ABSTRACT
Insomnia, a common
sleep disorder, affects general well-being, hastens the onset of other
diseases, and impairs work performance. Hypnotic medications are efficacious in
the short term but have obvious side effects. Acupuncture, often used to treat
insomnia in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), is considered to be beneficial
in restoring the normal sleep-wake cycle by regulating and restoring the
natural flow of qi (energy power).
The three main TCM theories for treating insomnia by acupuncture are the
tranquilization disturbance, zangfu disturbance (disequilibrium of internal organs), and imbalance of yin and yang theories. Moxibustion, another treatment for insomnia, is
usually combined with acupuncture. Acupuncture and moxibustion with tuina (exercise massage), acupuncture with Chinese herbal
injection, electroacupuncture, and acupuncture with medication or psychotherapy
are other interventions. Some acupuncture-based methods such as needle-rolling
acupuncture, auricular acupoint plaster therapy, phlebotomy, and acupoint
catgut-embedding therapy are used as well. Although most clinical trials have
shown that acupuncture and its combination therapies are significantly
effective in insomnia, the beneficial effects may have been overvalued, because
of small sample size, nonstrict inclusion and exclusion criteria, flawed
methodology, short follow-up, or nonstandardized evaluation. Therefore,
clinical studies of high methodological quality are needed to verify the
efficacy of acupuncture, moxibustion, and other combination therapies in insomnia.