Acupuncture may improve sleep and menopausal symptoms more effectively than sham treatment or usual care, although confidence in the evidence varies.
Researchers systematically searched multiple medical databases for randomized controlled trials evaluating acupuncture for insomnia during menopause. They assessed study quality using established risk-of-bias methods and combined findings across eligible trials to compare acupuncture with sham acupuncture, usual care including sedative medications or menopausal hormone therapy, combined treatment, and waiting-list control.
Higher-quality sham-controlled studies indicated that acupuncture improved sleep quality, total sleep time, sleep efficiency, and wakefulness after sleep onset, with benefits persisting after treatment. Comparisons with usual care also suggested improvements in sleep, menopausal symptoms, depression, and anxiety, while combining acupuncture with usual care appeared more beneficial for sleep than usual care alone. However, variation in study methods and generally limited study quality reduced certainty in these findings.
