Acupuncture and Sleep

People ask me frequently if acupuncture can help with their sleeping issues and insomnia. I always respond with some hesitation. It's not because I am unsure that the acupuncture will help, but because it seems as though people have a hard time believing it will. It is completely understandable why people would be having a hard time believe it. I mean how could poking someone with needles improve their sleep!?

Well, as a Board Certified Acupuncturist and Herbalist who has been practicing for sometime now, the effects of acupuncture on sleeping patterns still manages to astonish me. For example, I had a 44 year old patient come in a few weeks ago with the main complaint of insomnia. She explained that ever since her mid twenties she has not been able to sleep well, and the issue progressively has gotten worse. She has been referring to red wine and sleep medication when the issue gets intolerable, but explained that she was tired of living that kind of lifestyle.

That day we began her treatment, twice a week with acupuncture and an herbal formula. Obviously, because she had been suffering with lack of sleep for quite some time, the acupuncture took a few treatments before she began to see a difference. I gave her a ball park of six to eight treatments to begin seeing a shift. Amazingly, it only took three full treatments and she was already beginning to sleep through the night. Of course the acupuncture treatment went on a few more sessions in order to get a solid result. This patient is one of the many positive experiences I have had for treating sleeping disorders through my acupuncture practice.

One of many ways to explain how acupuncture affects the mind and body is as follows: Chinese medicine is based on a balance of functioning organs. When one of these organs is affected in some way causing it to function improperly and fall "off balance", problems arise. One way that we can keep this inner balance is tapping into the specific channels that affect a particular organ we are trying to help. By using acupuncture needles and tapping into certain points on these channels we can directly/ indirectly guide organs into functioning a certain way.

So, for example, acupuncturists find that usually individuals with sleep issues usually have an imbalance in the heart. Therefore, we would use certain channels that points to bringing a steady balance to the heart.
Please note that unlike western medicine, when speaking about organs, in Chinese medicine it does not necessarily mean that you have a problem or disease with that specific organ. These are two completely different medicines practice that look at the body in very different ways.

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