Clinical Research Progress on External Therapies of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Infantile Nocturnal Crying Based on the Theory of “Exuberance of the Heart and Liver, and Insufficiency of the Spleen and Kidney”

婴幼儿夜啼症作为临床常见的睡眠异常病症，主要表现为睡眠中途非自主性觉醒并伴随啼哭。基于中医体质学说，小儿存在“心肝功能偏亢，脾肾功能偏弱”的典型生理特征，因此此病的病机多可从心肝火旺、肝郁脾虚、脾寒气滞及突然受惊等方面探讨。目前，小儿夜啼的中医外治法应用广泛，尤以小儿推拿为基础，结合中药、穴位敷贴、艾灸等疗法，临床疗效显著。本文对相关文献进行综述，旨在总结和分析基于“心肝常有余，脾肾常不足”理论的小儿夜啼外治方法及其临床研究进展。Infantile nocturnal crying, a common sleep disorder in children, refers to involuntary awakenings or crying episodes during sleep. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory, infants are characterized by the physiological and pathological traits of “exuberance of the heart and liver, and insufficiency of the spleen and kidney.” Therefore, the pathogenesis of this condition is often attributed to patterns such as hyperactivity of heart-liver fire, liver stagnation with spleen deficiency, spleen cold with qi stagnation, or sudden fright. Currently, external TCM therapies for infantile nocturnal crying are widely applied, particularly pediatric tuina (massage), combined with herbal medicine, acupoint application, moxibustion, and other modalities, demonstrating significant clinical efficacy. This article reviews relevant literature to summarize and analyze external treatment methods and their clinical research progress for infantile nocturnal crying based on the theory of “exuberance of the heart and liver, and insufficiency of the spleen and kidney”.