Sleep disorders and the benefits of hypnosis

By Alex Taylor Morgan, Hypnosis Trainer

People ask all the time if hypnosis can help them sleep better at night. The answer to this is yes. Many think, during hypnosis, you are sleeping when really you are in a state of relaxation. During a state of hypnosis, you are just deeply relaxed. What hypnosis really does or can do it teaches a person how to sleep. The process of entering trance is the same process as drifting into a deep and healthy sleep. If you do have any sleep difficulties including sensitivity to light, noises or your partner’s movements it is beneficial that the mind has the ability to tune out any of these distractions and to even use them as cues to reinforce healthy sleep patterns.

Hypnosis can help with insomnia and the causes of insomnia. If you do have insomnia or know someone that has insomnia chances are they either:

-have a hard time falling asleep at night

-wake up during the night

-feel tired after waking up

-feel tired during the day but can’t take a nap

It really is the inability to sleep and there are lots of factors that can lead to this. There are minor issues that I’ve listed before such as noises or racing thoughts or even an uncomfortable bed. However, the main causes are stress, anxiety, and depression. Hypnosis can help in each of these situations.

Stress

With stress, this can be a leading cause of insomnia and this is mainly because someone is not able to switch off from the outside world. This is one of the things hypnosis can really help with. Hypnosis creates a setting where you are in a place of serenity where you are aware and focused on a state of relaxation. Stress is not something you may be able to get rid of all the way but hypnosis can help with learning how to manage stress in a positive way so you minimize it.

Anxiety

With anxiety, this can like stress cause your brain not to switch off and make it difficult to get sleep. You may experience anxiety from worrying about future events and feeling tense and unable to relax. Like stress, anxiety can also cause you to stay awake at night or wake up during the night. This can be because it is quiet at night and your brain is less quiet so more thoughts can come into your mind that wouldn’t happen during the day. Hypnosis treats the entire mind, body, and emotions so you can have a deep and restful sleep. Hypnosis really is the opposite of anxiety because with anxiety you are tense and you have a physical symptom that may be uncomfortable. Hypnosis helps you be more aware of calming physical sensations.

Depression

People who have depression can experience insomnia. Depression can be a feeling of having no energy but this does not mean you can fall asleep easily. Many studies nowadays have depression and insomnia going hand in hand and need to be treated simultaneously instead of “insomnia as a symptom of depression”. Hypnosis helps with depression allowing for deep and restful sleep because it helps you enter the unconscious mind and this is where all changes in behavior and learning take place. Clinical hypnosis works for depression because it removes the root cause of the depression and suggests to the unconscious mind positive learnings. This leads to long-lasting deep and restful sleep.

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