“Sleep is the best meditation” Dalai Lama
Sleep is one of the most frequent issues I see in hypnotherapy. Many people during their life have trouble sleeping. For some they go to bed exhausted only to find the moment they rest their head on the pillow their mind becomes active and obsessive about everything. For some people, they fall asleep quickly, however, their mind wakes them several times during the night.
My biggest wish for all would be for every person to sleep well. I say this because for many years before I trained in hypnotherapy, I suffered from sleeping problems. I suffered with insomnia and at times relied on medication (sleeping pills) to help. I understand the constant chatter in your head, the frustration of knowing that you have not had any restorative sleep because you have looked at your phone each time you have woken up and found that you are awake every hour. Then thirty minutes before the alarm goes off your brain decides it wants to sleep!
The only feelings and emotions at this stage are anger, frustration, sadness. You then go through the day feeling as though you are drunk due to lack of sleep, you are agitated, tearful, confused, exhausted and you would do anything to feel that pillow, to lay your head down and switch off.
However, as the evening approaches and your bed calls you, suddenly you start to worry that you will not sleep and in turn already start to catastrophize about how you will cope tomorrow when you have not slept again. Not only do you have a problem sleeping you now have a fear you will never be able to sleep properly again. I have been there, and my only wish was that I could put my head on the pillow and lay down in peace, knowing that I would wake feeling refreshed and renewed. That wonderful feeling when you go to bed and wake just before your alarm, that realization that your mind has truly switched off and you have not stirred once. Trust me, I know, I can assure you that Hypnotherapy helped me, and I can help you. Sleep has a massive impact on our well-being, health, our sense of optimism, our patience, our ability to think and feel rationally, the list goes on.
“Happiness consists of getting enough sleep. Just that, nothing more” Robert A Heinlein
Solution Focused Hypnotherapy will help you understand the workings of the brain in relation to sleep and the importance of REM sleep. I will also give you a sleep audio which will help you to relax and sleep once again. Hypnotherapy will enable you to use tools and techniques to move you into your intellectual mind, this will help you think rationally before bed, in addition, we will work towards sending positive messages to your subconscious. The subconscious mind works differently to the conscious mind, it is primitive and only works on emotions and feelings rather than thoughts alone. Sleep can be associated with anxiety, worry and feeling unsafe. As such, the subconscious mind during sleep invokes our protective responses and these are powerful emotional mechanisms which can keep us awake in preparation for danger. Our subconscious mind believes it is protecting us by keeping us alert because the primitive mind is constantly firing negative thoughts which in turn causes the body to release the corresponding chemicals in the body and mind, these stop us from relaxing and sleeping. This explains that on a conscious level you maybe doing all the right things before bed such as having a warm bath before sleep, using lavender oil, sleeping in a dark room, coming off all social media one hour before sleep etc., however, emotionally (subconscious mind) we are being kept awake.
As such, I have learnt that the more we persist in the quest for sleep the more the brain will resist. Instead, sleep will return when it is ready to, not when we will it to return. As such, when other aspects of your life have settled then sleep will return, both aspects work together. Within therapy I will work on the issues which maybe contributing to sleep issues, once we address those, then sleep will be restored.
If you have any questions or would like to book a session please call or email me on :