Acupuncture for Insomnia / Trouble Sleeping

"I began having acupuncture with Stephen following a serious car accident on the motorway. I had completely lost my confidence and was suffering from disrupted sleep patterns. Stephen takes a 'whole person' view of the problem and treats you accordingly. He is a very kind and caring person, who listens carefully and gets to the heart of the matter quickly and effectively. I would definitely recommend acupuncture with Stephen, as he helped me to get my life back on track." Mrs G - Norwich

Many people experience odd phases of not sleeping well, usually in response to a short-term stress or problem. As the problem goes, so a normal sleep pattern resumes.

Sometimes, people may become generally stressed due to a whole host of reasons, and the first sign that this may be affecting their health can be found in a pattern of troubled sleeping. Typically, they get to sleep relatively easily, but then awake in the early hours between 2-5am, and then are unable to get back to sleep. Indeed, as soon s their eyes open, they feel wide awake and have trouble feeling tired enough to fall back to sleep – instead it is usual for their minds to begin to think about various things, which go endlessly go on and on, and around and around different subjects.

If this is the limit of the symptoms, acupuncture is usually very effective at relaxing the nervous system readily enough for a normal sleeping pattern to re-establish itself – I usually allow 3-4 treatments for this to happen.

If sleeplessness becomes a chronic problem, where it becomes the norm, it can develop into insomnia. It can become difficult to either get off to sleep, or again – as above, sleep is disturbed in the small hours with difficulty getting back of again.

I usually enjoy good success in helping to ease insomnia, especially in milder cases where 4-8 treatments is often enough, but more difficult chronic cases of longer duration and stronger symptoms will usually require a longer course of treatment. Usually 6-12 will be necessary. But as a guide, benefits should be apparent by the 4th treatment if the therapy is to work.