Literally, this proverb tells people not to point their feet to the west when sleeping. Where did this statement come from? We might as well analyze it from the following aspects:
First, folk proverbs
1, unlucky. In ancient China, cranes were regarded as mascots symbolizing longevity, and when they died, they were compared to "riding a crane to the west", meaning flying to the sky by crane. In ancient times, the west meant the place where the deceased belonged, which means bad? .
Buddhism believes that the west is a paradise without pain. After death, people often turn the head of the deceased to the east and west to show respect and bless the deceased to the western paradise. In reality, there are also some mourners who ask monks to help the deceased cross the western paradise. Therefore, it is considered unlucky to sleep with your feet facing west.
In addition, the Buddha is in the west, and people's feet are dirty. If you point your dirty feet at the Buddha, it is disrespectful to the Buddha.
2. It does not conform to the principles of ancient health preservation and geomantic omen. The ancients believed that the sleeping position should change with the four seasons to adapt to the prosperity of the four seasons. Sun Simiao, a famous doctor in the Tang Dynasty, said in "A Thousand Daughters Should Be Prescribed": "Ordinary people lie down, facing east in spring and summer, and facing west in autumn and winter." In other words, in spring and summer, it is advisable to sleep with your head facing east and your feet facing west; In autumn and winter, you should sleep with your head facing west and your feet facing east. Because spring and summer belong to yang, autumn and winter belong to yin, which conforms to the principle of "nourishing yang in spring and summer and nourishing yin in autumn and winter" in traditional Chinese medicine. If you sleep with your feet facing west all year round, it is against this principle of health preservation.
In addition, most traditional buildings in our country face south, and the beams are naturally east-west. If you sleep with your head facing east and your feet facing west, the beams will hang over your head, which is a taboo in geomantic omen and is considered unlucky.
Second, scientific explanation.
1, Earth's magnetic field theory. According to modern science, the earth is a huge magnetic field, and the magnetic lines of force come out from the North Pole and cross the surface of the earth into the South Pole. If you sleep with your head facing east and your feet facing west, the bioelectric current of the human body is perpendicular to the direction of the earth's magnetic field lines, which will hinder the operation of bioelectric current of the human body and must consume a lot of energy to achieve a new balance. It will lead to an increase in human body temperature, which will make people upset and difficult to fall asleep.
Chinese medicine also believes that people should sleep with their heads facing north and their feet facing south, so that the direction of human qi and blood is consistent with the direction of the earth's magnetic field lines, which will make qi and blood smooth, reduce metabolism, consume less energy and sleep relatively smoothly. East and west are in opposite directions, which will make people sleep restlessly.
2. Earth rotation theory. The earth keeps spinning from west to east. If you sleep with your feet facing west and east, it is just opposite to the direction of the earth's rotation, and the human body is disturbed by the earth's rotation, thus affecting the quality of sleep. It's like sitting in the opposite direction of the car when you are in the car, people will feel tired and get carsick easily.
Of course, proverbs are only a summary of previous production and life experiences, and they are not rigorous enough. Moreover, there are different winds and customs in ten miles, and there are also various opinions about sleeping posture among the people, which is of little guiding significance to reality.
So far, there is no strong evidence or scientific experiment to prove how much the direction of sleeping affects human health. The influence of the earth's magnetic field and rotation on human sleep is also considered to be negligible, which is simply not enough to calculate. Therefore, the statement "Don't sleep with your feet facing west" is unscientific and unreasonable, and there is no need to follow suit blindly.
Although the quality of sleep is very important to us, in order to improve the quality of sleep, we must work hard to improve the living environment according to our actual situation and local conditions, and make a scientific and reasonable diet and rest, instead of obsessing about the direction of sleep and wasting time and energy unnecessarily.