Insomnia,as a common clinical disease and a concomitant symptom of many diseases,is high in prevalence.It is difficult to be cured because of complex and unclear sleep mechanism.The medication with chemical drugs often produces side effects,such as dependence and addiction,and even seriously impairs the cognitive function and the central nervous system of patients.In more than 2 000 years of clinical practice,traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) is proven effective with unique treatment approaches and high safety.Facing the research dilemma of the complex disease insomnia,this paper deeply explored the TCM theory,discussed the theoretical basis and treatment characteristics of TCM of insomnia from “heart spirit” based on the advance in modern biological research,and sought prevention and treatment laws,in order to provide references for the application of this method in the treatment of insomnia and the in-depth investigation of the mechanism of insomnia and also provide a basis for excavating relevant prevention and treatment methods and developing therapeutic drugs.