Acupuncture Helps Insomnia

In this randomized study of 44 women with insomnia between the ages of 22 and 56 year, daily therapy with acupuncture for 3 days followed by therapy every 3 day for the next 11 days significantly improved sleep. Subjects were randomly assigned to receive either acupuncture or medication (estazolam) plus sham acupuncture. Acupuncture therapy consisted of needling the following abdominal acupuncture points: CV-17, CV-10, CV-4, CV-6, KI-17, ST-24, Xiafengshidian, and Qipang.

The authors concluded, "Results indicate that short-term abdominal acupuncture is more effective than pharmacological treatment for relieving insomnia in adult women and has few adverse effects."

Some people are very sensitive to medications, and can only use natural sleep aids. This study adds acupuncture to the list of natural options for insomnia. As an aside, microcurrent therapies, such as Frequency Specific Microcurrent, can help fibromyalgia and nerve pain, and seems especially helpful for insomnia — again, without medication side effects.

References

"Abdominal acupuncture for insomnia in women: a randomized controlled clinical trial," Wang XY, Yuan SH, et al, Acupunct Electrother Res, 2008; 33(1-2): 33-41.