Al Stone, L.Ac.
Beyond Well Being
Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicines
Santa Monica, CA.
(310) 264-6668
San Pellegrino wrote:
Hi,
I need to get information to see if acupuncture helps insomnia.
Thanks
If the insomnia is stress induced or aggravated, acupuncture would have no problem in helping you out with this. Acupuncture loves anything that hurts, anything that is aggravated by stress, or anything that is aggravated with the menstrual cycle.
If the insomnia is due to the fact that you live above a bowling alley below an elevated train track next to a concrete quarry with a punk rock group that rehearses at night, then perhaps moving would be the quickest solution.
There are actually quite a few causes for insomnia though some of them are more effectively treated with Chinese herbal medicines. It really all depends on the cause of the insomnia, and that can be determined by a practitioner of TCM (traditional Chinese medicine).
The usual experience of insomnia is with difficulty in falling asleep. Acupuncture and TCM herbal medicines would likely approach this as a deficiency of either Yin (body fluids) and/or Blood (in this case, perhaps we could call them "neurotransmitters"). Our goal would be to stimulate the appropriate internal organs to produce more Yin or Blood to provide more restful sleep. There are a few acupoints that are specific to restful sleep such as the points named "an mian" which translates to... you guessed it, "restful sleep."
Keep in mind too, that the herbal medicines or acupuncture treatments don't have a heavy druggy sedated sort of feeling associated with them. Drugs tend to work on the body's chemistry rather than having an effect on the spirit. Acupuncture and herbal medicines really target the spirit, not the body. So there's no drugged out feeling associated with these treatments. You're just more calm and peaceful which allows you to sleep better without any draggy feeling the next day.
The treatment always begins with understanding the cause of the insomnia. For instance, we use a specific herbal formula for those who awaken in the early morning hours and can't fall asleep. Actually, in this case, acupuncture with the herbs are both indicated. This version of insomnia really is associated with stress, The mind wants to get up and going in the early morning hours, but since your brain is telling you to stay in bed, all you can do is lay there and think about your plans. There is some stress induced aspects of this in addition to a deficiency of certain blood products and neurotransmitters, to put it into biomedical terms.
Or, if the problem is that dreams are very intense and they're waking you up we might instead remove the heat from the (Chinese version of the) Heart to allow the spirit to rest more calmly. There are a variety of causes of heat in the Heart and of course we'd want to address the source of the heat as well.
Sometimes the insomnia is found in the very light sleeper who is frightened awake by the smallest of sounds. We call this a Gall Bladder Qi deficiency. Again, this is the Chinese version of the Gall Bladder, which isn't just a sac for bile. It is an organ that, when it is deficient in Qi energy can become skiddish and easily frightened. When this happens at night, it leads to insomnia.
There's the insomnia associated with menopause where again, there is heat in the Heart causing the spirit to be agitated at night, but it isn't because of too much heat, its really because of a deficiency of cooling mechanisms in the body. This syndrome called "Yin deficiency" also gives rise to night sweats and hot flashes. Menopausal women know Yin deficiency very well, but of course you needn't be menopausal or female to experience this kind of insomnia.
Another type of insomnia can be linked to diet or food intake too close to the sleeping period. In "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, Scrooge, upon seeing the ghost of Jacob Marley for the first time suggests to the ghost that he is nothing more than an undigested bit of cheese. TCM would agree. Dairy products can be difficult to digest and when the stomach and intestines are working hard while you're trying to sleep the gastro-intestinal activity can give rise to internal heat which agitates the Heart giving rise to nightmares and insomnia. As for as being a "Scrooge", I think we'll leave that pathology to the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. : )
Many kinds of insomnia, many different treatment principles, one result. It works. I've found that TCM treatments for insomnia are very beneficial. TCM doesn't work for everything, but this is definitely one of those things where great benefits can be realized.
Be well.
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Al Stone, L.Ac. |