Acupressure is acupuncture without the needles: the same points on the same channels, pressed with a thumb or a knuckle. Its best-evidenced use is nausea, where pressure at the P6 point on the inner wrist cut sickness after surgery by about a third in a large Cochrane review, and the same wristbands are sold for travel and morning sickness.
Beyond nausea the evidence is thinner for some pain, sleep and anxiety, and self-massage with a foam roller takes a short-term edge off next-day soreness. It costs nothing, you can do it yourself, and the relief often arrives during the session.
Findings & Outcomes
What It Is
Acupressure is acupuncture worked with the hands. It uses the same points on the same channels, pressed with a thumb, a fingertip or a knuckle instead of a needle, so it is something you can do to yourself for free with nothing to buy. The best-known application is a small elastic wristband, sold as a Sea-Band and similar, that holds a stud over the P6 point to settle nausea. Self-massage sits alongside it: tuina, the hands-on branch of Chinese medicine, and the modern foam roller or massage ball, which work the whole muscle and the connective tissue around it.
The two do different jobs, and the evidence divides along the same line. Acupressure at a defined point, above all P6 for nausea, is where the randomized trials are strongest. Self-massage and foam rolling are studied mostly for short-term recovery: less next-day soreness and a little more range of movement, fading within a day or two.
What It Does
The evidence sorts into two tiers, and the gap between them is the reason to trust the top one most.
Nausea at the P6 wrist point sits alone at the top. A Cochrane review of 59 trials and 7,667 people found that pressure there cut sickness after surgery by about a third, about as well as anti-sickness drugs, and self-applied P6 pressure takes a small edge off nausea in the first day after chemotherapy. This use holds up because it has been tested against sham wristbands across dozens of trials.
Everything else stands on thinner evidence: period pain, low back pain, tension headache, labor pain, anxiety, sleep, and the next-day soreness a foam roller eases after hard training. These come from smaller trials that a pressure treatment cannot fully blind. For morning sickness the pooled evidence is thin and mixed, so at best P6 is a low-risk thing to try there.
Each use below is graded at the strength of its own evidence.
The Research & Studies
Everything here is based on the research we have collected and checked, sorted into groups and ordered with the strongest evidence first. Click any claim to open the studies behind it.
Digestion
P6 wrist pressure cut nausea about 32% and vomiting about 40% after surgery
Pressing or banding the P6 point on the inner wrist cut nausea after surgery by about a third and vomiting by about 40% compared with a dummy band, and it held up about as well as standard anti-sickness drugs.
The Cochrane review pooled 59 trials and 7,667 people across several ways of stimulating the P6 point, including acupressure and stimulation wristbands. Against a sham band, P6 stimulation cut nausea by 32% (RR 0.68, 95% CI 0.60 to 0.77; 40 trials) and vomiting by 40% (RR 0.60, 95% CI 0.51 to 0.71; 45 trials), and was no different from anti-sickness drugs (nausea RR 0.91, 95% CI 0.75 to 1.10). The evidence was graded low certainty because the trials varied widely and few could fully blind participants.
The study · 1
Lee et al., stimulation of the wrist acupuncture point PC6 for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting (Cochrane review) · Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2015;11:CD003281
No clear benefit from P6 acupressure for morning sickness across 41 trials
For morning sickness, the pooled trial evidence on wrist acupressure is thin and mixed, so it may help some people but a clear effect has not been shown.
The 2015 Cochrane review of interventions for nausea and vomiting in early pregnancy assessed 41 trials in 5,449 women and reported that evidence on P6 acupressure, auricular acupressure and P6 acustimulation was limited, with P6 acupuncture showing no significant benefit. The authors concluded there was a lack of high-quality evidence to support any particular intervention, so results should be read as inconclusive rather than negative.
The study · 1
Matthews et al., interventions for nausea and vomiting in early pregnancy (Cochrane review) · Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2015;9:CD007575
Self-applied acupressure took a small edge off chemotherapy nausea, but not vomiting
Pressing the P6 point yourself took a small edge off nausea in the first day after chemotherapy. It did not reduce vomiting, an effect that showed only with needles.
