Insomnia is defined as difficulty in falling asleep, prolonged night-time awakenings, or insufficient amount or quality of sleep, which affects daytime functioning. According to people who suffer from insomnia, the most common reason for it is intrusive and worrisome thoughts.
It has been estimated that approximately 30% of the adult population complains of insomnia at any one time. For a third of these it is a chronic problem. This also affects children and adolescents and in this case, insomnia is mostly related to fears. Hypnotherapy has helped thousands of people finally beat the vivious cycle even after many years of suffering.
Hypnotherapy is helping to beat my chronic insomnia
Daily Mail
The law of reversed effect applies to nearly all insomniacs. They will try to force sleep. However, the harder they try to do so, the more awake they become.
Hypnotherapy for Insomnia – Treatments
During the treatment of insomnia, we might explore other issues that might be affecting the client such as other sleep disorders, anxiety, depression, trauma, addictions, headaches, migraines, pain in general, overweight, stress, sadness, low self-esteem, PTSD, fears, etc.
CBT combined with hypnosis is the treatment of first choice, encompassing education about sleep and sleep hygiene, stimulus control, relaxation techniques, and cognitive strategies to combat nocturnal distress.
1. Sleep hygiene education provides information related to health behaviours (alcohol/smoking, physical activity, eating, and stress management) and environmental conditions (e.g., room temperature, exercise, noise, pets, and television) that might affect, facilitate or interfere with sleep.
2. Hypnosis is discussed as a mind–body therapy that involves relaxation and mental imagery. It involves suggestions for deep relaxation and mental imagery associated with relaxation. Other relaxation therapies, such as imagery training, meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, etc can also be helpful.
3. Cognitive–behavioural treatments have demonstrated considerable benefits for both stress and sleep disorders; and hypnosis is a form of relaxation therapy that it’s used to treat sleep difficulties; the combination of both: Rational Emotive Cognitive Behaviour Hypnotherapy is an evidence-based technique that greatly diminishes worrisome thoughts that interfere with sleep, achieves a faster sleep onset, a reduction in awakening duration, significantly lower stress, managing better sleep quality, longer sleep duration, …
4. In the treatment of insomnia, all patients are also offered training in self-hypnosis as a way to relax and to encourage onset of sleep and sleeping longer while in bed. This is very easy because most patients experience a hypnotic induction as pleasant, relaxing, and easy to achieve. All of them are able to successfully demonstrate the use of hypnosis techniques and favourite place imagery during the first session.
5. Clients are also encouraged to keep a sleep diary showing the bed times, awakening times and total sleep times; their thoughts, worries or problems prior to go to bed; emotional and mental state; food and exercise, etc.
These combined strategies are aimed to reduce intrusive thoughts, physiological arousal or tension, and poor sleep hygiene. When insomnia is not resolved after the first or second instruction session, patients are offered the opportunity to use hypnotherapy for insomnia to gain insight into the cause or explore other issues that might be affecting or interfering with their sleep.
