Waking in the Night: Why 3–5am Means Something Different from 1–3am

If you regularly wake in the night, you have probably searched for the reason at some point. And almost every time, you end up with the same answer: the Liver. In the Chinese Medicine body clock, its time is between 1 and 3am – and the timing alone is irritating enough. It’s the middle of the night, you’ve only just sunk into proper sleep, and suddenly you’re awake. Perhaps a dream woke you, perhaps nothing in particular. Either way, going back to sleep isn’t an option for a while. When the Liver disturbs you, it makes sure it is heard. This is not an organ that knocks politely.

A great deal has been written about these hours – and in today’s achievement-driven culture, that is hardly surprising. But there is another time of night that gets far less attention. Its emotion, too, tends to be lived only at the edges: briefly, before we push it away again as quickly as we can. You’ve slept for a few hours, and then you’re awake at around four – too early to get up, and yet you can’t find your way back to sleep. It seems less dramatic; at least you managed a few hours. But this is exactly where the time of the Lung begins. And the Lung speaks more quietly.

What the body clock describes

The Chinese body clock describes the dynamics of our body over 24 hours. At certain times, certain organs – each with its own themes – are especially active, and each of them needs something different. The Liver’s time is from 1 to 3am, the Lung’s from 3 to 5am and the Large Intestine’s from 5 to 7am. You can read how the clock moves through the whole day in my article What the Chinese Medicine Body Clock Reveals About Your Body.

Liver or Lung: the same waking, a different message

On paper it looks the same: you wake too early and can’t get back to sleep. But very different things are happening in the background. They ask to be understood in different ways – and each calls for a different way of working with it.

The Liver stands for creativity, vision and movement. It speaks up when it lacks space – when everyday life is too full, too loud and too stressful, and whatever wants to grow in you has no room. Then its Qi stagnates. What it needs is less noise and more space.

The Lung, on the other hand, wants to be seen. When it wakes you between 3 and 5am, it is often pointing to something older: a wound that has been there for a long time, or a process of letting go that is hard because the grief runs deep. Sometimes it shows that you have been thrown out of your natural rhythm – and that holding on is taking your breath away.

The Lung: our connection to the world

To understand why holding on belongs to the Lung in particular, it helps to look at what the Lung means in Chinese Medicine. It is the organ that connects us with the world. With every breath it takes in the Qi of Heaven and releases what has been used up. It sits at the very top of the body and is therefore also called the canopy, spreading over all the other organs.

For the Lung, taking in and letting go are one and the same movement. We know this from our own breath: if you can’t breathe out fully, you can’t breathe in deeply either. Life works in a similar way. When we hold on to something – a relationship, a plan, an idea of how things should have been – there is little room left for what wants to come in.

Sometimes letting go hurts. Then we speak of grief, or of sorrow – both belong to the Lung. There is nothing wrong with that. Both are the shape letting go takes when something mattered to us. It only becomes difficult when sorrow is given no space and settles in the chest.

There is a physical side, too. In autumn the Lung is particularly vulnerable to dryness, and a dry, depleted Lung can also wake you during these hours – often with a dry throat or a tickly cough. Very often the two go together.

5–7am: the Large Intestine and letting go in the body

After the Lung comes its partner, the Large Intestine. Its time is between 5 and 7am – and it is no coincidence that many people head to the loo first thing in the morning. What the Lung does with the breath, the Large Intestine does in the body: it releases what is no longer needed.

The two work closely together. The Lung directs its Qi downwards and so supports the movement of the Large Intestine. When letting go stalls on one level, it often shows on the other as well. If we hold on inwardly, we sometimes hold on physically, too.

Bai He: support when letting go is hard

If you recognise yourself in the hours between 3 and 5am, I’d like to introduce you to something few people know: Bai He, the lily bulb. It has been used in Chinese Medicine for centuries. It is slightly cooling, nourishes Yin and moistens the Lung – especially when the Lung has been worn down and dried out by sorrow held on to for a long time. It also acts on the Heart and calms the spirit. A classical text, the Jin Gui Yao Lue, even describes a “lily disease” of its own: a state of inner restlessness in which you want to lie down but can’t, want to walk but can’t. Many people know this inability to settle from the early hours, when one thought simply won’t let go.

You can find dried lily bulb in Asian grocery shops, often labelled “lily bulb” or with the characters 百合. For a tea, take about 10 to 15 grams, soak it briefly, then let it simmer gently in half a litre of water for around 20 minutes. If you like, add a few slices of pear or two or three red dates. It is best drunk in the early evening.

Not every Lung is dry, though. If phlegm has built up and everything feels blocked and heavy, Bai He isn’t the right choice – and the process of letting go needs a different kind of support. The same applies if you feel the cold easily or tend towards loose stools. This is where food plays a big part: what nourishes a dry Lung can put extra strain on one that is full of phlegm. In the workbook Lung & Large Intestine you’ll find detailed food lists for exactly this. And if you have been sleeping badly for a long time, please have it checked by a doctor.

Bai He isn’t a solution you drink and tick off. It is more a plant that sets the theme in motion and opens it up. It makes what is stuck more accessible – so that you can work with it yourself, on several levels.

What would you like to let go of?

The Lung reminds us that taking in and letting go belong together. The next time you’re lying awake at four in the morning, you could ask yourself a simple question: what am I holding on to right now – and what would happen if I let go of it, just a little?

Letting go happens on several levels, and they complement each other. Through what you eat, you can moisten and strengthen your Lung. In Qi Gong, you experience in your body what taking in and letting go feel like. And reflection questions help you discover what you are holding on to – and why.

This is exactly how the DaoSense membership is built. Each month we explore one organ system on every level – with a workbook full of knowledge, food lists and reflection questions, with Qi Gong, an in-depth article and Sound Healing. In October, it’s the Lung and Large Intestine. Membership costs £10 a month or £100 a year.

If you’d rather begin on your own first, the workbook Lung & Large Intestine is also available separately in the shop. Over four weeks it explores your own rhythm, your boundaries, food for the Lung and Large Intestine, and letting go – with reflection questions and exercises for each week.

Not sure which pattern keeps you awake? The free mini workbook “What keeps you awake?” takes you through all five organs and how they disturb your sleep – with reflection questions and a first step for each.

When do you tend to wake in the night – between 1 and 3, or between 3 and 5?