Wenliang Liu, Gongying Li

Department of Psychological, Huai’an No.3 People’s Hospital, Huaian Second Clinical College of Xuzhou Medical University, Huaian, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Gongying Li, Sleep Medicine Center, Huai’an No.3 People’s Hospital, Huaian Second Clinical College of Xuzhou Medical University, No. 272, Huaihai West Road, Huaian, 223001, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-0517-83285124, Email ligongying2005@126.com

Abstract: Insomnia has become a serious public health problem. Because sedative-hypnotics may cause cognitive and psychomotor impairment, serious adverse events, and long-term dependence, it is still controversial whether sleep medications are the first choice for patients with insomnia. Cognitive-behavioral therapy for sleep is limited by poor access, high cost, and poor response in some patients. With the development of sleep neuroscience, physical therapy has shown its advantages in treating insomnia. It can not only avoid the adverse reactions of drugs, but also make up for the lack of standardization of sleep cognitive behavioral therapy. In particular, non-invasive nerve stimulation technology has been increasingly used in the clinical treatment of insomnia in recent years. However, the public lacks understanding of the technology type, principle and efficacy of this treatment strategy, and the research reviews are insufficient, which may limit the choice of insomnia treatment for sleep workers. Therefore, we reviewed the latest research on non-invasive neurostimulation techniques for insomnia in recent years, mainly focusing on virtual reality, biofeedback, transcranial magnetic stimulation, transcranial electrical stimulation, transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation and other novel neuromodulation techniques, with the aim of providing more options for insomnia treatment and looking forward to the future development of sleep science.

Keywords: insomnia, physiotherapy, non-invasive neurostimulation, review