Can't Sleep? Or What You Should Know About Your Ears

Auricular acupuncture, or ear acupuncture, may be effective for treating insomnia, according to a study published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. In the study, researchers collected data from six randomized, controlled trials. All six were conducted in mainland China or Hong Kong. Five were in Chinese and one was in English. Out of 673 participants, 402 were treated with auricular acupuncture. Four of the trials used western medication for the control groups, one used routine unit care, and another used sham auricular acupuncture.

According to the study, those who received auricular acupuncture recorded better improvement than those in the control groups. Additionally, auricular acupuncture produced better recovery from insomnia than diazepam. Auricular acupuncture was preferred over the control interventions for increasing duration of sleep up to six hours per night, for remaining asleep during the night, and for feeling refreshed upon waking.

Diazepam is a drug commonly used for treating anxiety, insomnia, seizures, and alcohol withdrawal. It was first marketed under the trademark Valium.

Due to the lack of follow-up information, no conclusions were made regarding the effectiveness of long-term treatment of insomnia with auricular acupuncture. Also, due to a lack of information on adverse effects, no conclusions were made with regard to the safety of using auricular acupuncture for treating insomnia.

Insomnia is a common disorder characterized by a difficulty in falling asleep, or staying asleep, and is often associated with functional impairment while awake. Daytime functional impairment from insomnia includes drowsiness, irritability, depression, and occupational impairment.

According to a World Health Organization study, 16% of respondents had difficulty falling asleep and 25% of respondents either had difficulty remaining asleep or woke up too early. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, approximately 60 million Americans suffer from insomnia, affecting about 40% of women and 30% of men.

Article source: http://www.naturalnews.com/022711.html

Meet Three Sorts of Insomniacs

Insomnia is a symptom. Perhaps you have heard somebody say, "I am tortured by insomnia," or perhaps you have said it yourself. Okey, we all know that insomnia means that you can't sleep at night. But maybe you don't know that insomnia can be of different kinds, and all insomniacs can be basically devided into three sorts. Among them are:

1. Chronic Insomniacs. This sort of people suffer from insomnia more that a month. Insomnia can occur every night or most nights or just several nights each and every month. Generally some medical problem leads to this type of insomnia. The medical problem needs to be discovered and tproperly reated, and the insomnia can be gradually eased and eliminated completely.
   
2. Transient Insomniacs. Those who suffer from insomnia a night or two can be called transient insomniacs. Usually transient insomnia is resulted from temporary stress, excitement or some emotional strain. Sickness, some physical or mental disorder, jet lag or a change in the regular sleep schedule can lead to occurence of this kind of insomnia.
   
3. Short-Term Insomniacs. Short-term insomniacs usually suffer from insomnia up to three weeks. Therefore, your health care provider will ask you how long you have had poor sleep or no sleep at all. Short-term insomnia often occurs because of the death of a loved one, a divorce, anticipation of something significant to happen, financial problems, a job change, etc. Short-term insomnia needs to be treated in time or it can develop into chronic insomnia. In some cases the short-term use of sleeping pills or of herbs that provide relaxation can be of help.
   

Once again, transient or short-term insomnianc can improve when the stressful situation is gone. Chronic insomniacs can be alleviated when the medical cause is properly diagnosed and treated. As I have said in the very beginning, insomnia is not a disease, but rather a symptom. It is better to treat the cause rather than the symptom.