The 2006 Cochrane review of acupuncture-point stimulation for chemotherapy-induced nausea or vomiting pooled 11 trials and 1,247 people. Self-administered acupressure reduced acute nausea severity (standardized mean difference -0.19, 95% CI -0.37 to -0.01), a small effect, and did not reduce vomiting. Needle acupuncture (RR 0.74) and electro-acupuncture (RR 0.76) reduced acute vomiting. All of this sits alongside modern anti-sickness drugs rather than replacing them.
Best used as a self-applied add-on to prescribed anti-sickness medicine, not a substitute for it.
The study · 1
Ezzo et al., acupuncture-point stimulation for chemotherapy-induced nausea or vomiting (Cochrane review) · Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2006;2:CD002285
Menstrual Pain
Acupressure eased period pain across 33 trials, ranking behind exercise and heat
For period pain, pressing acupoints helped in the pooled trials, but it came out behind exercise, needle acupuncture and a heat pack.
The 2024 BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine Bayesian network meta-analysis of non-pharmacological interventions for primary dysmenorrhea pooled 33 trials. Exercise, acupuncture and topical heat ranked most effective; acupuncture reduced pain by about 2.9 points on a 10-point visual analogue scale (95% CI -3.97 to -2.85). Acupressure showed a positive effect on pain but the review did not report a clean separate effect size for it, and the trials are generally small and hard to blind.
The study · 1
Efficacy of non-pharmacological interventions for primary dysmenorrhoea: a systematic review and Bayesian network meta-analysis · BMJ Evid Based Med 2024
Pain
A month of acupressure cut back-pain disability 3.8 points more than physical therapy
In one trial, a month of acupressure eased back-pain disability more than a course of physical therapy, and the benefit was still there six months later.
The 2006 BMJ trial randomized 129 people with chronic low back pain to a month of acupressure or physical therapy. Acupressure produced a greater fall in the Roland and Morris disability score (mean difference -3.8 points, 95% CI -5.7 to -1.9), and the benefit was sustained at six-month follow-up. Neither patients nor therapists could be blinded to which treatment they received.
The study · 1
Hsieh et al., treatment of low back pain by acupressure and physical therapy: randomised controlled trial · BMJ 2006;332(7543)
Acupressure lowered headache pain below a muscle-relaxant, 32.9 versus 55.7 on a 100-point scale
In a small study, a month of acupressure on tender points brought headache pain down further than a muscle-relaxant drug, and it stayed lower six months on.
This 2010 randomized controlled trial assigned 28 people with chronic headache to acupressure at trigger points or muscle-relaxant medication for one month. After treatment, pain on a 0 to 100 visual analogue scale was lower with acupressure (32.9 vs 55.7, p=0.047), and the advantage was maintained at six-month follow-up (p=0.002). The sample is very small and unblinded.
The study · 1
Hsieh et al., effect of acupressure and trigger points in treating headache: a randomized controlled trial · Am J Chin Med 2010;38(1)
Pressing BL23 eased labor pain within about ten minutes, though briefly
During the first stage of labor, pressing the BL23 point on the lower back brought pain down within minutes compared with a dummy press, though the relief was short-lived.
This 2025 randomized, sham-controlled trial assigned 90 first-time mothers to BL23 acupressure, sham pressure, or usual care (30 each) during the first stage of labor. Pain was significantly lower in the BL23 group at every measured point (p<0.0001), falling within about ten minutes of starting and continuing through the intervention, with no adverse maternal or neonatal effects. The effect was described as significant but temporary.
Useful as a drug-free comfort tool a partner can apply, offered alongside the birth team's options.
The study · 1
Effect of BL23 acupressure on pain among primiparous women during the first stage of labor: a randomized, sham-controlled trial · Pain Res Manag 2025
Mood & stress
Acupressure lowered anxiety across 27 studies, strongest in hospital patients
Across many small studies, acupressure lowered anxiety, most clearly in people in hospital or facing surgery.
The 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis pooled 27 studies and found a large reduction in anxiety (standardized mean difference 1.15, 95% CI 0.85 to 1.46, p<0.001), strongest among inpatients and preoperative patients using finger pressure. Only 8 of the studies were at low risk of bias, and heterogeneity was very high (I2 = 91%), so the pooled figure is likely larger than a typical real-world effect.
