Can acupuncture treat insomnia?

Insomnia is a frequent complaint in the acupuncture business. Chronic insomnia is defined as no restorative sleep for at least three nights a week for one month or longer. Sleep can be disturbed by a number of reasons, such as stress, anxiety, medications and physical conditions. Western medicine has very little to offer patients in the way of relief. Antidepressant medications can help, but for people who are hesitant about living on drugs, then acupuncture is the way to go. Acupuncture has an extremely calming effect on the nervous system, and over time, it can help to correct the imbalances causing insomnia without creating side effects, according to Annie Sturmn, a licensed acupuncture physician and owner of Annie Sturman Acupuncture. She has been treating patients for the past 20 years with pain and illnesses.

Acupuncture involves the insertion of fine needles into specific points of the surface of the body. These points lie along conduits of energy called meridians. When these points are stimulated the benefits are endless. When insomnia is treated, points of the heart or pericardium meridians are commonly chosen. According to some acupuncturists, some of the points that calm the mind also have the effect of helping the heart to pump blood more efficiently. Chinese medicine also has many forms of insomnia, and each is treated with a different combination of points as well as different herbal formulas. "Unless you take time for yourself and find the time to eat well, exercise and relax, no treatment is going to eliminate your insomnia completely," Sturman says. However, "Chinese Medicine can eliminate or greatly reduce your symptoms as long as you keep your diet and lifestyle together."

Sturman says that one of the key ingredients in treating insomnia is to ask specific questions as to what causes insomnia. "We have to find out why they have it, what's going on in their body that's causing it, why the flow of energy isn't working properly and which system isn't working or which meridian," she says. Each form of insomnia has as many variations on the theme as there are people who suffer from it.

Sleep disturbances sometimes require a combination of therapies. In addition to acupuncture, psychological counseling and lifestyle changes may be needed as well to treat insomnia. For example, "I had a guy who could not sleep at night," Sturman says. "I asked him if there was a TV in his bedroom. He said 'yes, I don't watch it, but it is on at night.' He said his wife would fall asleep with it on at night, and then he would just listen to the background noise. After consideration I recommended for him to take the TV out of his bedroom and the insomnia went away. Sometimes it just takes common sense and intuition."

Chinese Aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, self-massage, recipes for medical wines, teas and porridges, all are self-help ways to treat insomnia.