An Mian Peaceful Sleep

What does An Mian do?

An Mian is an extra point — it belongs to no channel, so it carries no channel-theory actions, and everything recorded below comes from documented clinical use rather than from channel mechanics. In that documented use it exists for one purpose above all others: to settle the mind and help a person sleep. Its name says exactly that, and it is the extra point most consistently named in the insomnia literature.

• Calms the spirit and promotes sleep — the defining documented use, and the reason the point was named and recorded at all. It is used for difficulty falling asleep, for broken sleep and for restlessness at night.
• Settles agitation and eases palpitations — recorded alongside insomnia; anxiety, restlessness and palpitations travel with it in the sources.
• Relieves headache, dizziness and tinnitus — the local uses, following from its position behind the ear.
• Used adjunctively in disordered mental states — the reference literature records it as a supporting point in mania, epilepsy and psychiatric presentations, always alongside other points rather than alone.
• Amenable to pressure as well as to needling — the point sits in a hollow a person can reach on themselves, and acupressure at An Mian is widely recorded, which is unusual among points whose leading use is a night-time complaint.

A correction worth stating plainly. An Mian is often described as "pacifying the Liver" or "subduing Liver yang". Those are channel and organ-theory phrases, and An Mian is on no channel — it is not a Liver-channel point, and it has no five-shu, yuan, luo, back-shu or front-mu classification. Our own earlier record carried that phrase and it has been removed. The point that carries the Liver's own regulating function is LIV-03 Tai Chong, the Source point of the Liver channel. What the sources actually document for An Mian is the clinical result — sleep improved, agitation settled — not a channel mechanism.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing action and indication record, corrected as described); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, extra points (p. 569); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 244); cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is An Mian used for?

An Mian is used first and foremost for insomnia. The indications carried in Sacred Lotus sources & references are insomnia, vertigo, headache, palpitations and mental disorders; the wider reference literature sets them out as follows.

• Insomnia — difficulty falling asleep, and waking through the night
• Restlessness and agitation at night
• Palpitations and anxiety
• Headache
• Dizziness and vertigo
• Tinnitus
• Mania and manic-depressive presentations (as a supporting point)
• Epilepsy (as a supporting point)
• Hypertension-type headache with restlessness

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing indication record); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, extra points (p. 569); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 244); cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

How is An Mian used in practice?

An Mian lies behind the ear, in the hollow midway between Feng Chi (GB-20) at the base of the skull and Yi Feng (SJ-17) in the notch just behind the earlobe. It is a modern empirical point — developed from observed clinical effect rather than derived from channel theory — and it is treated on both sides. It is almost never used alone; it is the point added to a sleep prescription, not the prescription itself.

Which points is An Mian combined with?

• With HT-07 Shen Men and SP-06 San Yin Jiao — the standard insomnia core, to which An Mian is added as the local head point. Worth knowing honestly: the best point-specific human evidence in this pairing found SP-06 doing more of the work than HT-07 (PMID 35880281), and no comparable study has isolated An Mian at all.
• With DU-20 Bai Hui and Si Shen Chong — the vertex points, for insomnia with dizziness or a sense of pressure in the head. Both are held in Sacred Lotus sources & references.
• With Yin Tang — the extra point at the glabella, the other principal calming extra point; the two are frequently used in the same treatment, An Mian behind and Yin Tang in front.
• With Shi Mian ("Lost Sleep") — the extra point at the centre of the heel, the other extra point named for insomnia. An Mian is the head point of the pair, Shi Mian the foot point, and they are commonly used together.
• With P-06 Nei Guan and BL-15 Xin Shu — added where palpitations and anxiety dominate the picture.
• With GB-20 Feng Chi and SJ-17 Yi Feng — its two locating neighbours, added for headache, dizziness and tinnitus rather than for sleep.

Is there more than one An Mian point?

Yes, and it is a genuine source of confusion. Older texts describe two points behind the ear, An Mian 1 and An Mian 2, sitting either side of the extra point Yi Ming — which Sacred Lotus sources & references hold separately, located one cun behind Yi Feng (SJ-17). Some clinical literature refers to "the three An Mian points" as a group covering that whole strip behind the ear. Modern practice has largely consolidated the two into a single An Mian at the midpoint between GB-20 and SJ-17, and that is the location our record carries.

Discrepancy noted: a 2026 randomised trial of this point treats An Mian I and An Mian II as two separate points, numbering them Ex-8 and Ex-9. Sacred Lotus sources & references hold a single An Mian at the midpoint between GB-20 and SJ-17, and we keep our location. The difference is one of numbering convention between older and modern schemes, not a disagreement about where the tender hollow behind the ear lies.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and existing use record; Yin Tang, Shi Mian, Si Shen Chong and Yi Ming records); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, extra points (p. 569); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 244); PubMed PMID 42131846, 35880281; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is An Mian located?

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 569): Behind the ear, midway between Fengchi (GB-20) and Yifeng (SJ-17).

How is An Mian needled in the textbooks?

Reference record only — this describes what the standard texts document, not instruction for a reader. Sacred Lotus sources & references record perpendicular insertion of 0.5 to 1 cun at An Mian. Acupressure at the point is also widely documented, and moxibustion is not a method the standard references apply here.

• Angle documented: perpendicular into the hollow behind the ear.
• Depth documented: approximately 0.5 to 1 cun.
• Moxibustion: not recorded as a standard method at this point.
• Pressure: documented; the point is within reach of a person's own fingertips, and acupressure is described in the reference literature.

