Background and Aim: Acupuncture is one of the most common methods of complementary medicine. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation on sleep quality in the patients with chronic insomnia. Materials and Methods: This study was a single-blind clinical trial in which 40 patients with chronic insomnia were randomly placed into intervention (TEAS) and control (sham TEAS) groups. The acupuncture points including SP6, HT7 and LI4 were selected according to the medical guideline of traditional Chinese medicine. The stimulation was performed for 8 sessions, twice a week for one month. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and actigraphy were used to evaluate the patients' sleep quality before and after intervention. Results: Results showed no significant differences in the mean scores of PSQI between the two groups before and after the intervention (p>0.05). In regard to the objective characteristics of sleep quality, total sleep time in the intervention group significantly increased (p=0.015). These alterations were not significant in the sham TEAS group (p=0.502). Conclusions:The results showed that TEAS can be effective in increasing the total sleep time in the patients with chronic insomnia disorder and this effect can be detectable by a monitoring instrument such as actigraphy.

Background There is large variation in genetic parameters in literature for growth traits in sheep. Reliable estimation of genetic parameters is required for developing breeding programmes. Objectives The aim of this study was to aggregate results of different studies by meta‐analysis to improve reliability of estimated parameters. Methods In the current study, 221 papers that have been published between 1995 and 2021 were reviewed. Using a random‐effects model in the Comprehensive Meta‐Analysis software, direct and maternal heritabilities, as well as, genetic and phenotypic correlations between growth traits were estimated in meat (M), wool (W) and dual‐purpose (D) sheep breeds. The growth traits in this study were birth weight, 3‐month weight, 6‐month weight, 9‐month weight and yearling weight. Results The combined direct heritability was the lowest for birth weight (0.190 ± 0.004, 0.198 ± 0.003 and 0.196 ± 0.004 for M, W and D breeds, respectively) and the highest for yearling weight (0.264 ± 0.010, 0.304 ± 0.005 and 0.285 ± 0.020 for M, W and D breeds, respectively). The maternal heritability was the lowest for yearling weight (0.085 ± 0.003, 0.055 ± 0.002 and 0.052 ± 0.005 for M, W and D breeds, respectively) and the highest for 6‐month weight (0.240 ± 0.088, 0.164 ± 0.001 and 0.162 ± 0.006 for M, W and D breeds, respectively). The phenotypic and genetic correlations were lower between the weights measured at more distant intervals. The lowest genetic correlation was observed between birth weight and yearling weight (0.290 ± 0.051 for W breeds). Conclusions The small standard errors could indicate that the aggregation of results from different studies improved the reliability of estimated parameters and reduced range of 95% confidence intervals. Hence, the results could be used with greater level of confidence in sheep breeding programmes.