The Chinese art of acupuncture is one of the oldest alternative forms of medicine in the world that can be traced back 2,500 years ago. Today, it’s one of the most popular forms of alternative medicine with people from the United Kingdom and France being frequent patients. Acupuncture is the key component of traditional Chinese medicine that involves the use of needles to correct energy patterns in the body, also known as ‘Qi’. Disruptions of this pattern of energy flow are believed to be causes of certain illnesses and diseases.
While acupuncture is most commonly used for pain relief, it has also been proven to be useful in solving other problems such as smoking addictions, asthma, and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting, just to name a few. Interestingly, acupuncture is also a known remedy for sleeping disorders.
A study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14990755 ) conducted in 2004 found that people with anxiety who went for acupuncture therapy experienced increased levels of melatonin production and total sleep time. These patients also went to bed quicker and were less stressed before treatment. Another study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10077713) also found that acupuncture strongly improved the quality of sleep in people diagnosed with insomnia.
The conventional medicinal approach towards the treatment of sleep disorders is usually with prescription medication and while these can generally cure certain cases, it isn’t a long term solution. Most of these sleep medications create a bodily dependency on the drug and in some instances even have potentially dangerous adverse effects. Traditional Chinese medicine still has its skeptics, but history has shown that acupuncture is an effective and harmless way of treating sleeping disorders. Approach your doctor or an acupuncturist today to find out more about the benefits of acupuncture!