In a randomized, single-blind study involving 44 women (between the ages of 22 and 56 years) experiencing insomnia, daily treatment with acupuncture for 3 days followed by treatment every three day for the next 11 days was found to significantly relieve insomnia (lowering the score on the Leeds Sleep Evaluation Questionnaire by 26 points).
Subjects were randomly assigned to receive either acupuncture or medication (estazolam) plus sham acupuncture. Acupuncture treatment consisted of needling the following abdominal acupuncture points: CV-17, CV-10, CV-4, CV-6, KI-17, ST-24, Xiafengshidian, and Qipang. Even after controlling for potentially confounding factors, the effects of acupuncture continued to be statistically significant.
The authors conclude, "Results indicate that short-term abdominal acupuncture is more effective than pharmacological treatment for relieving insomnia in adult women and has few adverse effects."
