Ancient treatments for excessive sleepiness emphasized distant acupuncture points and kidney-related combinations to balance deficiency and excess across the body.
Researchers searched an encyclopaedia of traditional Chinese medicine for ancient records describing excessive sleepiness, extracted the cited sources and acupuncture points, and compiled their selection frequencies. They then used traditional Chinese medicine data-analysis software to identify commonly used points, point categories, recurring combinations, associations, and clusters.
The records most often used points associated with the kidney, alongside points on the large intestine, heart, stomach, and other channels. Analysis suggested that practitioners favoured distant points, especially transport, connecting, and meeting points, and combined them into prescriptions intended to strengthen deficiency, reduce excess, tailor treatment to symptom patterns and meridian involvement, and support whole-body regulation.
