Most people tend to think of acupuncture for pain related conditions, however it can be very beneficial for other problems, including the inability to fall asleep, stay asleep or wake from sleep feeling refreshed. It can help with excessive dreaming and nightmares as well.

As with all conditions how quickly acupuncture will help depends upon how long the insomnia has gone on. For those who have suffered intermittently for years, it may take several treatments before the patient gets more than one full night of sleep after a treatment. For people who have had a recent onset of insomnia, one or two treatments may result in several weeks of good sleep.

Most patients I see for insomnia come in for other problems.They notice an improvement in their quality of sleep as we progress through the course of treatment for their original complaint. In some cases, I add needles to help with the insomnia. For patients with complex diseases like fibromyalgia and for women going through perimenopause, the inability to sleep is but one symptom in a complex array of symptoms. It can often be one of the first to improve and is often one that I’ll work on the hardest.The ability to get a good night’s rest can work healing magic on any number of other symptoms, including the pain of fibromyalgia, the emotional rollercoaster of perimenopause and even for the outlook of someone who is deeply depressed.

No acupuncture treatment is guarranteed, however, the vast majority of patients find some level of improvement in their sleep the night after their first acupuncture treatment. Some get a full night’s rest. Others get 5 to 6 more hours than they normally would have. The most severe cases of insomnia should try and schedule appointments two or three times a week to begin with, so that their body becomes used to regular sleep. As they begin to sleep better, then appointments can be stretched out over longer periods of time.

The Medical Acupuncture Online Journal has several studies of acupuncture used to treat insomnia.