Acupuncture for insomnia: a scoping review of clinical studies

The use of complementary medicine in the treatment of sleep disorders has been increasing and the insomnia is one of the most common sleep disorders in modern society. The aim of this scoping review was to map the literature on the use of acupuncture for insomnia treatment. This scope review was prepared according to the 5 steps of the methodology proposed by Arksey and O'Malley (2015) and was registered in the Open Science Framework. The following databases were searched: PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science and Cochrane Library. Studies that evaluated the use of acupuncture in insomnia treatment, published in peer-reviewed journals, were included. The bibliographic survey was carried out between November and December 2023 and 21 studies were selected for inclusion in the analysis. The review demonstrated that acupuncture is a safe and effective alternative for treating insomnia, with fewer side effects compared to pharmaceutical methods.