Insomnia

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Textbook Prescriptions Mental-Emotional

Essentials of Chinese Acupuncture (Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing Colleges of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 1980) — the standard prescriptions of the Chinese colleges.

Points

HT7 Shenmen bilateral

Yuan-Source of the Heart; calms the heart and spirit
PC6 Neiguan bilateral

Luo point of the Pericardium; settles the heart and mind
SP6 Sanyinjiao bilateral

Meeting point of the three leg yin channels; supports the calming effect
- Pregnancy: contraindicated

Needling Safety

Cited hazards for these points. Tick what applies to the patient to see the cautions that follow from it.

Treatment Principle

Calm the heart and settle the mind, mainly with Heart channel points.

Indications

Spleen deficiency with insufficient blood: hard to fall asleep, broken sleep, palpitations, poor memory, fatigue, poor appetite, sallow complexion, thin weak pulseHeart and kidney not communicating: irritable sleeplessness with dizziness, ringing ears, lumbar ache, and seminal emission or vaginal discharge, rapid weak pulseLiver fire rising: low mood, short temper, dream-filled sleep, headache, distending pain in the flanks, bitter taste, wiry pulseStomach disharmony: insomnia with epigastric fullness, abdominal distension, belching, full forceful pulse

Method

Technique follows the pattern: reinforcing with moxibustion for spleen and blood deficiency; even method for heart–kidney disharmony; reducing method for liver fire and for stomach disharmony.

⚠ Cautions

Screen for sleep apnoea, depression and medication or substance causes of chronic insomnia. SP6 is contraindicated in pregnancy. The back-shu add-ons (BL15, BL18, BL19, BL20, BL21) overlie the thorax: needle obliquely and shallowly to avoid pneumothorax.

About

The textbook's base prescription for insomnia, used for all four of its patterns with extra points added for each.

Rationale

HT7, the Source point of the Heart, PC6, the Luo point of the Pericardium, and SP6, where the three leg yin channels cross, are combined by the book to quiet the heart and calm the spirit whatever the underlying pattern.

Clinical Notes

Additions by pattern: spleen and blood deficiency, BL20 and BL15 (the spleen governs blood and the heart produces it) plus small moxa cones at SP1 for dream-disturbed sleep and waking with fright; heart–kidney disharmony, BL15, BL23 and KI3; rising liver fire, BL18, BL19 and GB12 to drain liver and gall bladder fire; stomach disharmony, BL21 and ST36 to help the stomach and relieve distension. The book also describes light tapping on Sishencong and the Huatuo Jiaji points, and an ear-acupuncture option.

Sources

Beijing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, et al. Essentials of Chinese Acupuncture. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1980. Chapter III, Insomnia, p. 348–350.

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