The study · 1
Effects of acupressure on anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis · J Integr Complement Med 2022;28(1)
Sleep
Acupoint therapies improved sleep scores across 95 insomnia trials, with acupressure a gentler option
Pooled trials of acupoint therapies for insomnia showed better sleep-quality scores, with acupressure among the gentler options, though needle methods tended to rank higher.
The 2026 systematic review and network meta-analysis compared 14 acupoint therapies across 95 randomized trials and 7,628 people with primary insomnia. Acupoint approaches, including acupressure and tuina, improved sleep-quality scores (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), with body acupuncture plus electroacupuncture and moxibustion plus tuina ranking highest. The most-used points were Shenmen, Baihui and Anmian. The authors noted that tolerability and long-term efficacy remain unclear.
The study · 1
Efficacy of multiple acupoint stimulation therapies for primary insomnia patients: a systematic review and network meta-analysis · Front Psychiatry 2026
Exercise Recovery
Foam rolling left leg muscles less sore over two days in a trial of 8 men
Rolling out the legs after a hard leg workout left the muscles less sore over the next two days and blunted the usual dip in sprint speed and power.
This 2015 crossover trial had 8 healthy men perform a heavy squat protocol and then either foam roll or not at 0, 24 and 48 hours. Foam rolling reduced quadriceps tenderness (Cohen d 0.59 to 0.84) and improved dynamic performance measures over the recovery window: sprint time (d 0.68 to 0.77), power (d 0.48 to 0.87) and dynamic strength-endurance (d 0.54). It is a short-term recovery effect measured over 48 hours.
Who this may not transfer to:Measured only in eight men. Whether foam rolling eases soreness to the same degree in women has not been tested here.
The study · 1
Pearcey et al., foam rolling for delayed-onset muscle soreness and recovery of dynamic performance measures · J Athl Train 2015;50(1)
Foam rolling gave small gains, about 0.7% faster sprints and 6% less soreness
Pooled studies show foam rolling gives small, short-lived gains: a touch more sprint speed beforehand and slightly less soreness afterwards.
The 2019 meta-analysis pooled 21 studies of foam rolling. Rolling before exercise produced a small improvement in sprint performance (+0.7%, Hedges g=0.28) with little effect on strength or jumping; rolling after exercise slightly reduced muscle pain (+6.0%, g=0.47) and eased the post-exercise drop in sprint (+3.1%, g=0.34). The authors concluded the effects on performance and recovery were minor and partly negligible.
The study · 1
Wiewelhove et al., a meta-analysis of the effects of foam rolling on performance and recovery · Front Physiol 2019;10:376
How It Works
For pain there is a plain mechanism. Firm pressure fires the large, fast touch nerves in the skin and muscle, and that firing dampens the slower pain signals traveling to the spinal cord and brain, the same gate-control effect that makes rubbing a sore spot help. Steady pressure and slow breathing also shift the body toward its parasympathetic, calming state, which is part of why acupressure reads best for anxiety and for the tension side of pain. For nausea, the P6 effect is thought to run through the nerves of the forearm to the brainstem centers that drive sickness, though the exact path is not settled.
The limit sits in the study design. You cannot fully blind a pressure treatment, because sham acupressure still touches the skin, and a light press on the wrong spot is not a true placebo. That is why the effects for anxiety and some pain look large in the pooled numbers and are still graded cautiously, and why the relief, though often clear, is frequently short-lived, arriving during the session and easing afterward. Nausea at P6 is the exception that holds up best across many trials and against dummy bands.
How to Use It
You need nothing to start. Find the point, press for a minute or two, and use it when the moment calls for it. Begin with the P6 point for nausea, the one use with the strongest trial evidence, and add the others as they suit you.
Anatomy of the Practice
1The points, and how to find them
The points are the same ones acupuncture uses. P6 (Neiguan), the most useful to know, sits about three finger-widths up from the wrist crease on the inner forearm, between the two tendons you can feel down the middle. LI4 (Hegu) is in the web between thumb and first finger, ST36 a hand-width below the kneecap and a finger-width to the outside of the shinbone. A point often feels slightly tender or full when you find it, which is how you know you are on it.
2What a press actually does
You press firmly enough to feel a deep, dull ache but not a sharp pain, hold or make small circles for one to three minutes, and breathe slowly while you do it. On a point like P6 you work both wrists. There is nothing to force: the pressure is steady, and if it becomes sharp you have gone too hard or slipped off the point.
