Waking between 1 and 3am is a time of sleep disturbance that I frequently see in homeopathic practice. If this is your experience, it may well be worth giving some thought to your liver health. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, the liver is detoxifying at this time and if there is any kind of liver underfunction, this may result in wakefulness between 1-3am.

Our liver fulfils multiple functions in the body, detoxification being a primary one. However, it is often the victim of modern living in the form of the consumption of processed foods and alcohol, dealing with environmental toxins and the work it has to do in processing pharmaceutical medicine.

Eating rich or complex foods late at night, or drinking alcohol late, means that the liver will have to be busy digesting in the small hours, which may translate into wakefulness around 1-3am. So do try to eat earlier if you can, and if you have to eat late, eat cleanly and simply to give your body the least amount of digestive work to

do at night. If you’re waking from 1-3am and feeling irritation, this is further confirmation that your liver is compromised, as irritation is the emotion associated with the liver.

A homeopathic approach to sleep issues will involve as detailed an understanding of when and why you wake, so that the root causes of sleeplessness can be addressed.

But there’s a great deal that you can do from home to improve your liver health. First and foremost, keep both processed foods to a minimum – think green, lean and clean. Regarding alcohol, stay natural. In addition, consider these options:

• Add half the juice of hot water and drink every morning

• Eat rocket, lambs lettuce, dark leafy greens and watercress

• Eat garlic, shallots and onions

• Add cumin, turmeric, fennel, dill, ginger and rosemary to your food Look into skin brushing and taking hot and cold showers

All of these measures will be brilliantly complementary to your homeopathic treatment. Please feel free to get in touch for more information.