Objective To observe the effect of "Tranquilization Needling" (TN) and acupuncture of "Eight Confluence Acupoints" (ECA) on Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) in patients with insomnia of the deficiency type of both heart and spleen. Methods A total of 60 insomnia patients with the deficiency of both heart and spleen were randomly divided into TN group and ECA group. For patients of TN group

Sishencong (EX-HN 1)

Shenmen (HT 7) and Sanyinjiao (SP 6) were punctured

and for those of ECA group

Shenmai (BL 62) and Zhaohai (KI 6) were punctured

once daily for 40 sessions. The PSQI score was used to assess the changes of the patients' sleeping quality. Results After the treatment

of the two 30 cases of TN group and ECA group

12 (40.0%) and 7 (23.3%) were cured

11 (36.7%) and 10 (33.3%) experienced marked improvement

5 (16.6%) and 8 (26.7%) had an improvement

and 2 (6.7%) and 5 (16.7%) failed

with the total effective rates being 93.3% and 83.3% respectively. The effective rate of TN group was significantly higher than that of ECA group (P<0.05). Self-comparison showed that PSQI scores of the sleeping quality

ramp duration

sleep efficiency and the total PSQI score in these two groups all declined significantly after the treatment (P<0.05

P<0.01)

and the scores of ramp duration and the total PSQI score of TN group were evidently lower than those of ECA group (P<0.05). After the treatment

the integrative scores of symptoms of two groups both decreased significantly (P<0.01)

and the integrative score of TN group was remarkably lower than that of ECA group (P<0.05). Conclusion Both TN and acupuncture of ECA can effectively improve insomnia patients' clinical symptoms

and the therapeutic effect of TN is more effective than that of ECA in shortening ramp duration and the total PSQI score.