Hypnosis for a good night's sleep

This article appeared in the journal "Sleep" and involves research to show how you can end insomnia and sleep well.

Researchers have demonstrated that restorative slow-wave sleep, or deep sleep, can also be increased without medication - using hypnosis and hypnotherapy, as it is a method that can influence processes which are very difficult to control voluntarily.

The study involved 70 healthy young women who came to the sleep laboratory for a 90-minute mid-day nap.

Before falling asleep, they listened to a special 13-minute slow-wave sleep hypnosis tape over loudspeakers, developed by hypnotherapist Angelika Schlarb, a sleep specialist, or to a neutral spoken text.

"It opens up new, promising opportunities for improving the quality of sleep without drugs," said biopsychologist Björn Rasch from University of Zurich in Switzerland.

Highly suggestible women experienced 80 percent more slow-wave sleep after listening to the hypnosis tape compared with sleep after listening to the neutral text.

For older adults and patients with sleeping problems, the results could come as a sigh of relief as in contrast to many sleep-inducing drugs, hypnosis hardly has any adverse side effects.

As a clinical hypnotherapist who first stumbled on hypnotherapy to help me sleep over twenty years ago I know exactly how well the techniques that I use work. There really is no need to lie awake worrying about not being able to sleep. You can fall asleep and sleep well every night. It is so much easier to learn than you may imagine. Just give me a call or drop me an email if you would like to find out more. Most clients who see me for insomnia visit only three or four times and then never need to see me again.

A few days ago I had an hour away from the office. I needed to go and get some more bottled water for clients as we seemed to be getting through more bottles than I expected...and a few minutes in a different environment can help to break up the day.

When I returned I saw a sight that I was not expecting... my driveway was blocked by two huge pallets of building materials. I imagined that a builders merchant had arrived in a lorry and dumped them outside of my house rather than whoever they were supposed to be delivering them to.

When I saw it my jaw fell open and I exclaimed out loud "oh well" and then drove round them and was able to get my car back into the drive.

Basically I just wasn't bothered about it at all.

Then it hit me...what was the matter with me!?  I should be incandescent with rage. My blood should be boiling and I should be reaching for my phone so that I could call someone and swear at them loudly. I should be spending the rest of my day furious and when the neighbours returned home I should be marching round and telling them to sort it out whilst swearing profusely.

But I wasn't doing that.I was calm, relaxed and frankly not bothered at all.

I wonder how you would have felt?

What was really in my mind was that the driver probably had many deliveries to make, he perhaps was struggling to get his lorry close enough to the neighbours house. The neighbours certainly hadn't asked for it to be left outside the wrong house. So, what was the big deal?

In fact, of course there is no big deal. For the rest of the day my clients were able to get into the parking space that was left and my neighbours had to walk round, but the next day we moved them and had a good laugh about it.

The simple fact is that even I was surprised by how relaxed I was about it. I know why of course. What benefit would I have from being angry and annoyed? I would be the one who felt bad. It could have ruined my day. But, I didn't even have to try and think that way because I just felt calm and relaxed by it already. In fact I probably felt calmer when I saw it than before because it brought home exactly how much calmer my life is now compared to a few years ago. Believe me, I would have been angry and upset in the past about it.

In my mind I always know that if something causes me stress all I need to do is imagine if it will be of concern to me in three months time. If it won't, then why let myself worry about it now?

There are so many benefits to my life from being able to help others learn to relax and end anxiety and even now I get surprised on a weekly basis. Who would have thought that a pallet outside my house would teach me how relaxed I was?!

Next time something happens to you that makes your temperature rise..just imagine how you will feel about it in three months time....

.....will it really matter?

Would you like to listen to a free 8 minute relaxation MP3?  Just Click HERE