Can’t sleep? Acupuncture can help.
Do you find yourself tossing and turning each night? Waking up too early? Struggling to get restful sleep? Acupuncture can help!
Sleep deprivation can make us feel… well, crap! So much of our physical and mental wellbeing is determined by how much we sleep we get and the quality of it. That’s why Traditional Chinese medicine has looked extensively at sleep, searching for the root cause of insomnia.
At Kotan Acupuncture, we take a holistic approach to sleep.
According to Chinese medicine theory, the Yang Ki is most active during the day, rising to the head to stimulate the brain. At night, Yang energy must move down the body and into the internal organs (Yin areas) allowing the mind to rest. Insomnia can occur when the meridians (like super highways for Ki) are blocked, preventing the Yang from moving down into the body. This can make you feel like your mind is racing a million miles an hour whilst you’re trying to fall asleep.
Japanese acupuncture seeks to unblock meridians and allow Yang to flow freely through the body.
Once Yang moves into the internal organs the next important aspect of sleep is the Xue (blood). According to traditional Chinese medicine, Xue returns to the liver organ when we sleep. If the liver is in disharmony then it cannot receive the Xue. Sometimes Xue is expelled in the middle of the night, that’s why you might find yourself suddenly waking up.
Luckily, treatment at Kotan Acupuncture can help.
The research
A systemic review of 46 randomized trials involving 3811 people showed that acupuncture was effective for treating insomnia. Acupuncture performed better compared to western medications and showed no side effects.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3156618/
Another study on sleep and the elderly showed “the (acupuncture) subjects gained significantly more resting time and total sleep time in the treatment period than in the control period”. They also deduced that “acupuncture was effective in improving some domains of sleep quality”.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3736969/
A systemic study of 30 trials involving 2363 people found that “Acupuncture compared to sham/placebo acupuncture and pharmacotherapy showed statistically significant results” and that acupuncture proved more effective than pharmacotherapy.