ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Sleep Disorders
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Advance on Sleep Disorder: Mechanisms and InterventionsView all 17 articles
Effects of Auricular Acupressure on Polysomnography-Assessed Sleep, Blood Glucose, and Stress in Elderly Patients with Type 2 Diabetes and Insomnia : A Randomized Controlled Trial
Provisionally accepted
- Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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Objective: Elderly patients with type 2 diabetes frequently experience stress and sleep disorders, leading to poor glycemic control. Auricular acupressure, a non-pharmacological intervention, shows potential for improving blood glucose and sleep quality. This study aimed to comprehensively evaluate the combined effects of auricular acupressure on blood glucose, sleep, and stress, using objective measures. Methods: A randomized, single-blind, sham-controlled trial included 44 elderly individuals (65–85 years old) with type 2 diabetes and insomnia (PSQI ≥ 5). Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention or sham control group. The 8-week intervention involved specific therapeutic ear points. Sleep quality was assessed subjectively (PSQI) and objectively (polysomnography); postprandial blood glucose, weekly; and stress levels, via questionnaires (PSS, DASS-21) and brainwave analysis (EEG). Data underwent statistical analysis. Results: The intervention group demonstrated significant improvements in objective sleep measures. Specifically, deep sleep duration (SWS) significantly increased by 12.64% (|t|=2.585,p=0.001), and sleep efficiency (SE) showed significant differences (|t|=2.354,p=0.019). Postprandial blood glucose levels significantly decreased in the intervention group (F=4.73,p=0.032), while increasing in the sham control group. Objective stress indices from EEG also improved, with physical stress decreasing (left brain |t|=4.608,p<0.001; right brain |t|=5.539,p<0.001) and stress resistance increasing (left brain |t|=3.696,p<0.001; right brain |t| =3.771,p<0.001). However, no significant differences were observed in subjective stress scores between groups. No adverse events were found in either group during the whole study. 2 This is a provisional file, not the final typeset article Conclusion: Auricular acupressure is an effective and safe non-pharmacological intervention for improving objective sleep quality, lowering postprandial blood glucose, and reducing physiological stress in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes and insomnia. Clinical trial registration: Registered with the Korean Clinical Trial Registry (KCT) on June 13, 2024, under registration number KCT0009524.
Keywords: Aged, Blood Glucose, Diabetes Mellitus, type 2, sleep disorder
Received: 31 Jul 2025; Accepted: 24 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Nam, Lee and Park. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hyojung Park, hyojungp@ewha.ac.kr
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