Sleep deprivation can be extremely frustrating, causing you to toss and turn all night long. Unfortunately, many people struggle with this condition.
The recommended amount of sleep for adults under the age of 60 is seven hours, yet 1 in 3 adults say they barely get more than five to six hours of sleep every night. Even 70% of high school kids said they don’t get a restful amount of sleep.
A lack of sleep is harmful to your mental and physical health, which ultimately affects your life and relationships. However, with time and effort, you can permanently alter sleep-disrupting habits by using hypnosis techniques designed for sleep. Read on to learn more about hypnotherapy and how it improve sleep efficiency.
What is Hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy is the process of inducing a highly focused and receptive mental state. You are more open to suggestions for change and improvement while under hypnosis.
A trained therapist will typically guide a patient into a hypnotized state trance by using guided imagery and verbal repetition. There’s a misconception that hypnosis is a form of mind control but this is far from the truth. In a hypnotic trance, a person’s free will is completely intact, so no one can make them do anything against their will.
Sleep therapists use hypnosis to treat various issues like anxiety, sadness, sleeplessness, stress, substance misuse, and even eating disorders. It can also be used to ease the discomfort of chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting. Several studies suggest that hypnosis can alleviate menopausal symptoms, including hot flashes.
The exact mechanisms of hypnosis remain under debate, but experts agree that it leads to neural changes similar to the ones we experience during meditation and other forms of relaxation. While under hypnosis, some areas of the brain will receive more blood than usual. These adjustments help your body and mind become more receptive to helpful suggestions and affirmations.
How Does Sleep Hypnotherapy Work?
Hypnotherapy is a multi-step procedure that begins with preparation and ends with debriefing and reflection.
Initiation
This is when you can start to unwind, concentrate, and block out external noise. This phase involves specific techniques. First, you practice controlled breathing (inhaling for a count of seven and exhaling for a count of eleven). Then you will be instructed on progressive muscle relaxation. This involves tensing muscles as you breathe in and relaxing them as you breathe out, repeating in a predetermined order of muscle groups across the body. Your therapist might also ask you to focus on a visual image.
Deepener
The second stage builds on the first by increasing the depth of your relaxation and concentration. This stage normally involves counting down from some specific number or employing imagery of a downward progression, such as going down a flight of stairs or gradually settling into bed. Stages one and two are meant to make you more receptive to advice.
Therapeutic recommendations
Once the sleep therapist thinks you’re relaxed enough to be open to suggestions, they start suggesting changes to your behavior. They will use visual aids and special wording to help you relax. In most cases, the advice is symptom-specific (designed to alleviate a condition) or exploratory (explores symptom-related experiences). The suggested changes can be aimed at your senses, emotions, recollections, ideas, or actions.
Session ends
Now you are emerging from the trance state. One technique your hypnotist may use is called a “reverse deepener” and it involves suggesting to the subject that they are doing something counterintuitive, such as counting up or ascending a flight of stairs.
Certified sleep therapists with expertise in sleep hypnosis will make sure all of these requirements are met. Doctors, nurses, psychologists, and psychiatrists are just a few of the medical professionals who can learn hypnosis and get certified to practice it.
Hypnotherapy is often more effective when it is administered in a series of sessions, though patients can get results from a single session as well. Make sure you discuss your progress with your sleep therapist to assess how many sessions you’ll need.
How Does Hypnosis Help with Sleep Problems
Sleep hypnosis can help you with the following sleep problems:
Restlessness, insomnia, and erratic sleep patterns
If you have trouble falling or staying asleep, or if you sleepwalk, hypnosis may be a useful technique for you. When used for insomnia, hypnosis can relax the patient to the point where they fall asleep more quickly. It’s a huge help for sleepwalkers can since it can teach them to wake up when they feel their feet touch the floor.
Hypnosis improve sleep efficiency, even if it’s just to make it more restful. You can get the restorative, rejuvenating sleep you need by increasing your sleep duration and the portion of that time spent in deep sleep.
Anxiety
Hypnosis is only one of many relaxation techniques that may help reduce anxiety. People with anxiety caused by a long-term health issue, like heart disease, respond better to hypnosis than those with a generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). It can also help if you have a phobia or an anxiety disorder where you have an irrational dread of something that does not actually pose a threat to your safety.
Pain and Discomfort
Hypnosis offers pain relief for different types of headaches and other types of pain, including post-operative pain, migraines, and tension headaches. Even long-term pain can benefit from this treatment. This type of therapy also helps alleviate pain for patients dealing with illnesses such as arthritis, cancer, sickle cell disease, fibromyalgia, and even simple back discomfort.
Searching for a qualified sleep therapist in Texas? Reach out to A Better Snooze today. Our certified sleep coaches are trained in sleep therapy techniques like MER and hypnosis for insomnia.
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