Does this scenario sound familiar to you: You are exhausted from a long day and you lay down to go to sleep, but instantly your mind starts racing and you start having a mental conversation with yourself?
Symptoms of Insomnia are
- Sleep onset or difficulty going to sleep
- Middle of the night, or waking and unable to go back to sleep right away
- Terminal or late insomnia, or waking in the very early morning and cannot return to sleep again
- Sleep with vivid and disruptive dreaming
- Inability to sleep, in general.
Unfortunately the common treatment for insomnia is pharmaceutically which can have some severe side effects or even dependency. All reasons to consider acupuncture as a natural alternative to the typical approach.
Acupuncture is a 3,000-year-old healing technique of Traditional Chinese Medicine. In 1997, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) documented and publicized acupuncture’s safety and efficacy for treating a wide range of conditions.
Traditional Chinese Medicine is based on an ancient philosophy that describes the universe, and the body, in terms of two opposing forces: yin and yang. When these forces are in balance, the body is healthy. Energy, called “qi” (pronounced “chee”) flows along specific pathways, called meridians, throughout the body. This constant flow of energy keeps the yin and yang forces balanced. However, if the flow of energy gets blocked, like water getting stuck behind a dam, the disruption can lead to pain, lack of function, or illness. Acupuncture therapy can release blocked qi in the body and stimulate function, evoking the body’s natural healing response through various physiological systems.
Acupuncture can be a very effective way to improve your sleep quality without the awful side effects. Each types of insomnia is its own unique energy imbalance in Chinese medicine. Each type of insomnia will never be treated in exactly the same way during acupuncture, each is related to a particular imbalance.
Insomnia symptoms are not cured with one trip to the acupuncturist. Fact is your practitioner will likely advise you to return for subsequent therapies a few times a week over the course of a period of time, depending upon the nature of your insomnia. Many patients report a calmness and relaxation they’ve not experienced in a long time while in an acupuncture session and others report an almost involuntary release of emotions.
