Stress, Obesity, and Sleep disorders are the cursed trifecta of public healthcare in the 21st century. While the first two occupy the mainstream debate, sleeping disorders are not as talked about, and wrongly so. Sleep is the foundation of a good life. You can’t reduce stress or lose weight properly if your sleep hygiene isn’t great. While many people rely on sleeping pills to get through the night, there are natural ways to help you improve your sleep quality with no medications.
Did you know that acupressure can help improve sleep quality even to being as powerful as some drugs? Well, now you know.
In this post, you will learn how to use acupressure for sleeping, from the best body and ear acupressure points for sleeping to how to design a night routine that leverages them for the best sleep.
Stay tuned.
Table of Contents
Quick Overview of Insomnia
Insomnia is defined as the inability to fall asleep or stay asleep. In our modern world, it is almost ubiquitous to be or know someone with sleep problems. While insomnia itself needs to be properly diagnosed after a thorough examination, the truth is that sleep problems are everywhere.
Constant drinking of coffee, a stressful lifestyle, screens and blue lights, crooked sleep habits, and so on; all contribute to the epidemic of sleep problems we face.
Your body needs sleep to repair itself. It is during sleep when your brain declutters, several hormones that participate in recovery are secreted, inflammation is reduced, and metabolic wastes are removed from your brain and body, sleep is the cornerstone of good health.
You simply cannot out-diet or outexercise poor sleep.
Just even one night of poor sleep is enough to wreck your health, only you don’t notice it because it has been normalized to not having good sleep.
You shouldn’t need to be on coffee 24-7 to function, and this is one of the indicators your sleep health is off.
How TCM sees insomnia
Traditional Chinese Medicine is not foreign to this issue. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, insomnia is described as ‘Yang unable to enter the Yin’ meaning the active part of you is incapable of beginning to wind down (Yin).
Insomnia in TCM is caused mainly by Blood and Yin deficiencies, especially in the Heart.
A deficient Blood cannot properly nurture the Heart Shen thus making it anxious, jittery, and unable to relax.
A deficient Yin creates an apparent Excess Yang that stimulates the whole body without the ability to regulate it. This can be explained as a hyperactivity of the Sympathetic Nervous System (your fight-or-flight system) with the inability of the Parasympathetic Nervous System to regulate this activity and achieve homeostasis.
As a mnemonic:
- Trouble falling asleep: Deficient Heart Blood.
- Waking up in the night: Deficient Heart Yin.
Other patterns can also cause insomnia like a real Yang Excess, and Excessive Fire in the Zhang-Fu organs.
Luckily, Traditional Chinese Medicine arms you with a wonderful tool to treat these issues and help you fall asleep.
One of them is using Acupressure for Sleeping. Which has many benefits.
Why Use Acupressure for Sleeping
Acupressure leverages the knowledge of the Acupuncture meridians and points for achieving similar results while using your hands for it, making it a great tool to have in your possession.
But why use it? Is there any benefit of squeezing points through your body?
Yes, indeed. Knowing how to use acupressure for sleeping can be the best piece of knowledge you take home today. Now, let’s see some of the benefits and advantages of using acupressure for sleeping:
Non-pharmaceutical treatment
First and most evident is the lack of a need for pills. Sleeping pills are a complicated mess, getting the right dose, assessing the results, being aware of potential side effects, and analyzing if it’s suitable to take them if you are on other medication as well.
You can forget about all of that when using Acupressure.
There are no pills involved, just your hands and some specific points that will help you sleep better.
Safest to use
Building up from the previous point, this technique is the safest there is even compared to Acupuncture because there are no needles involved.
There is no such thing as an acupressure overdose, and your body tells you when you are going too far or too much with the stimulation.
This can be done at any time.
Another advantage of acupressure is the possibility to use it at any time. Many of the points used in acupressure for sleeping are also used to reduce stress and solve anxiety.
Next time you are feeling nervous, check out this post and use those points. You will see your anxiety fade.
Targets the root cause instead of the symptoms
Unlike in most Western medicine where the treatment focuses on symptoms, Acupressure also targets the root cause.
