Insomnia and Acupuncture
Sticking pins and needles is not exactly the way to imagine an insomnia remedy should be. Although insomnia and acupuncture can be the remedy people are searching for. There are numerous alternative treatments that can help with his or her insomnia problem, and acupuncture can be easily categorized under natural treatments for insomnia. Although the results and the variables are inconsistent, there have been numerous reports in which acupuncture has been more effective than placebos.
Acupuncture, in its essence, is a way to relieve pain through insertion of filiform needles in specific parts of the body. This ancient Chinese form of therapy has since lived through the Stone Age and is still popular today. Various health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Medical Association (AMA), have concluded that acupuncture is completely safe as long as it is done by a well-trained and licensed professional, and that the needles should be clean. Although medical associations and organizations does not go further to assert the concrete health benefits of acupuncture, or its ability to cure or remedy ailments, including insomnia, studies have shown that acupuncture does help a person sleep. The study had 534 participants, ranging from 15 to 98 years old, and the duration of the insomnia varied from 6 months to 19 years. The reasons for acquiring insomnia also varied: from pregnancy, stroke, anxiety, and more. Though the study will not go as far as to say that acupuncture can remedy insomnia, insomnia and acupuncture did have something to do with each other. Compared to those who received no treatment and those who have taken placebos, acupuncture did have an effect on the participants’ sleeping habits.
Insomnia, in itself, can be categorized by a person’s difficulty in falling and/or returning to sleep, shallow sleeping, or not sleeping at all. With acupuncture, there can five ways of treating insomnia. The five treatments also depend on what kind of insomnia a person has. There is an insomnia caused by what is called a “liver stagnation leading to fire.” Besides the difficulty of going to sleep, headaches, constipation, reddening of the face and irritability are also other signs. Another is the “yin deficiency that causes hyper fire.” Symptoms for this are night sweats, palpitations, shallow sleep, and irritability in the heart. Another is the “phlegm heat attaching the heart,” which is primarily caused by fullness in the upper body, nausea, coughing up yellow phlegm, blurry vision, and bad diet. “Qi deficiency in the heart and spleen” is another, and symptoms include bad memory, weariness, loose bowel movement, loss of appetite, and very little sleep that is accompanied by heavy dreaming. This is different from “Qi deficiency of the heart and gallbladder,” which is characterized (like the latter) by sleep with dreams, but also with constant waking with palpitations and anxiety or fear.
There may be guides out there on how to do acupuncture, but only professionals should execute this treatment. Even though there are no concrete proofs that acupuncture can remedy insomnia, it might just be the right treatment the person is looking for.
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