Insomnia is a common sleep disorder clinically with a long course and it is easy to relapse.Long-term sleep deprivation seriously affects people's quality of life.Modern medicine believes that endogenous circadian rhythm，i.e.，biological intrinsic rhythm，is regulated by biological clock genes.The stability of endogenous circadian rhythm is closely related to the quality of sleep.Many studies have found that traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) can treat insomnia by regulating biological clock genes.This paper analyzed the experimental studies related to the regulation of biological clock genes by TCM for the treatment of insomnia in the past 10 years and found that prescriptions effective in nourishing yin and tonifying blood could achieve the effect of treating insomnia by promoting BMAL1 and CLOCK expression，while prescriptions potent in dispelling evil could improve insomnia by promoting the expression of PERs and CRYs.This study is expected to provide a new target for the study of the mechanism of insomnia treatment by TCM.