Effectiveness of Acupressure on Sleep Quality Among Inpatients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Weihong Ling, Chenxi Yang, Mu-Hsing Ho and 1 others
PMID 40049603WHAT IT FOUND
Acupressure significantly improved sleep quality in hospitalized adults compared with usual care and benzodiazepines.
The benefit was seen in both general wards and ICUs, whether self-administered or delivered by nurses, with only one minor skin infection reported.
Key findings
01Acupressure significantly improved sleep quality in inpatients compared with controls, including usual care, sham acupressure, and benzodiazepines.
02Sleep parameters including total sleep time, sleep efficiency, sleep onset latency, and wake after sleep onset all significantly improved.
03Only one adverse event was reported across the included studies, an ear skin infection in a single patient.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Most included trials had some concern for risk of bias, particularly in randomization and outcome measurement. Sleep quality was assessed almost entirely by self-report, which cannot be blinded in acupressure trials. Heterogeneity across studies was very high, and subgroup analyses included few trials in some categories. Publication bias was statistically significant, and the corrected effect size was smaller than the primary estimate. Only English and Chinese language articles were included, limiting generalizability. Adverse events were likely underreported because most trials did not systematically collect them.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest and no funding was reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the large pooled effect size as definitive evidence of efficacy. Publication bias was significant, most trials had risk-of-bias concerns, blinding was impossible, and the corrected effect after adjusting for missing studies was substantially smaller. The evidence supports trying acupressure as a low-risk adjunct, not replacing established sleep interventions.