I: Insomnia
Patient came into the clinic presenting with difficulty sleeping. The patient is a busy executive who also ran ultrathons. The patient complained of difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep for many years.
Upon questioning, we discovered that he had a very busy nighttime schedule and routine. We found out that after work, he would run for up to two hours and then work from home on his laptop and phone up to 10pm at night. We also uncovered that he drank fluids up until bedtime and he was waking up several times a night to urinate and had difficulty falling back asleep.
The goal of his acupuncture treatment was to balance the Liver and Stomach channels and to calm the Shen (mind).
After approximately a dozen treatments, the patient reported that he was sleeping more peacefully throughout the night and that it took him only a few minutes to fall back asleep when he got up in the middle of the night to urinate.
We advised him of a bedtime routine. We asked him to put away the electronics and his work by 9pm and to protect the hour, by relaxing before bedtime. We also asked him to limit his fluid intake to 9pm so that he may urinate fully before bedtime. He later noted that he purchased a white noise machine to focus on relaxation as he fell asleep. He now comes in bimonthly to monthly for maintenance only.