Speaking of using sour jujube seed to treat insomnia, many people might be surprised. They've been eating sour jujube seeds for so many years, yet they never realized it could help with sleep. That's right, you heard it correctly. This little snack is indeed a nemesis of insomnia, so you can consume it with confidence. Want to know how to eat sour jujube seeds to treat insomnia and what their benefits are? Let's find out together.
Sour Jujube Seed, Superior to Sleeping Pills
For drowsiness during the day and restless sleep at night, there's a sweet and sour traditional Chinese medicine that can address both: the edible sour jujube seed.
The raw and roasted sour jujube seeds have different effects on sleep. This distinction must be made clear.
Raw sour jujube seed has an excitatory effect and is specifically for treating hypersomnia, sleeping day and night without ever feeling rested. In this case, use the raw seed.
In other cases, roasted sour jujube seed should be used.
Sour jujube seed has the effects of lowering blood pressure, calming the mind, and regulating the nervous system.
According to the "Illustrated Classic of Materia Medica," "Sour jujube seed is primarily for vexation of the heart and inability to sleep."
Sour Jujube Seed, Building a House for the Mind-Spirit
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, insomnia is caused by the mind-spirit (Xin Shen) being unsettled.
Under normal circumstances, the mind-spirit resides in the heart blood and heart yin. When the mind-spirit is home, a person can sleep peacefully.
If there's a deficiency of heart blood or heart yin, it's as if the house for the mind-spirit has become smaller, or even has no place for it to stay. The mind-spirit then wanders about, leading to an unsettled mind and insomnia.
The sleep-inducing effect of sour jujube seed is not like that of Western medicine, which directly suppresses the excitability of the nervous system. Instead, it builds a house for the mind-spirit, allowing it to settle in comfortably, so that a person can sleep naturally and soundly.
Adding sour jujube seeds to white rice to make a congee is easier for the elderly to digest and absorb.
Therefore, using sour jujube seeds and white rice to make a congee is very effective for insomnia caused by neurasthenia and is especially suitable for people with a weak constitution. It is recommended to have a bowl at dinner for better results.
The Effects of Sour Jujube Seed
Sour jujube seed is the seed of the sour jujube and can be used as medicine after processing. It contains ingredients such as alkaloids, various amino acids, and trace elements. It can have effects of calming the mind, nourishing the middle burner and liver, and reducing sweating. It has a good therapeutic effect on conditions like vexation and insomnia, palpitations with anxiety, and spontaneous sweating due to a deficient constitution.
Sour jujube seed is often used with Reishi mushroom to exert its effects, such as calming the mind and aiding sleep, and can be used to treat severe insomnia.
Sour Jujube Seed, Lotus Seed, and Longan Soup
1. Sedative and Hypnotic Effects
Oral or intraperitoneal injection of sour jujube seed decoction in rats showed sedative and hypnotic effects, which were present both day and night. When administered orally to mice, the sedation index was 1.95. It showed a synergistic effect with barbiturate drugs. After continuous use for 6 days, the animals' sleep became lighter and the duration shortened, indicating tolerance, but this disappeared after a 1-week withdrawal period.
2. Tranquilizing Effect
In recent years, sour jujube seed has been compared to tranquilizers and found to have many similarities. After intraperitoneal injection of the sour jujube seed decoction in rats, all animals showed calmness and drowsiness, but could be awakened by external stimuli.
Even at a toxic dose, mice did not show loss of righting reflex or anesthesia. After oral administration to mice, the decoction inhibited conditioned reflexes but not unconditioned reflexes. It also had a significant antagonistic effect against the manic state induced by subcutaneous injection of morphine hydrochloride in cats.
3. Analgesic and Antipyretic Effects
The hot plate test in mice showed that intraperitoneal injection of sour jujube seed decoction had a significant analgesic effect, significantly prolonging the pain reaction latency, with an effect lasting up to 3 hours. Oral or intraperitoneal administration of the decoction had an antipyretic effect in normal rats.