“…According to the theoretical foundations of TCM, the ears are a microcosm of the human body and connect directly or indirectly to the 12 meridians, the stimulation of which facilitates the internal balance of Qi (energy) flow, which is necessary to maintain and improve health ( Cheng et al, 2015 ; Song et al, 2015 ). The effectiveness of AA in improving sleep quality and reducing stress, pain, fatigue, anxiety, burnout, depressed moods, and systolic blood pressure has been demonstrated in quasi-experimental, randomized controlled trial, systematic review, and meta-analysis of studies on subjects including middle-aged and older women ( Cha et al, 2017 ; Kao et al, 2012 ; Lo et al, 2013 ), women who have given birth by cesarean section ( Kuo et al, 2016 ), nursing students ( Chueh et al, 2018 ), healthcare employees ( Olshan-Perlmutter et al, 2019 ), institutionalized residents ( Chen et al, 1999 ; Reza et al, 2010 ), and patients undergoing treatment for hypertension ( Gao et al, 2020 ), leukemia ( X. R. Liu et al, 2020 ), neck pain ( Lee & Park, 2019 ), chemoradiotherapy ( Chou et al, 2019 ), hemodialysis ( Tsay & Chen, 2003 ; Wu et al, 2018 ), and low back pain ( Yang et al, 2017 ). Some of the previous studies applied AA in combination with acupoint massage (e.g., head, hands, and feet), with the shenmen (heart meridian 7 [HT7]) acupoints on the ears and hands most frequently targeted to improve sleep quality ( Cha et al, 2017 ; Reza et al, 2010 ; Wu et al, 2018 ).…”