After another sleepless night, I found myself in an online forum where insomniacs shared their experiences.

Most suggestions felt useless - I'd tried them all.

But buried in one thread, I found something that opened my eyes: a discussion about acupressure - an ancient healing practice that's been helping people sleep naturally for thousands of years.

Unlike acupuncture which uses needles, acupressure uses gentle pressure on specific points throughout the body to activate your natural healing responses. What fascinated me was learning that your hands contain some of the most powerful pressure points in your entire body.

A major randomized controlled trial published in 2022, involving 200 participants with insomnia disorder, found compelling evidence for acupressure. The study showed that people who learned self-administered acupressure had "significantly greater improvement" in sleep quality compared to those who only received sleep education¹.

Additional research published in PMC - a systematic review and meta-analysis of 41 studies - confirmed that "acupressure can effectively regulate disturbances in the meridian system" and showed "significant increase in serum melatonin" in people receiving acupressure for primary insomnia⁴.

What fascinated me was learning that acupressure is "less time-intensive, low cost, and flexible to perform" compared to other treatments¹.

I asked myself: "Could this really be true?"

Sure enough, a comprehensive 2024 review published in Frontiers in Neurology confirmed that acupressure "has a favorable safety profile while substantially enhancing the sleep quality" and comes with "few adverse reactions and low costs"².

There's one particular point in the palm of your hand that may be effective for relaxation and sleep support. According to traditional Chinese medicine, stimulating this point may send signals to your brain that it's time to rest and prepare for sleep.

Recent clinical research confirms what ancient practitioners knew: acupressure points may connect to the parasympathetic nervous system — your body's "rest and digest" mode.

Multiple studies support this approach: A burn unit study found that acupressure significantly lowered sleep quality scores and reduced anxiety³. The 2022 randomized controlled trial specifically found that participants taught self-administered acupressure showed "significantly greater improvement" in sleep symptoms and "related daytime impairment and mood problems"¹.

Clinical research has also shown that acupuncture combined with supportive therapies achieved a "96.8% total effective rate" compared to pharmaceutical sleep medications⁵.

The research showed this approach was "feasible and effective" when taught through just a short training course¹.

I spent hours researching this approach.

With each study I found, it became clearer that this could be worth trying.