Insomnia: How Hypnosis Can Restore Your Sleep
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We all have had some restless nights for one reason or another and we know how that can affect our functioning. Imagine those individuals that really struggle with sleep on an ongoing basis. You may be one of them.
Lack of sleep can really affect our daily lives, because it undermines our functioning at work, and on a personal and emotional level.
With time, people that chronically suffer from insomnia find themselves dreading sleep time, and create an anxiety about sleep and not being able to sleep, that becomes a hard to get out of vicious cycle.
On a cognitive level, they create beliefs about themselves and about sleep that literally keep them stuck in a restless snowball.
But what if there's a natural, efficient, safe way to get rid of insomnia once and for all? Hypnosis can be the answer you've been looking for.
What is insomnia?
Insomnia is a sleep disorder that affects about a third of the general population. There are three types of insomnia, and an individual can experience one or more of these at any given time.
Insomnia where a person has difficulty falling asleep
Insomnia with frequent and/or prolonged waking at night
Insomnia characterized by early awakenings
All of these can shorten a person's sleep duration, quality and the ability to restore our body and mind to feel refreshed the next day.
Insomnia can also be classified as far as duration. At some point we may experience short-term or temporary insomnia due to stress or a stressful event, which can last anywhere from one day to several weeks.
Some cases of temporary insomnia are called transient or intermittent insomnia. This is when the person is experiencing sleeping problems periodically over months or years.
When sleeping problems last at least 3 months in a row, experts call it long-term, persistent or chronic insomnia.
Symptoms of insomnia and other complications:
Difficulty falling asleep.
Frequent waking up at night.
Waking up too early.
Waking up tired and groggy the next morning
Fatigue, sleepiness and tiredness during the day.
Lower performance at the job or at school.
Irritability, anxiety and depression.
Difficulty focusing on tasks, paying attention, and functioning properly.
Memory problems.
Making more errors and having more accidents.
Worrying about sleep.
Slowed reaction time while driving and a higher risk of road accidents.
Higher risk or worsening diseases or conditions, such as high blood pressure and heart disease.
Debilitated immune system.
Causes of insomnia:
While an individual may experience insomnia due to a single cause, in many cases it can be a combination of several causes and factors. Here are some possible causes of insomnia:
Physical health conditions
1- If you suffer from a health condition that causes you any type of pain, that can lead to insomnia. If that is your case, it has been persisting and you haven't done it yet, make sure you see your doctor first to know the origin of that pain and treat the condition that may be related.
On a side note remember that hypnosis is also extremely effective with pain management for chronic conditions.
2- Conditions related to difficulty in breathing such as asthma or sleep apnea can disrupt a person's sleep patterns as well.
3- Other conditions such as hormonal problems, urinary conditions, restless leg syndrome, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), overactive thyroid, tinnitus, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease; can affect your ability to rest at night.
4- Medication can also be affecting your sleep. If you suspect that can be causing your sleep problems, make sure you talk to your doctor.
Mental health conditions
5- The low moods of depression increase sleep difficulties and these in turn increase depression itself. It is important to get to the root cause of that depression.
6- Stress and anxiety can also be a reason for sleepless nights, it is a condition often associated with insomnia. The individual feels worried, tense overwhelmed and not being able to switch off. The fear of not getting enough sleep also increases and worsens the situation, which becomes a vicious cycle.
7- Almost everyone who has PTSD also has trouble sleeping. Both insomnia and nightmares are PTSD symptoms. Hypnosis is effective in resolving PTSD and its related insomnia. Many people with PTSD are stuck in hyper-vigilance mode and it is essential to get them back into safe relaxation mode again.
Lifestyle
8- If you drink alcohol regularly, you may find yourself waking up often to urinate during the night. Even if you find it easier to fall asleep after a few glasses, the quality of your sleep is seriously compromised since it affects your REM sleep which is responsible for mental recovery.
Alcohol also affects your circadian rhythm which is the internal clock that responds to daylight and regulates our cycles between alertness and sleepiness, and it increases other sleep disturbances like snoring and sleep apnea.
9- Drugs, caffeine or any drug addiction will similarly affect your sleep cycles, so getting rid of the addiction is very important. Hypnosis is effective in fighting addiction as well.
10- Work schedule and travelling: If you work late at night that may also lead to insomnia since it makes it harder for your mind to switch off when it needs to rest. Work shifts and travelling constantly can create a mess in your sleep patterns and circadian rhythm, especially if they are always changing.
11- Eating too much late in the evening can cause you to be uncomfortable laying down and can also lead to some conditions like heart burn which can keep you awake at night.
12- Poor sleep habits can affect your sleep as well. These include procrastinating sleep time and going to bed or waking up at different times each day; working, eating or watching TV in bed; taking naps; Being too active before bedtime; and using devices like video games, watching TV or using smartphones just before bed. All that can contribute to insomnia.
