insomnia

Insomnia is more than just not getting a good night’s rest, it’s something that affects your everyday life. Without sleep you are more likely to have mood swings or feel like you don’t have the energy to get through your day and complete important tasks with the attention they deserve. At Gotham Holistic Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine, we help our NYC patients with chronic and occasional insomnia to fall asleep easier, stay asleep longer, get better quality sleep, and feel more energized and alert during the day.

What Is Insomnia?

Insomnia is a sleep disorder that affects the way you sleep. Having this disorder can make it hard to fall asleep, stay asleep, or cause you wake up early and not be able to get back to sleep. Those with insomnia often have low energy and unpredictable moods which can affect your work performance and quality of life. Stress and trauma can trigger insomnia for a few days or weeks, and it can persist and become a chronic problem. The amount of sleep a person needs varies, but most people with insomnia know that they have a problem because it’s bothersome and causes them to feel tired during the day. Some signs and symptoms that point to insomnia include:

Secondary Complaints Related to Insomnia

The most obvious symptom of insomnia is feeling tired during the day but there are a number of secondary complaints that can go along with insomnia. The body carries out a number of important functions during sleep that keep us healthy and feeling well. When we don’t get enough sleep this can impact our health in adverse ways. Some of the symptoms that we see in our insomnia patients include:

Why It’s Important To Treat Insomnia 

Insomnia can be insidious, and for many people it’s something they’ve tried to learn to live with or just hoped that it would go away on its own. Losing sleep alone also takes its toll on our health over time. Unfortunately, there are also a number of health problems that result from, or are worsened, by insomnia. For example, chronic pain issues can flare-up and anxiety and depression can worsen with lack of sleep. Getting effective treatment is an important investment in your health.

How Can Acupuncture Help With Insomnia?

Acupuncture sessions can help to improve sleep quality, quantity, and improve daytime alertness and reduce anxiety.^1,2 Treatment works by addressing subtle imbalances in the body using the principles of Chinese medicine. Signs and symptoms that are irrelevant in Western medicine are used in Chinese medicine to determine your internal “pattern” which helps to guide your personalized treatment. In addition to directly addressing insomnia, we also treat any chronic pain conditions that may be keeping you up at night and ease secondary symptoms of insomnia.

How Many Acupuncture Treatments are Need for Insomnia?

Acupuncture has been used as a treatment for insomnia for centuries. Acupuncture is an effective treatment for many cases of both short-term and long-term insomnia. While there is no one definitive answer to the question of how many acupuncture treatments are needed for insomnia, as a general rule of thumb, more chronic cases will require a longer course of treatment, while more recent onset cases may require less treatment. During your initial consultation your acupuncturist will consider your health history and current state of health to determine the best treatment plan for you.

Acupuncture works by balancing the body's energy, or in western terms by regulating the nervous system. In some cases Chinese herbs may also be prescribed. For many, body pain or anxiety and stress play a role in insomnia and those issues will be addressed as part of a holistic approach. Each individual is unique and will require a customized approach for the best results. If you're looking for an alternative to conventional medicine for your insomnia, acupuncture may be worth considering.

Get Restful Sleep With Acupuncture at Gotham Holistic Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine

Are you having trouble sleeping and ready to sleep better with a drug-free solution? We’ve helped many of our patients with insomnia to sleep better and feel more refreshed throughout the day and we’d love to help you! To get started, schedule your appointment online to meet with our licensed NYC acupuncturist about how acupuncture can help fight insomnia.

Sources

1. Guo J, Wang LP, Liu CZ, Zhang J, Wang GL, Yi JH, Cheng JL. Efficacy of acupuncture for primary insomnia: a randomized controlled clinical trial. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2013;2013:163850. doi: 10.1155/2013/163850. Epub 2013 Sep 18. PMID: 24159338; PMCID: PMC3789397.
2. Yin X, Gou M, Xu J, Dong B, Yin P, Masquelin F, Wu J, Lao L, Xu S. Efficacy and safety of acupuncture treatment on primary insomnia: a randomized controlled trial. Sleep Med. 2017 Sep;37:193-200. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2017.02.012. Epub 2017 Mar 8. PMID: 28899535.