this notion of dreaming as an expression of harmful sleep, I am indebted to Leo Lok for reminding me of Sūn Sīmiǎo’s discussion of unhealthy sleeping habits in the Bèijí qiānjīn yàofāng, volume 27, chapter 2 on “Dàolín Nurturing the Inner Nature.” Found in this chapter and repeated in similar medieval texts with advice on cultivating health and prolonging life is advice like not sleeping with lamps left burning, not sleeping too close to a stove, not covering the head in winter during sleep, not sleeping with the feet in an elevated position, not sleeping parallel to a long straight wall, making a habit of keeping one’s mouth closed when falling asleep, not sleeping on one’s belly but sleeping on the side with the knees bent and frequently (according to Sūn Sīmiǎo five times) turning sides, keeping a regular daily rhythm of rest and activity by adjusting one’s times of going to bed and getting up in accordance with the seasons, avoiding loud singing or speaking before going to bed, not sleeping under window rafters, sleeping with the head facing east in spring and summer and facing west in fall and winter, not sleeping during the day, avoiding exposure to wind, etc. In addition, texts like the Yúnjí qīqiān 《雲笈七籤》(Seven Bamboo Slips in a Cloud Satchel) from 1025 emphasize the importance of “good thoughts and a contained heart.”[1]
[1] For more information on Daoist advice on sleeping, I refer the reader to Chén Yúnqīng 陳雲卿, et als., “Dàojiào duì wòzī de zhǔzhāng 道教對臥姿的主張” in Fóxué yǔ kēxué 2002, pp. 18-24.
