Acupuncture for insomnia
Helen, 63 years old lady, has insomnia for around 8 years. She could not fall asleep without drugs prescribed by her doctor. She could stay awake all night or if she was lucky enough to doze off, she would wake up frequently, even at the slightest noise. This sleep deprivation impaired Helen’s memory and her social interactions, she found hard to concentrate on any issues during the day. Apart from that, patient has palpitation and oppression of the chest. In general she is very sensitive and easy to cry person. Her husband past away one year ago, since then insomnia has become more and more serious.
In the past, around her 50, Helen had psychological problems, such as depression, suffered from low self – esteem, even had thoughts about committing suicide. She used to take antidepressants for five years.
Common causes of the Insomnia
Insomnia is a symptom, not a disease: it is defined as difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep for long enough to feel refreshed the next morning, even though you've had enough opportunity to sleep.
Stress: many people experience stress from the environment, including that caused by life, work, family, and the like. This keeps them thinking about the stress and trying to deal with it, which makes falling asleep extremely difficult.
Anxiety: everyday activity and anxiety, or severe anxiety disorder may keep the mind too alert to fall asleep.
Depression: This is a very pronounced reason to keep people alert and make sleep difficult.
Long-term use of sleep medication: Drugs such as Ambian or Wellbutrian cause psychological dependence on them.
Pain: Many conditions, including arthritis, fibromyalgia, neuropathy, trigeminal neuralgia, plus assorted injuries, will cause pain, making it hard to fall asleep and stay asleep.
Aging: When people age, they do not need as much sleep as they did when young. The reasons for this include changing life patterns, family changes, and other worries, all of which can cause insomnia.
According Chinese medicine the amount and quality of sleep depends on the state of Mind/Shen. The Mind is rooted in the Heart/Heart Blood/Heart Yin. If the Heart is deficient (usually with any heart problem, but not only), the Mind/Shen is not properly rooted and sleep will be affected. Spleen has tendency to become deficient with the age, leading to not enough blood production what’s again affects Heart and Mind. Also it should be remembered that in old people there is physiological decline in Qi and Blood, so they normally need less sleep that young people.
Helen has deficiency of Heart Qi/Yin/Kidney Yin. That clearly manifest on her tongue, which is without coating, with Heart crack and reddish tip. Antidepressants she used to take influenced the kidney yin/ yang systems with the agitation of the Shen and Kidney/ Heart yin deficiency. Sadness and grieving after her husband funeral aggravated her condition: that primary affected Heart, depleted Qi resulting in failure of proper circulation of Heart Qi in the chest.
In treating Helen I primarily focus on tonifying Heart Qi/Blood and nourishing of Yin, calming the Mind/Shen. After 2 treatments she started to reduce the amount of the western drugs, after another 10 treatments she could fall asleep without drugs and sleep for 4-5 hours without waking up. Now she has a treatment time from time when she feels that her sleeping getting worse.
Here you can find information about the evidence for effectiveness treating insomnia with Chinese acupuncture:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3156618/
http://www.acupuncture.org.uk/a-to-z-of-conditions/a-to-z-of-conditions/insomnia.html
Helen, 63 years old lady, has insomnia for around 8 years. She could not fall asleep without drugs prescribed by her doctor. She could stay awake all night or if she was lucky enough to doze off, she would wake up frequently, even at the slightest noise. This sleep deprivation impaired Helen’s memory and her social interactions, she found hard to concentrate on any issues during the day. Apart from that, patient has palpitation and oppression of the chest. In general she is very sensitive and easy to cry person. Her husband past away one year ago, since then insomnia has become more and more serious.
In the past, around her 50, Helen had psychological problems, such as depression, suffered from low self – esteem, even had thoughts about committing suicide. She used to take antidepressants for five years.
Common causes of the Insomnia
Insomnia is a symptom, not a disease: it is defined as difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep for long enough to feel refreshed the next morning, even though you've had enough opportunity to sleep.
Stress: many people experience stress from the environment, including that caused by life, work, family, and the like. This keeps them thinking about the stress and trying to deal with it, which makes falling asleep extremely difficult.
Anxiety: everyday activity and anxiety, or severe anxiety disorder may keep the mind too alert to fall asleep.
Depression: This is a very pronounced reason to keep people alert and make sleep difficult.
Long-term use of sleep medication: Drugs such as Ambian or Wellbutrian cause psychological dependence on them.
Pain: Many conditions, including arthritis, fibromyalgia, neuropathy, trigeminal neuralgia, plus assorted injuries, will cause pain, making it hard to fall asleep and stay asleep.
Aging: When people age, they do not need as much sleep as they did when young. The reasons for this include changing life patterns, family changes, and other worries, all of which can cause insomnia.
According Chinese medicine the amount and quality of sleep depends on the state of Mind/Shen. The Mind is rooted in the Heart/Heart Blood/Heart Yin. If the Heart is deficient (usually with any heart problem, but not only), the Mind/Shen is not properly rooted and sleep will be affected. Spleen has tendency to become deficient with the age, leading to not enough blood production what’s again affects Heart and Mind. Also it should be remembered that in old people there is physiological decline in Qi and Blood, so they normally need less sleep that young people.
Helen has deficiency of Heart Qi/Yin/Kidney Yin. That clearly manifest on her tongue, which is without coating, with Heart crack and reddish tip. Antidepressants she used to take influenced the kidney yin/ yang systems with the agitation of the Shen and Kidney/ Heart yin deficiency. Sadness and grieving after her husband funeral aggravated her condition: that primary affected Heart, depleted Qi resulting in failure of proper circulation of Heart Qi in the chest.
In treating Helen I primarily focus on tonifying Heart Qi/Blood and nourishing of Yin, calming the Mind/Shen. After 2 treatments she started to reduce the amount of the western drugs, after another 10 treatments she could fall asleep without drugs and sleep for 4-5 hours without waking up. Now she has a treatment time from time when she feels that her sleeping getting worse.
Here you can find information about the evidence for effectiveness treating insomnia with Chinese acupuncture:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3156618/
http://www.acupuncture.org.uk/a-to-z-of-conditions/a-to-z-of-conditions/insomnia.html
