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Treating Insomnia With Traditional Oriental Medicine
Sleep is a vital component of every person’s overall health and well-being. However, according to various medical reports, there are many people who experience sleep trouble and disorders, such as insomnia. Insomnia causes many other health issues such as headaches, muscle soreness, heart disease, stomach discomfort, and tiredness. As a result, people who suffer from insomnia experience a lot of other health disorders and fail to manage their own health by themselves.
So how can you deal with the nightmare of insomnia? There are several ways to treat it, but this article will focus on treating insomnia with traditional oriental treatments, like acupuncture.
The first step of insomnia treatment is to make sure that your sleep problem is not caused by other health issues, such as cancer, pain disorders, or medication. Then, you have to check your sleeping. There are four types of insomnia: sleep-onset, sleep-maintenance, mixed, and paradoxical. Sleep-onset insomnia is when you cannot fall asleep; sleep-maintenance insomnia is when you can fall asleep but have trouble staying asleep; mixed insomnia is when you have both sleep-onset and sleep-maintenance issues; paradoxical insomnia is when you feel like you sleep a lot less than you actually do.
The next step is to begin treatment. The first treatment the patient can try is self–home care. If you have trouble falling asleep avoid eating 2-3 hours before going to bed and try meditation. If you have problems staying asleep because of the temperature, you can change the bed conditions to either keep you cooler or warmer.
After several weeks of unsuccessful self-home care, it is time to visit your primary doctor or sleep specialist to start professional care for your insomnia. They will perform a physical exam related to your sleep disorder and prescribe medication, behavior therapy, or other treatments. Unfortunately, a lot of patients claim that these kinds of medical treatments do not work or work much less than they expected. That’s why many insomnia patients give up hope and continue to suffer from insomnia.
Luckily, acupuncture and other traditional oriental treatments are effective for sleep disorders and have wonderful results for those patients. Many patients state that their sleeping is much better and they are able to stop taking medications before going to bed.
Traditional oriental medicine has several kinds of treatment plans for insomnia:
- Acupuncture – the main acupuncture points for insomnia are located near the feet and head.
- Cupping – relaxes the muscles and whole body, calming the nerve system.
- Moxibustion – warms the body and helps blood circulation.
- Herbs – balance your body with herbal medication.
These treatments, alone or combined, are effective ways to treat sleep disorders. Acupuncture combined with cupping treatment usually helps patients have good night sleep, and it works well after 2-3 appointments. However, have 2-3 months of treatments are recommended to fix sleep problems.
Do not give up – fix your sleep disorder. Sleeping is very important to your health, and not getting enough sleep can lead to illness.
