Auricular therapy using magnetic pearls on sleep: a standardized protocol for the elderly with insomnia

Abstract

Objective: To examine the effectiveness of a standardized protocol of auricular therapy using magnetic pearls administered for the elderly diagnosed as having insomnia of either ‘excessive’ or ‘deficiency’ in nature.

Design: Pre-test post-test design.

Setting: Twelve hostels for the elderly in Hong Kong.

Subjects: Sixty elderly participants of 60 or above who were all suffering from sleep disturbances provided the data for this study.

Interventions: Auricular therapy using magnetic pearls was administered to selected acupoints of the participants. The treatment protocol consisted of 3-day baseline measurement, 3-week auricular therapy, and 3-day post treatment monitoring.

Outcome measures: Objective sleep parameters using actigraphic monitoring were collected before, during and after the treatment protocol.

Results: Significant improvement in nocturnal sleep time (NST) (F_2,118 = 16.17,P < 0.001) and sleep efficiency (SE) (F_2,118 = 27.50, P < 0.001) could be found among participants during and after the therapy. No significant difference in the effect of the therapy in terms of SE could be observed between clients with ‘excessive’ and ‘deficiency’ syndrome even when the treatment protocol was standardized (t₅₈ = −0.41, P = 0.69).

Conclusion: A standardized protocol of auricular therapy using magnetic pearls for sleep improvement might be appropriate for the ageing population who are homogenous in terms of age and general health status.