It is important to differentiate between normal dreams, and dreams which are troublesome and indicate some kind of imbalance.

Dreaming which does not make the sleep restless, is not frightening, does not disturb the mind the morning after, and does not leave the person very tired in the morning, can be consider as normal.

‘Excessive dreaming’, or dreams with indicate imbalance may be defined as dreams which cause restless sleep or nightmares, resulting in the person feeling very tired the following morning.

Within Chinese medicine, the Mind (or Spirit) resides in the Blood, in particular the Heart Blood. In this sense, the Blood acts as an 'anchor' for the Mind to prevent it from wandering off. When the Heart Blood is weak, then there is no 'anchor' for the Mind and at night it can wander and cause excessive dreaming. The old classics of acupuncture described various types of unpleasant dreams such as nightmares, waking up screaming, sleepwalking and talking in one’s sleep. They related dreaming to the wandering of the 'ethereal soul ' at night.

Although it is mainly the Heart organ that is involved with excessive dreams, other organs such as the Kidneys, Gall Bladder, or Stomach may also be involved. The content of the dream may also give some indication of where there is an imbalance, for example, dreams with crying and weeping would point to a Lung excess condition, since these are the emotions linked to the Lungs. Plunging into water and being scared would indicate a Kidney deficiency condition, and there are many others.

At the initial consultation, information is gathered to get a complete picture of what is causing the bad dreams and disturbed sleep. Treatment would normally be once weekly, perhaps more frequently if the dreams were particularly disturbing.