With National Sleep Awareness Week in mind (March 8-14th, didn't you know!) we thought to highlight the long-held use of acupuncture as a reliable tool to improve upon one's quantity and/or quality of sleep.
While there are plenty of studies to show how acupuncture treatments can help improve sleep - even as compared to medications, for the purposes of this post, we'd like to draw from our considerable observations at MAS clinics.
Along with reliable relief from physical pain, high stress and anxiety, improving one's sleep is among the most typical uses of acupuncture in our experience. So much so, insomnia sits on our list of no-brainer symptoms in our little Needles book.
In fact, unintended improvement in one's night of sleep is one of the more routine side-effects of acupuncture treatments.
Which is really great news considering the enormous number of people for whom a good night's sleep is frustratingly elusive. Even the Center for Disease Control has gone as far to call lack of sleep a 'public health epidemic'.
Whether trouble falling or staying asleep, caused by physical pain, endless thought-loops, hot flashes or sinus congestion, acupuncture will likely prove to be a helpful tool - and at MAS and other community acupuncture clinics, an affordable one.
Hot tip: Are your feet normally cold at night? If so, warming them up in bed may improve your sleep. We will often recommend a cheap and easy way to do this. Find yourself a hot water bottle (preferably with a soft fleece cover), fill it up (with hot water) just before bed and slide under your covers waaaay down at the foot of the bed. Your feet don't have to be touching it directly. That's it.
You'll probably want to be consistent with the hot water bottle for a few nights in order to give yourself a chance to see changes. We hope it helps.
Sleep, Precious Sleep.
- Posted By Andy Wegman
- Acupuncture Blog
