Hypnotherapy is a drug-free, safe, and highly effective app roach to curing insomnia.
Do you have trouble sleeping? Are you constantly tossing and turning at night, or waking up feeling exhausted? If so, hypnotherapy may be the solution for you. Hypnotherapy uses your natural ability to go into hypnosis, or in other words your own unique creative capacity, to help you overcome issues such as insomnia, anxiety, and stress. In this article, we will discuss how hypnotherapy can help you improve your sleep and cure your insomnia. We will also explore the benefits of using hypnosis for sleep improvement.
If you are struggling with sleep, hypnotherapy may be able to help. Hypnosis is a state of relaxation and focus that allows you to be able to change old patterns in your mind and body, and determine new experiences of yourself in the process. In this state, you are more open to suggestion and guidance. And you're more open solving your problems in ways that you haven't though of before. We use techniques such as visualization, enquiry, reframing, and different kinds of "suggestions" to help you relax and fall asleep.
One of the main benefits of hypnosis for sleep is that it can help you to retrain your brain. If you have insomnia, your mind may be used to being awake at night. It may be in a habit of ruminating, or trying to solve old problems or issues that it can't find the space or time to "grapple with" during the day. This can make it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep. With hypnosis, you can change these patterns of thinking and behavior. Over time, and oftentimes very quickly, this can lead to less stress and worry, improved sleep habits, and less insomnia.
In addition to helping with sleep, you are becoming less fragile, more resilient, and you are reducing stress and anxiety. Learning to work with your mind and emotions in new ways allows you the chance to work on improving concentration and memory, and increasing self-esteem.
If you are struggling with sleep, there are certain "rules" of sleep that can be helpful (oftentimes called "sleep hygiene", and there are also safe and effective nutritional supplements and herbal supplements that may be highly beneficial as well.
Samaritan Health Services recommends several common vitamins that may be beneficial to supplement with to balance sleep. These include:
Melatonin- a primary factor affecting your sleep.
Tryptophan- an essential dietary amino acid that the body uses to produce serotonin, a chemical that helps to regulate sleep, and melatonin.
B Complex Vitamins- The body needs a variety of nutrients to produce melatonin, including adequate B complex vitamins.
Omega-3's and Vitamin D- A study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found the combination of omega-3s and vitamin D from fatty fish like salmon improved sleep in participants. Researchers think it’s because of the effect of those nutrients on regulating serotonin.
Magnesium- A featured nutrient in a study published in the Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, which found that adding a supplement greatly improved the symptoms of insomnia and sleep quality.
Along with proper sleep hygiene and good nutrition and eating habits, Hypnotherapy is a safe, effective, and drug-free treatment for insomnia that can help you get the rest you need.
Here are 8 Steps You Can Take to Help Improve Your Sleep:
Set a consistent sleep schedule. Go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time.
Create regular bedtime rituals. Do the same thing every night before bedtime, like take a warm bath, read or listen to music. Your pre-sleep activity should be relaxing so your body knows when it’s time to go to sleep.
Get regular exercise. Make sure you exercise at least two hours before bedtime though, or it may be difficult to fall asleep.
Keep a healthy diet. Meals just before bedtime may make it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep. But, a small snack just before bedtime tends to promote sleep.
Limit caffeine and avoid nicotine. Caffeine and nicotine are stimulants that interfere with sleep. Regular users also may experience withdrawal symptoms at night, leading to restless sleep. Limit caffeine intake to less than two servings per day, and don’t drink after noon. Tobacco users who break the habit usually are able to fall asleep faster and sleep better once withdrawal symptoms subside.
Avoid alcohol. Alcohol is a sedative that slows brain activity. While it may induce sleep, it interferes with sleep during the night, causing you to wake up frequently and have nightmares. It’s best to not drink alcohol four to six hours before bedtime.
Keep naps short. During the day, you build up a “sleep debt” that helps you fall asleep at night. Naps during the day pay off that debt, interfering with your night sleep. If you need to nap, limit it to less than 30 minutes.
Use your bedroom for sleep only. Don’t eat or watch TV in bed. Don’t use electronics – laptops, cellphones or tablets – in bed. Make sure your bedroom is dark, quiet and cool. If you use it only for sleep, you’ll associate your bedroom with sleeping rather than activity or stress.
Here are a few peer-reviewed studies on the benefits of taking a more holistic, hypnotherapeutic approach to sleeping better and living a more healthful life.
The overall quality of life of the participants was improved and the subjects enjoyed better sleep and had less insomnia (p = 0.012). There was also a significant improvement on fatigue levels.
Hypnosis: useful, neglected, available. Hypnosis is presented as a valuable and frequently neglected resource for many patients with chronic and terminal illness. Particular attention is given herein to the use of hypnosis in attaining relaxation, overcoming insomnia, helping the patient achieve pain relief, and, most particularly, teaching the patient to work with relatives and other persons close to them, as caregivers in a special relationship that can be a very important source of relief to the patient.
Chronic dyssomnia is highly prevalent and has multiple etiologies. Hypnotherapy has been reported as beneficial for insomnia, but the description of the subject populations has been limited. A group of patients was evaluated at a sleep disorders center for a dyssomnia that occurred on at least 3 nights per week for 6 months or more. Six patients accepted hypnotherapy for their persistent psychophysiological insomnia and other sleep disorder diagnoses. Three patients responded to two sessions of structured hypnotherapy. The three responders remained improved at 16-month follow-up.
This case report concerns an aggressive, independent, and financially successful businessman who suffered with insomnia within the context of generalized anxiety disorder. The hypnotherapy included indirect suggestions for the insomnia delivered through the vehicle of metaphorical stories designed as an indirect intervention for the generalized anxiety. The client's perception of the problem was clarified and respected, but the choice of intervention strategy was designed to indirectly suggest more global changes. The creative changes made by the client were positive and enduring at 2-year follow-up.
In the present study, a hypnotic relaxation technique was compared to stimulus control and placebo conditions as a means of reducing sleep onset latency (SOL). Forty-five subjects were matched on their baseline SOL as measured through sleep diaries. They were randomly assigned to one of three groups: hypnotic relaxation; stimulus control; and placebo. These groups experienced four weekly sessions of 30-minutes duration with demand effects being controlled through the use of counter-demand instructions. Data generated by the study suggested that hypnotic relaxation was effective in helping participants go to sleep more quickly. Neither stimulus control nor placebo groups recorded similar improvement.