Can’t Sleep? Hypnosis for Sleep Problems
Can’t Sleep? Hypnosis for Sleep Problems
Sleep is a vital process. As you might know, you spend roughly one-third of your life sleeping. The body needs it because sleep regenerates your natural defenses. Mainly, the brain needs it to reset and restore proper functioning.
We intuitively know that we need to sleep. But for many people, lying down at night is not enough to drift to dreamland. Hypnosis can help with that. In actuality, a hypnotist can suggest a client ways to create an effective bedtime routine. But the client also learns how to deal with the lack of motivation that follows a restless night.
Not going to bed regularly can leave you exhausted. In fact, lack of rest leads to many negative consequences. For example, an increase in stress levels or nervousness. For most of the daytime, you might feel dozy and feeble. As the hours go by, you may not think as clearly as usual. Some people may even find it hard to tune out when they finally get home.
What happens when you sleep?
While all of us experience sleeping as a single occurrence, our brain goes through cycles. This means that there are lighter and deeper stages in which we dream or just move and adjust our posture.
During the day, dozing off and daydreaming somehow resembles the first stage of sleep. But when you fall asleep, your body freezes as the brain disengages itself to regain energy.
With each restorative phase of the cycle, your body heals itself. If you exercised during the day, sleeping can lead to muscle growth. At the same time, you might have dreams or nightmares. And as you probably know, getting out of this state of consciousness is easy at any stage.
To be precise, the brain never shuts down. During the waking state, the brain just functions differently. When you fall asleep, it is like a switch is turned on. The brain activates in many areas that were inactive during the day. Actually, scientists still have to unravel all of its mysteries. But in summary, several chemical interactions take place when you sleep.
Depending on when you wake up, you might feel invigorated or confused. Sometimes, you might open your eyes because of a frightening nightmare and feel alarmed. For most people, undesirable awakenings occur once in a blue moon. But you should consult with your family physician if you are experiencing them every day.
What happens when you go into hypnosis?
The human mind has its own logic. In detail, words have an effect on us because we associate meanings with them. Similarly, sounds and silence impact the way our brain processes its surroundings.
When a hypnotist guides someone into hypnosis, the mind receives suggestions. Unlike napping, you do not go through several stages of consciousness until you fall asleep. Instead, you relax progressively as you remain fully awake.
The hypnotist helps you achieve a self-hypnotic state. Simply put, you receive instructions to direct your attention to specific goals. For example, slowing down your breathing and using your imagination. As a result, you let yourself experience positive emotions and a resourceful mental state.
Of course, several hypnotic techniques apply to varying situations. But the overall process relies on the five senses and your creativity. Therefore, you fully understand what is going on from start to finish. Unlike dreams that fade away as soon as you wake up, you retain the knowledge of what happened during a hypnotic session.
During a deeply relaxed state, learning becomes easier. So, the hypnotist uses this opportunity to suggest solutions to common problems. The client decides which suggestion to approve and believe. Then, the session ends by orientating the focus outward once more.
Understanding sleeping habits and related problems
Problems with sleep are an issue that millions of people have to deal with every day. Usually, there are simple and modifiable reasons that lead to such issues. In today’s fast-paced world, your busy life might only be one aspect of the bigger picture.
First of all, your behavior might cause some of these problems. For example, if you keep watching your favorite show late at night, you disrupt your usual bedtime routine. Maybe, you keep your smartphone too close to your face before resting your head on the pillow. In some cases, modifying your behavior is all there is to it.
A new change or problem in your life can induce you to sleep less. When you change your diet or lifestyle, your sleeping needs change. To specify, your body and mind are sensitive to any variation that might affect your sleep.
Not getting enough sleep is the simplest problem of all. On balance, adults should sleep at least seven hours per night. Instead, teenagers need 8-10 hours to fully recharge their batteries. But not everybody understands how much sleep is essential to our well-being. So, they cut it until bad habits emerge.
Sleep is not a luxury item. You can wait and save up to buy a more comfortable mattress, but you cannot ignore your slumber needs for long. Jet lag and shift work can really put you under a lot of stress. But you should never underestimate the factors that may reduce your sleeping hours.
How hypnosis for sleep problems can help
Hypnotism offers strategies to overcome unhealthy habits and several challenges. Generally speaking, clients learn self-hypnotic instructions to access a useful mental state. Then, they reinforce the positive suggestions that they received during previous sessions. This application alleviates tension in the body and allows the client to relax.
The aim of inducing hypnosis is to help the mind to let go of any negative thoughts and emotions. In fact, things like overcritical self-talk can lead to restless nights and imaginary arguments. Especially before an important date or event.
After a long day at work, your mind could be so overworked that your body tenses up more than it should. Just like a body of water full of tossing waves is hard to sail, a mind crowded with worries is agitated.
Through hypnosis, deep relaxation techniques will set you up for relieving pain and frustration. As a rule of thumb, positive suggestions also add to the experience. For instance, by making you explore a more optimistic future. Some strategies include instructions to quickly trigger positive associations. Thus helping you prepare for sleep.
