A Good Night’s Sleep

Insomnia is when you find it difficult to get to sleep, or to stay asleep for long enough to feel refreshed the next morning. The quality of your sleep is equal to the quality of your life. Sleep is as important to your body as eating, drinking and breathing as it helps to rest and repair your body and mind. Sleep experts says If you are not sleeping, then you are not healing. Sleep deprivation accelerates aging as well as a whole host of health issues like depression and immunity, not to mention affecting memory, mood, concentration and diminished performance both on the job and off.

Good sleep is measured in terms of quantity and quality and you need 7-8 hours for the brain to pass through the different stages of sleep for your body and mind to heal. Alcohol and medication don’t allow you to pass through the stages naturally, which is why you may still feel unrefreshed in the morning. Sleeping pills can even cause rebound insomnia.

You may have found ‘trying to sleep’ impossible. Trying too hard to sleep creates the ‘law of reversed effect’ in that the harder you try the more difficult it is to sleep. That is because sleep is not a conscious activity. Sleep is controlled by your unconscious autonomic mind. ‘Sleep is like ‘trying’ to digest a meal or ‘trying’ not to sweat. You have no conscious control over how fast or slow digestion takes place. This is why Hypnotherapy is widely used to help treat sleep problems. Hypnotherapy gives your conscious mind something else to focus on, a bit like ‘counting sheep’ allowing your unconscious mind to finally switch off. Hypnosis allows you to lay down new positive sleep neural pathways to break the cycle of poor sleep.

Combined with CBT, Hypnotherapy offers positive suggestions to help you overcome the problems that cause you to worry at night. Whether they are issues at work, family, environmental pressures, or whether the problem has become chronic and you don’t really know why. Sessions are tailored, not just to provide a standard sleep list of do’s and don’ts, but to provide a programme for you as a unique individual. Whilst there are many audios you can use to help you, seeing a hypnotherapist is the difference between going to a gym and having a personal trainer. Hypnotherapy will show you how to deeply relax which you can practice at bedtime, to release physical and mental anxieties and drift easily into sleep phase.

Call or meet for a free consultation to see if I can help you.

l If you think you have insomnia it is vital that you talk to your doctor to rule out serious underlying medical conditions for which your GP may refer you to a sleep clinic.