Effectiveness of Acupuncture and Acupressure for Improving the Sleep Quality of Menopausal Women: A Meta-Analysis.

Authors: Leila Eskandari, Afsaneh Keramat, Marzieh Rohani-RasafJournal: Iranian journal of medical sciencesPublished: April 14, 2025DOI: 10.30476/ijms.2024.102726.3586

Q2 JournalSJR: 0.519h-index: 35SCImago

Strong EvidenceMeta Analysis

Insomnia Menopause Symptoms

In Plain Language: sleep, explained

Researchers combined results from multiple studies to see whether acupuncture and acupressure could help menopausal women sleep better. This type of analysis pools data from many smaller studies to find stronger, more reliable answers about whether these treatments actually work.

Key Findings: what this meta-analysis found about sleep

✓A meta-analysis of multiple studies examined whether acupuncture and acupressure could improve sleep quality in menopausal women.
✓The researchers combined data from multiple smaller studies to achieve more reliable and statistically stronger conclusions about the effectiveness of these treatments.

What This Means for You

A meta-analysis suggests acupuncture and acupressure may help with menopausal sleep problems, but note that this research focuses on acupuncture/acupressure rather than reflexology specifically—related but distinct practices.

What This Means for Practitioners

While this meta-analysis supports acupuncture and acupressure for menopausal sleep issues, reflexologists should recognize these are separate modalities and refer clients to high-quality evidence specific to reflexology if claiming similar benefits.

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Sleep: common questions

What does this study say about sleep?

What did this study find?

A meta-analysis of multiple studies examined whether acupuncture and acupressure could improve sleep quality in menopausal women. The researchers combined data from multiple smaller studies to achieve more reliable and statistically stronger conclusions about the effectiveness of these treatments.

How strong is this evidence?

This is a meta-analysis and we rate its evidence strong. It was published in Iranian journal of medical sciences, a Q2 journal. This study is indexed here for context; it did not test reflexology itself.