Finding the sweet spot: how long to stay?

Everyone asks how long they should stay for their acupuncture treatment. The short answer is “We recommend at least half an hour. The average patient stays 45 minutes to an hour.”

The longer answer is that different bodies have different needs at different times. Most people need more rest and stillness than they’re getting, and can therefore benefit from treatments longer than 30 minutes. (The longest someone ever slept on my shift was four hours. She’d suffered from years of insomnia. It was in my first year of practice; I went over and took a pulse at the three hour mark). 

Please note that it is not beneficial to force yourself to stay longer than 30 minutes if you’re getting antsy. Please allow us to disrupt any expectation that you grit your teeth and force yourself through the acupuncture experience. This clinic is a place where, ideally, you override the wants and needs of your body as little as possible. We’re going for ease and comfort here, because, as Pamela Samuelson says, “You cannot bully the body into healing.”

We do see some people who just need to get up after 20 minutes or less, and those include regular patients who report benefiting from acupuncture. Others find that if they listen to an audio book or guided meditation while they’re here, they happily stay much longer. We also see some people whose busy schedules only allow 30 minute treatments, need to be woken from a sound sleep each time their treatment is over. It’s sad to wake someone up when they obviously need more rest, but 30 minutes of deep rest is a lot better than none, and acupuncture can still be effective even when you interrupt a good nap.

Acupuncture creates positive change over time. Part of the practice of receiving acupuncture can be tuning in to listen to what your body wants on any given day, to find the sweet spot for you. That’s why, on days when you don’t have a strict time limit, I like to suggest that you just get my attention with a soft “ahem” when you decide you’re ready to have your needles removed. This lets you drift off and wake up on your body’s own schedule.