Safety reference. An Mian lies over the mastoid region behind the ear, and the bone beneath it limits how deep a needle can travel — which is why the recorded depth range is short and why the point carries no cavity or organ hazard. Two things nonetheless bound it. First, the area is well supplied with superficial vessels and with the great auricular and lesser occipital nerves, so local bruising, tenderness and a radiating sensation toward the ear are the events recorded there. Second — and this is the one that matters — An Mian must not be conflated with GB-20 Feng Chi, its neighbour at the base of the skull. GB-20 sits over a soft gap below the occiput, where the reference literature records a real hazard from deep needling angled incorrectly toward the midline, and where the documented angle is directed toward the tip of the opposite eye or the opposite eyebrow for exactly that reason. An Mian sits further out, over bone, and does not share that gap — but a needle placed too far medially is no longer at An Mian. Standard clean-needle practice applies. Acupuncture is performed by qualified, licensed practitioners; this record documents the literature and is not a technique guide.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (existing needling record); Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, extra points (p. 569) and GB-20 (p. 442); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 244).

What does the name An Mian mean?

An Mian means "Peaceful Sleep" — an for peace, calm or settling, mian for sleep. It is one of the small group of point names that state their indication outright rather than describing a landmark or a channel image: the point was recorded because it was observed to help people sleep, and it was named for the result. Its counterpart at the other end of the body, Shi Mian ("Lost Sleep") at the centre of the heel, is named for the complaint rather than the cure — the two together bracket the insomnia extra points.

Is An Mian a channel point?

No. An Mian is an extra point, and a comparatively modern one — it does not appear in the classical channel canon and is recorded in the modern extra-point literature as an empirically developed point. Extra points sit outside the fourteen channels: they were recorded for an observed clinical effect rather than derived from channel theory, so they carry no five-shu, yuan, luo, xi-cleft, back-shu or front-mu classification. That is why our record shows no channel and no point categories, and why the actions above are framed as documented uses. Any description of An Mian "regulating" or "pacifying" a named organ or channel should be treated with caution; no channel runs through it.

Is there research on An Mian?

The honest answer is that point-specific evidence for An Mian is thin, and thinner than its reputation suggests. Almost all clinical trials of acupuncture for insomnia use multi-point protocols in which An Mian is one needle among many; those results describe the protocol, not this point, and are not cited here as though they did. What exists that is genuinely about the point is limited to the following.

• One randomised trial isolating the point. A 2026 randomised controlled trial in India allocated 100 patients with primary insomnia to ten daily sessions of acupuncture at An Mian I and An Mian II alone, or to no intervention, and reported significant improvement in the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Insomnia Severity Index and Epworth Sleepiness Scale in the treated group (Med Acupunct 2026;38(2):137–142, PMID 42131846, PMC13089264). The authors themselves note that no previous study had tested these points alone. That is the strength of the trial — and its control group received no treatment at all, so it cannot separate the effect of needling from the effect of attention, expectation and the passage of time in a condition strongly responsive to both.
• One add-on trial. A randomised trial in 60 patients compared a channel-point acupuncture protocol with the same protocol plus the three An Mian points, and reported a higher total effective rate and better sleep-quality scores when An Mian was added (Chin J Integr Med 2013;19(3):187–191, PMID 22903446). A 60-patient unblinded add-on trial is suggestive rather than conclusive.
• Preclinical mechanism. An early study recorded 23-hour EEG in rats after bilateral electroacupuncture at 'An Mian (extra)' and reported increased REM and slow-wave sleep, with the effect abolished by lesioning the caudal nucleus tractus solitarius and attenuated by a muscarinic blocker; stimulation of non-points produced no change (J Biomed Sci 2004;11(5):579–590, PMID 15316132). Animal sleep-architecture work does not transfer directly to human insomnia.
• Where An Mian ranks. A systematic review of point selection across 94 clinical studies of acupuncture for insomnia in older adults found the core points to be HT-07 Shen Men, SP-06 San Yin Jiao and ST-36 Zu San Li, with An Mian appearing on the frequency list but not among the core group (Arch Gerontol Geriatr 2024;127:105586, PMID 39096556).

Read together with the wider insomnia evidence — where a randomised trial comparing HT-07 alone, SP-06 alone and the two combined found SP-06 doing more of the work than HT-07 (PMID 35880281) — the picture is consistent: individual insomnia points have rarely been tested in isolation, and where they have been, the results have not always favoured the point with the biggest reputation. An Mian's standing rests on its name, on long empirical use, and on two small trials.

How does An Mian compare with nearby and similar points?

GB-20 Feng Chi lies medial to it at the base of the skull, on the Gall Bladder channel, and is the point for headache, dizziness and stiff neck — a channel point with quite different reach and a real depth caution. SJ-17 Yi Feng sits in the notch behind the earlobe and is the ear point of the group. Yi Ming, between them, is the extra point classically used for the eyes, though insomnia appears among its indications too. Away from the head, Shi Mian at the heel and HT-07 Shen Men at the wrist are the other points a reader searching for insomnia will meet. One further caution about names: the ear (auricular) point also called Shen Men is a different point on a different system, and research on auricular Shen Men says nothing about An Mian or about HT-07.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references; Deadman & Al-Khafaji, A Manual of Acupuncture, extra points (p. 569); Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion (p. 244); PubMed PMID 42131846 (PMC13089264), 22903446, 15316132, 39096556, 35880281 — each verified resolvable and checked for retraction status before citation; cross-referenced against multiple online sources.