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This randomised controlled trial investigated whether acupuncture could help patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment who also experience sleep difficulties. Amnestic mild cognitive impairment is a condition involving noticeable memory problems that may represent an early stage of dementia. Thirty patients were randomly assigned to receive either genuine (verum) acupuncture or sham acupuncture over twelve weeks, and fifteen healthy volunteers were included for comparison. Outcomes were measured using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment for cognition, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index for sleep quality, and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain activity.
At the start of the study, patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment showed abnormal brain activity in the temporal, frontal, parietal, and cerebellar regions compared with healthy controls. After twelve weeks, patients receiving genuine acupuncture showed significant improvements in both cognitive and sleep scores, whereas the sham acupuncture group did not. Neuroimaging revealed that genuine acupuncture produced measurable changes in brain activity within the left calcarine sulcus and the cerebellar vermis. These brain changes correlated with improvements in cognitive scores, and cognitive improvements were themselves negatively correlated with improvements in sleep quality, suggesting the two are interlinked.
Conclusion: Acupuncture appears to effectively improve both sleep quality and cognitive function in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment, possibly by modulating brain-cerebellar circuitry.
Source: Qiu D, Li R, Yang J and colleagues. Frontiers in neurology (2026). View on PubMed (PMID 42903032) · doi:10.3389/fneur.2026.1913478
