Acupuncture May Help Anxious Insomniacs Relax 

The authors assessed the response to acupuncture of 18 anxious adult subjects who complained of insomnia in an open prepost clinical trial study. After five weeks acupuncture treatment they found a significant nocturnal increase in endogenous melatonin secretion and significant improvements in polysomnographic measures of sleep onset latency, arousal index, total sleep time and sleep efficiency. They also found significant reductions in state and trait anxiety scores. These objective findings are consistent with clinical reports of acupuncture's relaxant effects. Acupuncture treatment may be of value for some categories of anxious patients with insomnia.

Spence DW, et al. Acupuncture increases nocturnal melatonin secretion and reduces insomnia and anxiety: a preliminary report. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences 16(1):19-28.