Greg Thompson, a clinical hypnotherapist and director of Moving Minds Hypnotherapy, explains why hypnosis can help treat insomnia.
How to Treat Your Insomnia With Hypnosis |
By: Greg Thompson
May 22
Insomnia is a debilitating sleep disorder for many, and it can be hard to treat because there’s still so much we’re yet to learn and understand about sleep. It’s surprisingly common too with 33% of the population impacted by it.
Lack of sleep to this extent can have a significant impact on your alertness during the day, reasoning, mood and how you function in general. If you suffer from insomnia, we understand the struggle. You’ve probably been to the GP a few times and tried to manage it with medication to no avail.
But what if we told you there’s a natural and effective way to treat this? Hypnosis could be the answer you’ve been looking for.
Hypnosis and Sleep
Hypnosis has significant therapeutic potential for sleep and insomnia.
To be able to sleep, the mind needs to be in a relaxed state, and one of the most effective ways to do that is through hypnosis. One of the reasons why it can be so hard to fall asleep is because the conscious mind keeps you awake. Thoughts and worries keep swirling in your mind, preventing you from falling asleep. Hypnosis helps to block out these thoughts and calms your mind so you can finally get a good night sleep.
Both acute and chronic insomnia tend to respond well to relaxation and hypnotherapy techniques and only a couple of sessions are needed. A 2018 study reported that 58% of participants had a positive sleep outcome following hypnotherapy, so the evidence is there that this form of treatment can work for many.
Why Does Hypnosis Work So Well?
Hypnosis puts people into a state of relaxation, and in turn, dispels the anxiety often felt by people with insomnia when they try and fail to fall asleep. Hypnotic suggestion can also be used to help establish good sleep hygiene practices in the subconscious mind.
But it does take practice and perseverance to get used to hypnosis, especially if you’ve never been hypnotised before. That’s why it helps to have hypnosis for insomnia done by a professional who can ease you into the process the correct way.
Does Self-Hypnosis Work for Insomnia?
Self-hypnosis can help, but it should be combined with structured hypnotherapy sessions for the best results. While there are certainly ways to undertake self-hypnosis on your own, most people don’t know what they’re doing and are unlikely to see real benefits from it. A trained hypnotherapist will hypnotise you correctly and teach you how to use these techniques correctly at home – specifically for treating insomnia.
Story Time: Elizabeth Best’s story of self-hypnosis for sleep insomnia details exactly why self-hypnosis alone just won’t do the trick. The ‘hypnosis for sleep’ phone app may have worked for her first session, but she explains how worry and anxiety got to her during subsequent sessions, preventing her from fully absorbing the experience and ultimately stopping her from sleeping.
A hypnotherapist can help you move past this anxiety-inducing mindset and free your mind up for relaxation when the time comes to go to sleep.
What’s Involved in Hypnotherapy Treatment?
Treating insomnia with hypnotherapy doesn’t mean having one session with a hypnotherapist, and you’ll be sleeping like a baby right away. To get real results, you need to commit yourself to a hypnotherapy regimen.
This includes a number of sessions with a hypnotherapist combined with at-home techniques to use right before bed or as you drift off to sleep. During your sessions with a hypnotherapist, you’ll be guided into a deep state of relaxation, and hypnotic suggestion will be used to help you envision things that will calm your mind.
Once you’re out of that chair, your hypnotherapist may also offer you recordings, techniques or anxiety-reducing mantras that will help you ease your mind at home, right before it’s time to sleep.