The Top 4 Ways Acupuncture Promotes Sleep
Acupuncture and insomnia
Here are some of the top ways that acupuncture promotes relaxation and improves sleep:
1. Relief of pain: if you experience pain or discomfort in the night that causes insomnia, you should consider acupuncture because it can work to relieve chronic pain. If you have chronic pain that can't be mitigated with the help of drugs, physical therapy or other treatment methods acupuncture can help you to find relief and to sleep better at night.
2. Improving mental performance: Often individuals with sleep disorders have difficulty focusing throughout their working day. With acupuncture you can work at improving mental performance which in turn improves the quality of your sleep. Many patients find that their most productive workdays are those that are the same days they do acupuncture or the day after they have acupuncture treatment.
3. Normalizing sleep patterns: In a study conducted by Phillips and Skelton, patients with HIV were monitored for sleep quality with assistance from acupuncture. After just 10 treatments of acupuncture sleep quality and sleep activity dramatically improved in all cases. Similar studies have been conducted on normal healthy individuals with insomnia and the same results occurred.
4. Assistance with anxiety: if you often lay awake at night feeling anxious or worrisome acupuncture could benefit your natural sleep rhythm and allow you to fall asleep faster. In a report conducted in 2004 patients that experience high anxiety that took regular acupuncture appointments had better melatonin production and a longer total sweeping time after five weeks of appointments. It also worked to reduce ongoing daily anxiety.
For these reasons and more acupuncture can help you to get a better nights rest!
If your sleep is all over the place and you need a place to start to get back on track, contact Family Wellness Centre today on 9938 1090. Katika Funnell is a registered acupuncturist with AHPRA with 12 years experience. She has a Bachelor of Health Science in TCM and has briefly studied in a working hospital in China
