Acupressure effect on sleep quality: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Alexander Waits, You-Ren Tang, Hao-Min Cheng, Chen-Jei Tai, Li-Yin Chien · Sleep Medicine Reviews · 2018 February

DOI 10.1016/j.smrv.2016.12.004

Objective

Following public health concerns about poor sleep quality and increasing interest in alternative treatments, a systematic review and a meta-analysis were designed to evaluate the effects of acupressure on the quality of sleep.

Conclusions

Based on data from four trials (n = 250), sleep latency and sleep duration were most affected. No adverse effects were reported in any of the reviewed trials. Within the limitations of clinical heterogeneity, the results showed that even fragile populations such as the elderly and dialysis patients can benefit from acupressure.

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Insights

The results showed that even fragile populations such as the elderly and dialysis patients can benefit from acupressure to improve sleep quality.

Thirty-two eligible randomized controlled trials of moderate to high quality which employed polysomnography, actigraphy, or self-assessment sleep quality tools were included. We conducted a meta-analysis using a random effects model with the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) as the primary outcome measure (968 adult patients, 13 trials) for trials investigating the effects of traditional Chinese medicine acupressure compared with standard and sham treatments. We performed subgroup analyses to detect sources of heterogeneity, identify the use of acupoints in different populations and explore the contributions of PSQI domains to the total score change. Comparison with the sham group (7 trials with 385 patients) yielded low heterogeneity and an overall effect of 13%–19% improvement in the PSQI score. Based on data from four trials (n = 250), sleep latency and sleep duration were most affected. No adverse effects were reported in any of the reviewed trials.