The hypnotist teaches you new ways to unleash your inner power. As a result, you might end up working on issues that are related to your sleep problem but also impact your life in other ways. For example, you could learn better strategies to be more confident and persuasive. As a result, your productivity may improve and you could get more time to wind down in the evening.
Common sleep problems and hypnotic solutions
Most likely, your sleep problem is nothing new. As such, hypnotists have outlined effective ways to tackle several issues. From setting up goals to reaching them, you can use hypnosis for surprising results.
The following is a brief overview of the most common problems. Along with examples of some hypnotic techniques, you can get insights into how hypnosis can help you overcome your troubled nights.
Having difficulty sleeping
Without a doubt, the lying-down posture is not sufficient to start sleeping. But sometimes, people cannot tune out or stay asleep for more than a couple of hours.
An exciting piece of news may keep you up at night. Or you might start a ceaseless inner dialogue, pondering deep questions. For some people, these are temporary problems that leave you drained for a day or two. But for others, the problem may be more frequent, causing stress about the lack of proper rest.
In most cases, the hypnotist helps you rebuild a better relationship with bedtime. By focusing on improving your sleep, positive suggestions help you relax at the right time. Plus, guided imagery can be used as a tool to envision a better bedtime routine. Or to motivate you by letting you imagine how good you will feel when you wake up refreshed the next morning.
Be that as it may, it is a good idea to talk about minor inconveniences that might seem unrelated to this problem. In this way, if anything seems off, the hypnotist will refer you to a primary care physician.
Wild dreams and nightmares
Some kinds of dreams have the same effect as scary nightmares. Even though they are just a succession of images, sounds, or emotions, dreams and nightmares can mess up your sleeping habits. From a scientific point of view, it is not that clear what their true nature is. But the effects can be clearly visible, from dark circles to immediate post-awakening actions.
Most nightmares have something to do with our fear of dying. Sometimes, specific characters or monsters appear in more than one dream. For some people, dreams and nightmare are just a byproduct of the mind as it gets rid of unnecessary things.
For the hypnotist, the meaning of those events is not important. In fact, the goal is to intervene in a way that is soothing for your creative side. So, you will not have to reveal the imaginary, embarrassing stories you lived in your dreams. On the contrary, hypnosis works by talking to your creativity as you would to an ally.
Since your mind is busy conjuring up fantastic scenes, hypnosis can help you harness that creative energy. For example, by imagining a more positive, better scenario for future dreams. Or by using suggestions to nudge your creative side to give you a wonderful dream before the next session.
Being restless and unable to stay still
You might think of sleep as a period of being less active. But if you cannot bring yourself to be calm and relaxed, sleeping is not likely to occur. For some people, this issue could take the form of an overwhelming need to move around the house. Maybe you cannot bear to leave some work unfinished. You try to relax but find yourself fidgeting. As a result, a vicious loop of restlessness and irritability makes you even more nervous and unable to rest.
Normally, you might experience this problem if you are too hot. But if you are not overdressed for bed, the temperature might not have anything to do with you. Luckily, some jitters pass in a matter of hours. Yet, those couple of hours could be enough to waste sleepless nights doing unnecessary tasks.
Stretching can be a valid solution to loosen up your muscles. Likewise, hypnosis can be an effective tool to deal with any fear or apprehension. Hypnotic solutions can include suggestions for personal organization and management. Or strategies to soothe your mind before a big event.
Waking up in the middle of the night
Tossing and turning in your sleep might cause you to awake abruptly. But you may not have any problem falling asleep. Sadly, waking up in the middle of the night does not let you have a full night of rest. At most, you might get only four or five hours, which is not ideal.
In this case, the main risk is getting used to it. Even if you find yourself tired for the most part of the day. Then, when you finally get to sleep at night, you cannot rest. You feel irritable and impatient. In short, it is a double whammy that leaves you without mental energy and enthusiasm for what comes next.
Stress always plays a big part in this problem. But even if you get drowsy before bedtime, unsolved problems may lie in the dark part of your mind. Sometimes, a sense of hopelessness is involved. Other times, mental distractions may try to prevent you from facing an underlying threat to your well-being.
Hypnosis helps you deal with the negative emotions associated with your sleeping habits. By inculcating positive thinking and an optimistic outlook, you will gradually see improvements with every session. Coupled with better bedtime routines, your mind will completely deactivate at night. Finding a balance, at last.
Online Hypnosis for Improved Sleep Quality: Affordable, Effective and Digitally Optimised to meet the demands for the Modern Era using Zoom and SKYPE technologies.
Too many times in our life, we are our own worst enemy. Too many times, we beat ourselves up or talk down about ourselves. Often, we end up sabotaging our success. Even before we give ourselves permission to try something new and different for positive change. Hypnosis is a medically and scientifically recognized technique that uses the mind’s natural abilities to effectively reduce physical pain and promote wellbeing. Learn how it can help you..
Legal Disclaimer
As a consulting hypnotist, Luis’ role is help you resolve ordinary, everyday problems using hypnosis. He is not a medically trained doctor or a licensed mental health practitioner that can diagnose, prescribe, treat, cure, or heal any physical, mental, or emotional illness. The hypnosis services rendered are not to be considered in any way, a form of health care, psychotherapy, or counseling.