How to Combat Insomnia The Right Way

What you need to know

If you suffer from insomnia, there is hope! Give our office a call today at (425) 686-4498, to set-up your initial consultation to learn more about how we can help.

How to Combat Insomnia The Right Way

Did you know that up to 70 million Americans report insomnia? Insomnia can be defined as difficulty falling or staying asleep, frequent nighttime waking, or reduced sleep quality. There is also a close relationship with depression, anxiety, and stress and occurrence of sleep disturbance. In addition, those with insomnia also report more pain. Sleep is our foundation of health and regulating circadian rhythm is crucial for promoting health, decreasing pain and inflammation, and improving quality of life.

At Starting Point, the majority of patients coming to our clinic also report some sort of sleep disturbance in addition to their chronic pain. 80% of our patients also report insomnia. We have found that often the sleep piece is not addressed when the patient has explored other therapies. Dr. Heintze calls this the “Insomnia-Pain Cycle.” She has found that the key to helping resolve insomnia is to look at all aspects of the case. Is it the underlying pain condition that is leading to insomnia and/or is it something is causing the insomnia and the poor sleep quality is leading to increase in pain and inflammation. The key is to stop the Insomnia-Pain cycle by regulating the circadian rhythm and getting at the root cause (s) to achieve long-term success at combatting insomnia.

What do the studies say?

Most people have questions on exactly how acupuncture can help insomnia. Acupuncture is one of our most common tools we use to help treat insomnia. Here is what the recent studies say.

In a recent, 2022 study in the Journal of Pain Research, looked to see how acupuncture can help those with insomnia. The study found that because acupuncture can work through multi-level and multi-target pathways the benefits of using acupuncture can help improve not only insomnia but other symptoms. One way this study found that acupuncture worked as a modulating neurotransmitter, reduced oxidative stress, helped certain signaling pathways, and also worked to improve cellular reactions. Another study in the Journal Sleep Medicine, found that acupuncture, no matter what technique (electroacupuncture, auricular acupuncture, or manual acupuncture) showed improvement in insomnia.

How we differ:

At Starting Point, we are a speciality clinic using multiple therapies to help you achieve to your specific health goals. Not only do we use specific acupuncture protocols but we typically combine acupuncture with other therapies such as specific diet/nutrition plans, ATP Resonance BioTherapy™, and more, based on your specific case, history, and goals.