It energizes networks like the heart and the Pericardium that boost blood flow thus helping with solving disharmony, other points are directly tied to muscle tension like the Gallbladder 20 point.
What’s more, targeting the Gallbladder also helps soothe your Liver as the coupled organ, and your liver is in charge of managing the volume of circulating blood.
Points in the leg and feet boost the Kidney network helping tonify the Yin.
Highly effective
Acupressure and Acupuncture have both been shown evidence to be effective in treating sleep disorders with little to no side effects. Several research and meta-analyses show evidence for the effectiveness of this practice as a great choice for dealing with insomnia.
Now you know what are the advantages of using Acupressure for sleeping. But what does it do to your body?
What effects does acupressure have on you?
Let’s find out now.
Benefits of Acupressure for Sleeping
Increases sleep quality
The use of Acupressure and Acupuncture to treat insomnia has been linked to an improvement in the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score, a widely-used assessment of sleep quality developed by the University of Pittsburg. This score assesses several factors both objective and subjective about sleep quality and health. An improvement in the metrics recorded in this index is a reflection of better sleep quality.
Acupuncture and Acupressure show evidence of improving these metrics.
Increases sleep time
Among the sleep quality markers that Acupuncture and Acupressure helped improve was total sleep time. Acupressure has been shown to help you sleep more.
Reduces wakings in the night
The night is a Yin-dominated period which is impaired in insomnia. By using several acupressure points for sleep, the number of times you wake up during the night is reduced.
This is caused by energizing your Yin making it more capable of controlling Yang activity.
Another way to explain this is that Acupuncture and acupressure help your body release endorphins which then help you improve your Parasympathetic tone making it more able to control your Sympathetic System.
Reduces stress
Stress is a known aggressor when it comes to insomnia. Stress can be seen as a form of Excessive Yang. Stress creates a vicious cycle where poor sleep leads to higher cortisol secretion the next day because sleep deprivation is interpreted as a sign of danger by your body.
Then, high cortisol leads to maintained stress throughout the day and up until bedtime when you can’t sleep because you are stressed, leading to more sleep deprivation.
Acupressure is incredibly useful for reducing stress levels and dealing with anxiety, many of the points used in acupressure for sleeping are aimed at reducing your stress levels among other things.
Reduces muscle tension
One of the little-talked-about reasons for poor sleep and insomnia is muscle tension which is usually a sign of high stress maintained through time.
Muscle tension can cause many illnesses like TMJ disorders, bruxism, joint pain, and insomnia. The muscles of the neck and the nape are especially involved in this case.
Acupuncture and acupressure work directly with the muscles and painful points (Ah-Shi points) to relieve the tension and pain this collaborates to better sleep health,
Helps deal with cause-specific insomnia like depression and cancer-related insomnia
Some research has shown that Acupuncture and Acupressure can help not only overall insomnia but also treat cause-specific insomnia.
Let’s see some examples of research done on the topic.
Research Results
This study showed that the effects of Ear Acupressure on insomnia are similar to those of estazolam when dealing with cancer-related insomnia, and that the combination of both had even greater results.
Another study showed that acupuncture combined with medications increased total sleep rates, and improved several sleep quality metrics.
This study concluded that the combination of Ear acupuncture plus moxibustion or Acupuncture shows promising results and should be paid more attention in the treatment of cancer-related insomnia.
Now let’s get on to the main thing, what are those Acupressure points for sleeping you can use to relieve your insomnia…
Acupressure Points for Sleeping
For this case, you are going to choose from a variety of points located on your body and ear. These points are aimed at reducing stress, boosting your Heart, Blood, and Yin, as well as reducing muscle tension.
Here are the points:
Pericardium 6
The one of the main points for dealing with stress. Located on your forearm, 2 cun below your wrist crease between the two tendons.
You can tell you are in the right spot if when pressing, your fingers curl up.
Lung 9
This point is located in your wrist, on its radial side (your thumb side), in the space between the bones of the wrist and the first metacarpal bone, lateral to the radial artery.
Heart 7
This point is located in your wrist crease also, on the opposite side of Lung 9. Look for the space between the tip of your ulna and the fifth metacarpal bone.
