Acupuncture and Sleeplessness

By Aifei Wang, LAc, MAc

NABACU Eastern Medicine Centers

. http://www.nabacu.com/

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Acupuncture and Sleeplessness

Insomnia is defined as difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep at least three nights per week. Sufficient and restful sleep is a human necessity. But only 35% of American adults consistently get this amount of rest. A startling fact is that more than 30 million Americans suffer from insomnia.

People with insomnia tend to experience one or more of the following sleep disturbances

Difficulty falling asleep at night

Waking too early in the morning

Waking frequently throughout the night

Sleep that is chronically non-restorative or poor

Insomnia may have a number of causes including stress, depression or anxiety changes, chronic pain, hyperthyroidism or arthritis. The standard treatment for people suffering from insomnia due to irregular work schedules is to take medication or use alcohol sometimes leading to abuse. For many, taking a sleeping pill is the only remedy to address ongoing insomnia.

Eastern medicine takes a nuanced approach to insomnia. We recognize that it can have many different causes and we will ask you about your specific condition in order to pinpoint the problem. For example, if you have trouble falling asleep, that may relate to an excess condition of the liver or an imbalance of heart and kidneys.

If you are frequently waking up throughout the night it may be caused by spleen and heart Qi imbalance. However, you may be surprised to learn that the root of the problem that causes insomnia is a dysfunction or imbalance of the fundamental substances (Qi, blood, Yin, Yang, Jing, Shen), or of the major organ systems (lungs, heart, spleen, liver, kidneys). When a person suffers from insomnia, two of the organs will be out of balance.

Stress, digestive problems, hormones or environmental issues may all cause insomnia. Once we know the root of your problem, we can use acupuncture and herbs to help your body rebalance itself in the correct way.

Acupuncture and auricular acupuncture may be an excellent treatment option for many types of sleeplessness. While there are many factors to consider when creating acupuncture prescriptions for sleeplessness, general acupuncture protocol for the treatment of chronic insomnia includes 10 initial treatments at 2-3 treatments per week, followed by a 2-4 week observational period and possibly one treatment per week. Acupuncture and herbs as an insomnia remedy can greatly improve sleeping patterns. Oriental medicine helps do this by treating the whole person and focusing on bringing the entire body into balance.