Acupressure Therapy For Insomnia

Insomnia is a condition wherein a person is unable to fall asleep or she/he fails to get an uninterrupted sound sleep. Insomnia can be a disease in itself or it can be a symptom of an underlying health disorder. Insomnia can affect people of all age groups especially the aged persons.

Insomnia is caused by various physical and psychological factors. Physical factors include obesity, fatigue, excessive consumption of caffeinated beverages, irregular working hours or too much partying. Psychological factors are increased stress, depression, an emotional set back such as loss of loved one or increased level of anxiety. Insomnia also occurs in menopausal women due to hormonal changes in the body.

Insomnia can affect your daily life activities and it reduces your productivity at work. You feel lethargic throughout the day. It may also cause irritation and headache.

A person suffering from insomnia tends to pop a sleep inducing medicine to treat the problem. But a tranquilizer is not the treatment and it is only a temporary mode for getting a few hours sleep. Sleep inducing medicines are habit forming and you have to keep increasing the dose as your body stops responding to the particular amount of medicine after some time.

Acupressure therapy is an effective way to treat insomnia. It is an alternative Chinese Therapy. Acupressure is scientifically based on the principle of applying pressure on various points in the body called Acupoints. Pressing acupressure points located on the pathways on the nervous system help to stimulate the flow of energy in the body, and in turn help to treat various types of ailments. Acupressure is considered safe and it does not cause any side effects. You should visit a qualified Acupressure Therapist for the treatment.

Acupressure for Insomnia

How Acupressure Works to Treat Insomnia

According to Chinese belief when your body’s life energy called Qi (chi) is not flowing properly in the body, you fall ill. When the normal flow of life energy is restored by Acupressure therapy, the disease is cured.

There are two pressure points, namely The Spirit Gate and The Inner Gate to treat insomnia by Acupressure. These points are located in the inside of your wrist. Pressure on these points helps to calm the mind, reduce anxiety and regulate heart beat. It promotes the flow of life energy and induces sleep. You can use pressure on any of the two Acupoints to sleep soundly. You can press the Acupoints if you wake up in the middle of the night to resume your sleep.

Tips to Practice Acupressure for Insomnia

You can learn the techniques of simple acupressure from an expert and use it to treat Insomnia.

Acupressure should not be done immediately after meals. You should do it after 1-2 hours after meals.

Create a warm and comfortable ambience in your room before going to bed. If you are doing Acupressure yourself, you should do it with a relaxed mind.

Apply pressure on Acupoints with your fingers. The duration of the pressure should be between 30 seconds to 2 minutes.

Any tenderness in the pressure point indicates that the energy is blocked. The tenderness will go away as you keep on practising Acupressure for Insomnia.