Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 8, 2025
Author Spotlight: Utilizing Traditional Chinese Acupuncture of the Ear to Improve Sleep Disorders
Published on: August 18, 2023
The efficacy of acupuncture in postoperative sleep quality: a literature review
Bijia Song1,2, Man Luo2, Junchao Zhu3
1Department of Anesthesiology, Beijing Friendship Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Purpose:
General anesthesia may affect the quality of postoperative sleep, especially after surgery on elderly patients. The decline of postoperative sleep quality may produce harmful effects on the postoperative recovery of patients. In this review, we summarized the efficacy and potential mechanism of acupuncture on postoperative sleep quality.
Methods:
We review the effect of general anesthesia on circadian sleep rhythm. In addition, to provide evidence about the impairment of decreased postoperative sleep quality, we also emphasize the mechanism of acupuncture alleviates factors that affect sleep quality after general anesthesia.
Results:
The application of acupuncture technology has been helpful to improve sleep quality and alleviate postoperative complications affecting postoperative sleep quality after general anesthesia.
Conclusion:
Acupuncture at different acupoints could effectively improve body's neurotransmitter levels and regulate biological clock genes through various mechanisms, and then improve postoperative sleep quality. Large-scale multi-center trials are needed to verify these findings.