3Self-massage works the tissue, not the point
A foam roller, a massage ball or your own hands worked slowly over a tight or sore muscle is a different action from pressing a point. Here the target is the muscle and the fascia around it, rolled or kneaded for a minute or so per area. The aim is to ease tension and soreness in the short term.
Ways to Do It
Each of these is free or close to it. Start with P6 for nausea, the best-evidenced use, and add the others as they suit you.
Find P6 three finger-widths up the inner wrist, between the two central tendons, and press firmly with the opposite thumb for one to three minutes on each wrist, breathing slowly. It is the go-to for motion sickness, morning sickness and queasiness after surgery, and you can repeat it whenever the feeling returns.
An elastic acupressure wristband holds a small stud over P6 so you do not have to keep pressing. Sea-Band and similar bands are inexpensive and reusable, and they suit travel, pregnancy and the days after an operation, when you want steady pressure held for hours.
For a tension headache many people work LI4 in the web of the hand and Tai Yang at the temples; for digestion and fatigue, ST36 below the knee. Press each for a minute or two to a deep dull ache. These are lower-evidence uses than nausea, so treat them as a cheap thing to try that costs only your time.
Three points come up most often in the insomnia trials, which tells you they are the most commonly used, not that they work best: Shenmen (HT7), at the little-finger side of the inner wrist crease; Baihui (GV20), at the crown of the head on the midline; and Anmian, in the hollow behind the ear. In your wind-down, press each firmly to a deep, dull ache for one to three minutes. A network meta-analysis of 95 insomnia trials found acupoint therapies as a group improved sleep-quality scores against control, though the gentler acupressure ranked below the needle methods and the lasting benefit was unclear. Treat it as a low-risk thing to try.
Roll a foam roller or a ball slowly over a tight or sore muscle for about a minute per area, or knead it with your hands. The gains in soreness and movement are small and short-lived, so the useful pattern is to use it around training and on stiff days.
Go Deeper
- Tai chi and qi gong: the movement side of the same tradition, with the most randomized evidence behind it.
- Low back pain: the condition worked from both sides, where acupressure is one of the options with trial support.
- Headache and migraine: what helps for headache, and where point work sits among the choices.
- Period pain: the fuller picture for dysmenorrhea, of which acupressure is one part.
The Chinese Medicine View
Acupressure and tuina work the same map of meridians and acupoints that acupuncture uses, worked with the hands without needles. The aim is to keep Qi and Blood moving freely along the channels, since the classical account of pain is simple: where Qi and Blood are blocked, there is pain, and where they flow, there is none. A point is a place where the channel comes near the surface and can be reached, which is why firm pressure at a named point is held to act on the channel beneath it.
Each point carries its own actions in the tradition. P6 (Neiguan) opens the chest and settles the Stomach, which is the classical reason it calms nausea and a queasy, anxious feeling. LI4 (Hegu) moves Qi and releases the exterior, the frame behind its use for headache and facial tension. This whole approach of pressing, rubbing and self-massage belongs to Yang Sheng, nourishing life, the preventive half of Chinese medicine where the aim is to keep a person well with small daily practices.
The tradition also holds that the same point is not right for everyone at every moment. Strong, draining pressure suits a robust person with an acute blockage and can leave someone already depleted more tired, so the classical instruction is to match the force to the state: lighter and more nourishing for the weak or the elderly, firmer and more moving for the strong and the stuck.
Some points, above all SP6 and LI4, are read as strongly moving in the pelvis and are treated with care in pregnancy.
If you work with a practitioner, your pattern is a good thing to ask them about.
Cautions For This Practice
Everything to be aware of is here, in one place. This practice suits most healthy people; a few situations call for real care.
