Chinese researchers from the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture at the General Hospital of the Peoples Liberation Army in Beijing recently conducted a study exploring the effectiveness of auricular acupuncture therapy (AAT) for insomnia.  Auricular acupuncture is one of a number of microsystems in the body where you can treat conditions anywhere in the body and across body systems with points in a single area - in this case the ear.

A number of studies and years of clinical evidence have shown that auricular acupuncture can be used to treat a variety of psychological conditions.  One notable protocal, the NADA protocol, is used widely and successfully to aid in the treatment of drug and alcohol addictions.

In this study Chinese researchers recruited 125 patients, 63 were placed in a treatment group and 62 in a sham acupuncture treatment group.  Improvement in insomnia was measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).

As we see clinically, the study found significant improvement in the quantity and quality of sleep within the treatment group.  Between the treatment group and the sham group there were significant differences except for a parameter similar to simple relaxation.  Studies like this are clinically useful but also further illustrate that acupuncture creates deeper changes than a simple placebo effect.