A good night’s sleep is so important to your health and well-being. Even just missing a few hours in a single night can leave you feeling groggy and grouchy for most of the day. It goes without saying that chronic sleep loss can have much more serious consequences.
The main solution for sleep disorders that is provided by western medicine is, of course, medication. Even though these drugs can be effective in the short term, long term use can lead to all kinds of unwanted side effects, including dependency.
Fortunately, there is an all-natural alternative for treating many sleep disorders.
And you guessed it. It’s hypnosis.
Looking at the causes of sleep disorders
The first thing a good hypnotist or hypnotherapist will do with a potential client suffering from a sleep disorder is complete a thorough sleep hygiene assessment. It’s a matter of eliminating the the most obvious suspects before doing anything else.
Do you have a regular sleep schedule? Is your bedding comfortable? Is your sleeping space sufficiently dark? Do you drink lots of sugary and caffeinated beverages? Are you exercising just before going to bed? What about pre-bedtime screen habits?
Other factors that may contribute to sleep disruption include major life events like job loss, relationship loss, and death of a loved one.
I try to address any and all of these issues before working with a client on a sleep related issue. If we can solve the problem before we even begin, then I’m happy to do that.
If we do move forward with a hypnosis plan, we dive right in to creating the right solution for the individual.
How hypnosis helps with sleep
Nobody consciously decides they’re going to develop insomnia or some other sleep issue. The reason we can’t fall and stay asleep at night is because there is some subconscious motivation for staying awake.
At first, this might sound counterintuitive. Again, what reason could there be for any part of us to put ourselves through so much suffering?
What we have to remember is that the subconscious mind is powerfully emotional. Its motivations are not always logical. As a result, reasoning with it is usually ineffective. Nonetheless, to the subconscious mind, keeping us wide awake in the middle of the night makes perfect sense.
For example, someone might have had a traumatic experience in childhood that occurred at night in their bedroom. If this is unresolved, then the subconscious mind might think that the event is still happening, or just about to happen. As a result, a part of the mind keeps the person awake and vigilant to protect them from harm.
This is a case where the subconscious cause requires a subconscious solution.
That’s what we do in the hypnotic process.
While in trance, we are able to access our subconscious mind without the usual interference of our analytical prefrontal lobe brains. In the case of a traumatic experience, we can safely and gently revisit the memory and tend to it with healing and care. We assure the subconscious mind that the event is in the past now and that you have better resources to take care of and protect yourself.
Even if there is no obvious root cause for the sleep issue, on some level the subconscious mind knows what the problem is. Through playful inquiry we can enlist our own creative intelligence to sort things out, resolving whatever needs to be resolved while releasing whatever needs to be released.
If you would like to learn more about how hypnosis can help you get a better nights sleep, schedule a free consultation.