Side effects were minor and self-limiting across 59 P6 trials
In the Cochrane review of 59 trials of P6 stimulation, the reported side effects were minor, transient and self-limiting, mainly skin irritation and occasional blistering under stimulation wristbands, with no serious harms recorded. This is a favorable safety record for wrist stimulation in trial conditions. Firm self-massage over the body still calls for ordinary care over injuries, wounds and areas of poor circulation, which the notes below cover.Lee et al., stimulation of the wrist acupuncture point PC6 for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting (Cochrane review)
SP6 and LI4 kept off in pregnancy: SP6 sped labor at term, 252 versus 441 minutes
A randomized trial of 120 first-time mothers at term found that acupressure at SP6 (Sanyinjiao) shortened the active phase of labor (252 minutes versus 441, p=0.0001), lowered pain scores, and reduced the caesarean rate (10% versus 42%). At full term that is a benefit; before term it is the reason for the caution. SP6 and LI4 (Hegu) are the acupoints classically avoided in pregnancy because firm stimulation is held to move Qi and Blood in the pelvis and encourage labor. During pregnancy, leave firm work on these points to a practitioner who knows your stage and history.Effects of acupressure at the Sanyinjiao point (SP6) on the process of active phase of labor in nulliparas women
Over injuries, broken skin and clot risk
Keep firm pressure and rolling off fresh injuries, broken skin, bruises, and any inflamed or swollen area. Avoid working over varicose veins, and if you have a known clot, a recent DVT, or a condition that raises clot risk, do not press or roll the legs and check with a doctor first, since pressure over a clot can dislodge it.
Bleeding disorders and blood thinners
Firm pressure and deep self-massage can bruise. If you have a bleeding disorder or take blood-thinning medication, keep the pressure light and stop if you mark easily.
Fragile bones, reduced sensation and unexplained pain
Go gently or skip firm pressure over areas of thin bone or reduced feeling, where you cannot judge how hard you are pressing. Do not use acupressure or self-massage to push through pain that is new, severe or unexplained, since that kind of pain should be diagnosed first.
Start slow, be smart, read the research, and consult a professional if you have any concerns. This is here to inform your choice, not make it for you.
Common Questions
Does acupressure really work, or is it just placebo?
For one use it works beyond placebo: pressure at the P6 wrist point reduces nausea, cutting sickness after surgery by about a third against a dummy band across dozens of trials. For pain, sleep and anxiety the picture is less certain, because a pressure treatment is very hard to test blind. A fake press still touches the skin, so it is not a true placebo, and the specific effect and the attention-and-touch effect are difficult to separate. The result is relief for many people that the trials cannot fully attribute to the point itself.
Where is the P6 (Neiguan) point?
On the inside of the forearm, about three finger-widths up from the wrist crease, in the dip between the two tendons that run down the middle. Press it firmly with the opposite thumb for one to three minutes on each wrist, to a deep dull ache, easing off if it turns sharp. It is the point the anti-nausea wristbands sit over, and the one to learn first.
Do the Sea-Band wristbands work?
For nausea, they are a reasonable tool. The bands hold a stud over P6 so the pressure is maintained for hours without you having to press, which suits travel, morning sickness and the days after an operation. The Cochrane evidence for P6 stimulation covers this kind of continuous pressure, and the bands are inexpensive, reusable and very low risk, with at most some skin irritation under the stud.
Is self-massage or foam rolling the same as acupressure?
They overlap but are not the same. Acupressure presses defined points on the channels; self-massage and foam rolling work the muscle and the connective tissue around it. Tuina, the hands-on branch of Chinese medicine, sits between the two, using both point work and broader strokes. Foam rolling is studied mainly for short-term recovery, a little less soreness and a little more movement, while point acupressure is where the condition-specific trials, above all for nausea, are found.
How is this different from acupuncture?
Acupressure uses the same points and the same channels but reaches them with steady pressure from the hands instead of needles, so you can do it yourself and there is nothing to insert. Acupuncture can stimulate a point more strongly and precisely, which is why for a few outcomes, such as vomiting during chemotherapy, the needle trials show effects that acupressure alone does not. Acupressure is weaker but free, self-applied, and available the moment you need it.
Explore Related
Other pages this one connects to, by the evidence they share, the outcomes they touch, and the ground they cover.
All 13 sources on this page independently checked and cross-referenced.
Thomas Dehli, Founder & Editor, Sacred Lotus
Sacred Lotus has published Chinese medicine reference material since 2001. Integrative pages are held to the same standard as the herb and formula library: cite the source, grade the claim at its real strength, and say where the research has not looked. This page is educational and it is not medical advice. Last reviewed and updated August 9, 2026.
Evidence strength
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