Acupressure for Chronic Insomnia in Adults With Chronic Low Back Pain

Insomnia is a significant health problem and is associated with increased mental health issues: It is estimated that 9% to 15% of the adult population suffers from chronic insomnia. These estimates are considerably higher in primary care where from 20% to 33% suffer from chronic insomnia. Insomnia adversely affects psychological, physical and occupational functioning and places a significant burden on society. Moreover, several cohort studies have found that people with insomnia have significantly higher absenteeism at work, report poor self-esteem, less job satisfaction, and less efficiency at work compared to good sleepers.

Acupressure is a TCM technique based on a philosophy similar to that of acupuncture (the placement and stimulation of very fine needles into acupuncture points). Acupressure involves placing physical pressure by fingers, thumb, elbow, or with the aid of various devices such as pencil erasers on different acupuncture points (acupoints). Depending on the date of the review and the inclusion criteria, e.g., searched in Chinese language databases, there are anywhere from 7^12 to 4^68 randomized clinical trials (RCT) of various types of acupuncture (inclusive of acupressure) for treating insomnia. Regardless of the review the conclusions are remarkably consistent. Mainly, that the majority of RCTs demonstrated that acupuncture was significantly more effective than BDZs, sleep hygiene counseling, no treatment and sham acupuncture for treating insomnia.

The investigators will attempt to prove that self-administered Relaxation Acupressure (RA) will result in improvements in measures of sleep quality and quantity, compared to Stimulating Acupressure (SA) and a wait list control (WL). Also, that they will be able to teach the acupressure points using a web-based application.

Participants will be randomized into 1 of 3 arms; RA, SA, or WL (standard of care). If randomized into one of the acupressure arms, the participants will view their appropriate acupressure training lesson online and be tested on their understanding. They will also be asked to perform their acupoints once per day for a total of 6 weeks.