Risk factors for insomnia
1- Having a mental health or physical health condition.
As mentioned before, there are many causes that raise the risk factor for insomnia.
2- Being a woman
Hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle, pregnancy and menopause increase the chances of suffering from insomnia.
3- Being over 60 years of age
Changes in sleep patterns, overall health conditions and taking more medicines, increase the likelihood of developing insomnia as you get older.
4- Being under a lot of stress
Whether it is a short-term stressful event or you live continuously under stress and anxious, being under stress is an important risk factor for sleep disorders.
5- Not having a regular schedule
Changing shifts at work or travelling can affect your sleep patterns.
How can hypnosis restore your sleep
In order to reach sleep, our mind needs to be in a relaxed state and our brain waves need to slow down. One of the most effective ways to do that is through hypnosis. Our conscious mind is what keeps us awake, therefore hypnosis allows us to get quickly in a slower brain wave mode that allows us to calm down and reach the so desired quality sleep.
New studies have shown how hypnosis can improve sleep quality. This can be observed through brain wave activity, and hypnosis shows to increase slow wave sleep by an oustanding 80%.
Researchers from Universities of Zurich and Fribourg have demonstrated that hypnosis has a positive impact on the quality of sleep, even more than what was expected. "It opens up new, promising opportunities for improving the quality of sleep without drugs," says biopsychologist Björn Rasch.
Hypnosis is a safe, non-invasive, natural way to resolve insomnia that gets to the root cause of the issue.
Not only can you resolve or manage the underlying cause through hypnosis; whether that is depression, anxiety, PTSD, pain, addictions or bad sleep habits; you will also work on changing negative beliefs and perceptions around sleep, and restore and reprogram your sleep cycles back to normal.
Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT) is extremely powerful since it uses hypnotherapy, mindfullness, neuro-linguistic programming and cognitive behavioral techniques to resolve maladaptive sleep behaviors, beliefs and thoughts that keep someone stuck in the insomnia cycle.
As the brain activity changes during hypnosis, the practicioner will tap into your subconscious mind with suggestions that lead to positive changes and break the negative thought cycles that are the root of the problem.
After that work is done during a given session, the individual will then experience getting into hypnosis through the personalized audios tailored to the findings from those sessions, and that daily practice will teach the person how to start practicing self-hypnosis when needed, how to get into a relaxed state and fall asleep fast, at will. It is very empowering.
If you would like help in restoring your sleep patterns through hypnosis, I am offering a 10% discount in any of my programs. All you have to do is subscribe with your name and email on the link provided, add the code "INSOMNIA" and I will send you a link to book a free consultation call with me.
No one is born with insomnia. When we are babies we know exactly when to sleep, how long to sleep and when to wake up, and we have the most perfect healing sleep cycles, maximized for early development.
Along the way in an individual's life something happens that disrupts that capacity. But the mind never forgets; our sleep capacity and our relaxation capacity are embedded in our DNA . Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT) can help you get that back.
To learn more about hypnosis, check out my article "Hypnosis: 7 myths and truths"
Alongside hypnosis, here are some other tips to improve your sleep quality that you can apply to your daily routine, starting today. See what areas could use some attention and improvement to help you restore your sleep quality.
Tips to improve your sleep hygiene
1- Exercise regularly: Exercising reduces stress and will get you tired and more easily able to relax when you go to bed.
2- Create a sleep routine: Go to bed and wake up every day at the same time.
3- Avoid large meals late at night: heavy meals will keep you from relaxing and shutting down during digestion.
4- Cut down or remove altogether alcohol, nicotine and caffeine: Replace coffee and tea with herbal teas.
5- Write to-do lists: it will keep your mind off any worries of what you have to do the next day when you go to bed.
6- Keep electronic devices out of the bedroom: Studies have shown that electronic devices affect sleep. Keep them away and stop using them at least an hour before going to bed.
7- Make your bedroom a sleep haven: bedding, mattress and pillows should be comfortable and the room cool and dark.
8- Practice gratitude and self-hypnosis before bed: Gratitude improves the time it takes you to fall asleep, the sleep duration, and the sleep quality, by changing pre-sleep cognitions, which are the thoughts we have right before we fall asleep. The authors of this study suggest the potential for using gratitude interventions in the treatment of insomnia.
In my article "Gratitude: 14 reasons why (and 14 ways how)" I talk about the daily practice of gratitude in conjunction with hypnosis meditation to improve your sleep. Make sure you check it out.
I hope you enjoyed my article, and that it helps you get back your much deserved sleep. If you find value in this type of content that I enthusiastically bring to you to improve your life, leave me a comment and subscribe to my email list. I would love to know what you think and what other themes you would like me to cover in this blog.
And remember that your mind is so much more powerful than you think...
Other useful links:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4873672/ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1471-2431-6-23#citeas
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