OBJECTIVE: This study aims to observe the effect of Tai Chi exercise on improving elderly patients with chronic insomnia under the auxiliary treatment of the acupoint stimulation. METHOD: 90 elderly patients with chronic insomnia were randomly divided into a Tai Chi exercise group, an acupoint massage group and a combination group. The patients in Tai Chi group did Tai Chi exercise for treatment. Those in the acupoint massage provided only the massage for treatment while patients in the combination group did Tai Chi exercise under the auxiliary treatment of the acupoint massage. SPIEGEL sleep scale, Exon emotional stability scale and life quality questionnaire were used to respectively detect and compare three groups of patients so as to observe the curative effect before treatment and after 3 months' treatment. 3 groups of the cure patients were respectively followed up and interviewed for 6 months and the recurrence rate was compared. RESULTS: After 3 months' treatment, all detection indexes for 3 groups of the patients were improved to some extent and the curative effect of the combination group was more significant. Compare with other two groups in the same time point after 3 months' treatment, p < 0.05; the clinical cure rate and total effective rate of the combination group are significantly higher than other groups, p < 0.01 or p < 0.05; After 6 months follow-up, we found that the recurrence rate were 37.50% in Tai Chi group, 33.33% in acupoint massage group and 23.08% in the combination group. Recurrence rate of the combination group is significantly lower than that of other groups, p < 0.05. CONCLUSION: After 3 months Tai Chi exercise, their physical and mental state and sleep quality of elderly patients were significantly improved. The combination of acupoint massage further improved the effect of Tai Chi.

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