It’s a Monday evening and I’m lying in a London spa, sandwiched between multiple layers of fluffy white towels. The lighting is low and soothing music is being piped into the room. I should feel relaxed, but my brain is thrumming with insistent messages that I’m in danger. After all, there are six needles currently sticking out of my head and neck.

No, I’m not trialling some gruesome new form of therapy or an experimental spa treatment. I’m midway through my first ever session of acupuncture, on a quest to finally, hopefully, get some sleep.

Most people think of acupuncture as a treatment for pain – NICE (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) currently recommends it as a NHS treatment option for chronic headaches or migraines. It is also commonly offered in private practices for the treatment of other ailments such as chronic pain, joint pain or dental pain.

However, the practice is renowned for having numerous mental health benefits, too, and is used to treat conditions such as insomnia, anxiety and depression. And as a chronic insomniac, I am hoping that a session of acupuncture will go some way to helping me finally get some sleep…

Can acupuncture really cure insomnia? I put the theory to the test