Today’s fast paced world is stressful enough even on a full night’s rest, but getting less than seven or eight hours of sleep can impede a person from fully functioning.
Not getting enough sleep can affect more than just your daily performance, it can also compromise your long-term health. Sleep deprivation adversely affects a number of vital organs (including your heart and lungs) and can have an impact on your mental health. Lack of sleep can lead to or increase the chances of suffering depression or developing substance abuse problems.
While some of us simply don’t go to bed early enough, many people cannot get enough rest no matter how hard they try. Insomnia afflicts 60 million Americans each year and about 10 million Americans use sleep aids, including prescription drugs, to try and get the sleep they need.
Acupuncture has been shown to be an effective treatment for insomnia – even more effective than medications and without any of the nasty side effects. Acupuncture aims to restore what has become a broken sleep cycle. There are often underlying factors that lead to insomnia, which acupuncture also addresses. Your daytime energy will increase, because your need for medication decreases. An acupuncture session leaves you feeling relaxed and restored, whereas medication can make you feel drowsy.
Acupuncture can also be combined with herbal remedies to achieve maximum effectiveness. Chinese medicine is prescribed according to health pattern rather than symptom, so it’s important to consult your acupuncturist regarding herbs. Some are strong and can interact with one another differently, so it’s important to exercise the utmost caution before ingesting Chinese herbal medicine.
No matter what course of treatment you decide is right for you, it’s important to attend to your insomnia, because the consequences of doing without sleep are longer-lasting and farther reaching than you make think.