Gallbladder 20
This point is especially good for reducing stress, improving blood flow to the brain, reducing muscle tension, and relieving pain. It is located in the back of your head, between the insertion points of the trapezius and sternocleidomastoideus muscles.
Look for the bony protuberance behind your ear and feel the muscle (look sideways if you can’t feel the muscle), that’s the sternocleidomastoideus, keep going towards the center of your nape and look for a depression that is formed. There is GB 20.
Baihui/Governor Vessel 20
This point is useful in dealing with all sorts of pain and anxiety issues, including insomnia.
Draw a straight line from the tip of your nose that goes through the centerline of your head backward. Then, draw another straight line connecting the tip of your ears.
Baihui is located at the exact spot where both lines connect.
Spleen 6
This point is related to your blood and is a great modulator of Blood-related issues. At this point converge the three-foot Yin meridians (Kidney, Spleen, and Liver). That’s why its name is Sanyinjiao (the gathering of the three Yin). By acting on this point you stimulate three meridians at the same time.
This point is located 3 cun above the tip of your inner ankle, right behind your shin.
Ear Shenmen
This point is located on the tip of the triangular fossa of your ear. This point has been shown to help reduce stress, improve sleep quality, and even help you with your weight loss journey.
You can stimulate it with your hands, using the tip of a pen, or with seeds planted on it.
Massaging your Ear
Not exactly a point but equally useful to help you relax and achieve a good night’s sleep. In Traditional Medicine, your ear is a Hologram. This means all of your body is reflected in this place.
Massaging your ear with a downward motion is great for promoting relaxation, boosting sleep quality, and even reducing Blood Pressure.
Give it a try!
Now let’s see an example of how to include these points in your daily self-care routine.
How to Design an Acupressure Routine for Sleeping
The use of Acupressure points for sleeping are intended to be used before going to bed as preparation. This will help your body to begin improving Blood flow and regulating the energetic systems that will lead to good sleep. Prevention is the best medicine.
You shouldn’t use them mainly when you are losing your sleep or can’t fall asleep, but they will be equally as effective at helping you fall asleep again.
Here is a sample routine with some of the points discussed earlier:
- Take a warm bath: Taking a warm shower helps your body reduce its core temperature which helps in the transition to sleep.
- Wear comfortable clothing: You shouldn’t wear tight clothing at night, it impedes the proper flow of lymph and blood thus disturbing your repairing processes.
- Sit in bed and breathe deeply: To prepare for a successful acupressure routine, take a couple of minutes to breathe deeply and calm yourself, this also helps to get your mind into doing the routine intentfully.
- Begin by using the Buddha triangle: Massage Pericardium 6, Lung 9, and Heart 7 by pressing and doing circular motions. Do this for about three minutes on each hand.
- Go for Shenmen: Then, go to your ear and start massaging Shenmen, press it firmly like you are taking a pill out of a blister. Do this for two minutes. You can also stimulate it by pressing firmly for 10 seconds and releasing it for another 10 seconds.
- Go for GB 20: After that, you are going to go to the back of your head and start stimulating Gallbladder 20. To stimulate this post apply constant pressure upwards, it may feel a little painful which indicates tension and Qi stagnation in there. Press for one minute then release for another. When you release it you will feel a sudden relief.
- Go to bed, and make sure the room is dark, almost pitch-black, and cool.
Pro Tip: If you are an afternoon napper you can use this trick to help with your sleep as well as with your memory and vision.
Check it out:
Take two tennis balls or two rubber balls, put them into a sock, and tie the sock leaving almost no space for the balls to separate. Then, lay down and put the sock with the balls inside in the nape just below the occipital, this stimulates GB 20 and it’s a good way to prepare your body for the night.
Final Remarks
While insomnia is a complicated issue, it still has a solution, and taking advantage of the benefits acupressure offers for sleeping is one of the best decisions to make.
You need consistency to see the real change in your sleep quality but it will be worth it.
If you combine these points with other sleep hygiene tips, you are well on your way to having the best sleep possible.
Comment what you think about these acupressure points for headaches and let me know.
Want me to write about a specific topic? Leave a comment below!
See you in the next post!
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