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Insomnia is characterized as the inability to initiate or maintain sleep; may also take the form of early morning awakening in which an individual wakes several hours early and is unable to resume sleeping.
Insomnia is a common sleep disorder. With insomnia, you may have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or getting good quality sleep. This happens even if you have the time and the right environment to sleep well. Insomnia can get in the way of your daily activities and may make you feel sleepy during the day.
From the point of view of Chinese Medicine, sleep problems are mostly related to dysfunction of the Heart, Spleen, Stomach, Liver and Kidneys. Blood is made from food essence and controlled by the Spleen to produce essence which will be stored in the kidneys. Poor diet, irregular eating habits, stress and hormonal fluctuations which affects the yin, yang, qi and blood causes insomnia.
Acupuncture can relieve insomnia symptoms; although the mechanism of action is not fully understood, studies have shown patients receiving regular acupuncture have a reduction of symptoms within two months of treatments. Acupuncture can:
According to Chinese Medicine theory acupuncture and Chinese herbs can be prescribed to treat the various syndromes that cause insomnia. Often treatment is aimed to regulate the movement of Qi and restore harmony within the key internal organs (including the Heart) as well as the balance between the cooling and the warming energies (the Yin and Yang) in the body in order to calm the mind and relieve insomnia.
Chinese herbal medicine (CHM), originating from ancient China, has been used to treat insomnia for >2000 years in China. Preclinical studies have shown that some Chinese herbal formulae or single herbal ingredients have sedative–hypnotic functions, which is mediated by the gamma-aminobutyric acid-ergic (GABAergic) system.
A large review study, the effectiveness of Chinese herbal medicine for treatment of Insomnia was measured. This review included seventy-nine RCTs (randomized control trials) with 7886 participants and measured the effectiveness of 66 different herbal formula. This systematic review and meta-analysis showed that CHM (Chinese Herbal Medicine) was superior to placebo and BZDs (benzodiazepine) when used as a monotherapy and was superior to BZDs and psychotherapy alone as an adjunct therapy in terms of subjective sleep quality and quantity and safety. CHM was not associated with more benefit than non-BZDs, although the risks were less.