Buy Zopiclon A few studies and anecdotal evidence suggest that Acupuncture may be effective in treating insomnia.
If you’re among the tens of millions of individuals in the U.S. who have insomnia, which refers to difficulty sleeping and staying asleep, is Acupuncture a viable treatment?
According to the American Sleep Association, between 50 and 70 million U.S. adults have a sleep disorder. Thirty percent of U.S. adults have short-term insomnia, generally described as a condition lasting three months or less, and 10% of Americans have persistent insomnia that lasts longer.
There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence as well as some research that suggests that Acupuncture could aid in reducing insomnia and getting more restful sleep, according to Gracia Tharp, who is the lead practitioner of acupuncture and teaching associate with the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Washington.
What Is Acupuncture?
Acupuncture is an element of traditional Chinese medicine. It involves the placement of skinny needles into the skin at specific locations in the human body. It’s typically utilized to treat pain. However, it can also be employed to treat other ailments. There are over a dozen kinds of acupuncture techniques, Tharp says.
In her acupuncture practice regularly, Tharp treats a dozen or so patients with various ailments that include:
Digestive disorders.Insomnia or fatigue.Women’s well-being (irregular menstrual cycles, fertility support, acid reflux related to pregnancy, menopausal symptoms, and nausea).
A few patients visit her due to insomnia or lack of sleep. Whatever the cause, approximately 90% of clients report feeling better after just a couple of treatment sessions, Tharp says. “Some patients fall asleep on the acupuncture table,” Tharp says.
Acupuncture Patients Experience Relief from Insomnia
In the year 2019, Christy Garrard, Buy Zopiclon Online who lives in the Seattle area, went through menopausal changes and was experiencing hot flashes in the night, which would wake her up around every hour. “I’d have this intense hot flash, it would wake me up, and I’d have anxiety because I knew it would last a little while, and I’d have a hard time getting back to sleep,” she claims. They were as powerful as the iconic scene in the “Alien” horror film starring Sigourney Weaver. “When the hot flashes hit me, I felt like I had an alien in my torso and my chest would explode. It was getting to the point where I wasn’t functioning. I was close to suicidal. I couldn’t live like this. I was exhausted and emotionally spent trying to figure out what to do.”
Her primary physician at the time recommended depression medications that didn’t do anything to help. Garrard decided to try the integrative approach, which included Acupuncture. After attending Tharp every week for one month, Garrard’s hot flashes stopped, and she started getting some rest.
Her improvement continued to slow. After a few weeks, she reverted to a maintenance schedule, seeing Tharp weekly and monthly. After a year of a session with Tharp, Garrard was not having hot flashes at night and was sleeping well.
Another patient of Tharp’s, Hillary Bickel, 39, states that she was enrolled taking yoga teacher training in 2014 when she experienced severe pain in her shoulder. She could not lift her shoulder, and a chiropractic practitioner advised her to try Acupuncture. The time was when Bickel had insomnia as well. Bickel took her to Tharp, who asked her numerous questions regarding her lifestyle as well as questions about her sleeping habits. “She then treated me for my shoulder, insomnia, and stress” through needles on her feet. “After the first treatment, I could move my shoulder,” she explains.What Does Science Say About Acupuncture for Insomnia?
Method
Some research suggests that Acupuncture is a reliable and secure treatment for insomnia; however, more research is required, according to experts.
“The evidence is still lacking currently, but it is promising,” Dr. Marri Horvat, a neurologist and sleep specialist in the Cleveland Clinic. More high-quality studies are needed.
“Although there is promising research showing improvements in insomnia related to acupuncture, more research is needed to be able to draw broad conclusions about its effectiveness,” says Natalie Dautovich, the National Sleep Foundation’s environmental fellow. She is additionally an adjunct professor of psychotherapy at Virginia Commonwealth University.
A study published by the journal Sleep Medicine at the end of May 2022 reveals that “with a moderate to low certainty of evidence, multiple acupuncture therapies showed impressive insomnia improvement.” Researchers examined 57 controlled randomized studies.
Conventional Treatment for Insomnia
Horvat believes cognitive behavioral therapy with better sleeping hygiene is the most effective if you have insomnia. Cognitive behavioral therapy works with an accredited psychologist who can identify the causes of sleepiness, including dysregulation in sleep, anxiety related to sleep, and other behaviors that disrupt sleep, such as using electronic devices at night or watching television before bed.
This method is usually paired with tips for improving sleep hygiene. This includes not reading the screens of electronic devices at night, not watching television between two and three hours before bedtime, sticking to a schedule of sleeping, and avoiding caffeine consumption at midnight.
Tips for Trying Acupuncture for Insomnia
Horvat says she doesn’t normally advise patients against Acupuncture to treat insomnia, provided that a patient is interested in the treatment and does not have a contraindication.
If you’re experiencing insomnia and you’re thinking of trying Acupuncture, Tharp recommends these tips: