Background: Problems related to sleep affect approximately 23-56% of the world’s population. In Mongolia, the prevalence of non-organic sleep disorders is estimated at 27.9%, among which 42.2% of the population have poor sleep quality. Long-term insomnia can have a negative impact on an individual’s normal work and life, increasing the risk of various health problems. Severe insomnia can reduce work efficiency and concentration, thereby causing serious harm. Traditional medicine has a long history of treating insomnia. However, there are currently no systematic studies on insomnia based on ancient traditional medical books. Goal: Based on the ancient medical literature of traditional medicine, identify the underlying diseases that cause insomnia and compare their symptoms. Materials and Methods: We adopted the checklist method to list the relevant information of insomnia from the literature, providing a prerequisite for further analysis and the issue of syndrome differentiation of insomnia was analyzed by using comparison methods.
The research protocol was reviewed and approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences at its meeting on June 24, 2025 (No. 04), and ethical clearance was granted for the conduct of this study. Results: The research materials we selected did not describe insomnia as a dedicated chapter, but mentioned the content related to insomnia in the form of disease symptoms, such as terms like ”sleeplessness”, ”reduced sleep” and ”light sleep”. We explore the underlying diseases of insomnia based on the above symptoms related to insomnia and analyze the syndrome differentiation of insomnia. Exploring the underlying disease of insomnia:
1. Insomnia caused by diseases resulting from Wind include Wind delirium, palpitations, bone marrow Wind, heart Wind, lung Wind, Wind-induced diabetes, Wind tsbs.
2. Insomnia caused by diseases resulting from Bile include heat Bile, heart Bile, liver sdembu, deficiency heat, Invisible heat and epidemic heat.
3. Other diseases include mugpo spreads to the heart, heart chuser, trichomoniasis and childhood evil spirit disease.
We also compared the symptoms of the underlying diseases that cause insomnia and listed their similarities and differences. Conclusion The underlying etiologies of insomnia were categorized into Wind, Bile, Mugpo, yellow fluid, parasitic and evil spirit disorders. Accordingly, effective management of insomnia requires differentiation based on the primary disease and an individualized treatment approach that integrates both etiological and symptomatic therapies.