If you’ve reached menopause and just can’t sleep like you used to, you might want to learn about a special spot on your body. No, not that one. It’s the Sanyinjiao acupoint, or Spleen 6 — a small area just above the ankle on the inside of the leg. New research suggests that for women with menopause-related sleep problems, acupuncture, particularly on that point, may offer relief.
Among the myriad discomforts that afflict menopausal women, sleep problems may not get as much attention as hot flashes. But all manner of sleep disturbances — from waking up at the crack of dawn unable to fall back asleep to full blown insomnia — are pervasive among this demographic.
Researchers report that the prevalence of menopause-related sleep disturbances ranges from 8.4 to 56.6 percent. Estrogen deficiency contributes to the problem; nocturnal hot flashes are also sometimes a factor.
In the new review, a meta-analysis of more than 30 clinical trials involving 2,433 participants published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, researchers in China found a “substantial association” between acupuncture and improved sleep in peri-menopausal and post-menopausal women. Specifically, the researchers say they demonstrated “that the association of reduction in menopause-related sleep disturbance and acupuncture was correlated with changes in serum estradiol levels particularly when the Sanyinjiao acupoint was stimulated.” (Estradiol is the estrogen mostly produced from the ovaries, and can also be used to treat peri-menopausal symptoms.)
The researchers theorize that the elevated serum estradiol levels may be the key to why acupuncture could help alleviate the sleep disturbances.
There are caveats: the researchers report an association only between acupuncture and a decrease in sleep disturbances; also, sleep quality assessments were mostly based on patients perceptions; in addition, the researchers report that their analysis only looked at articles in English and Chinese, which might limit the generalizability of the review.