Can I fix sleep issues with Hypnosis for Sleep ?

Hypnosis for sleep can’t change recent events such as Covid 19 and the ‘Cost of Living Crisis’ which have certainly changed the way we live our everyday lives. Many of our daily routines are affected and one of the biggest reported impacts is on our sleep – sleep becomes more elusive when we are anxious.

Many people are suffering sleep issues for the first time in their lives and find relief and enjoyment of a restorative rejuvenating sleep  with hypnosis for sleep.

Some of the common Symptoms:

• awake for long periods
• insomnia – unable to fall asleep at all
• wake up several times during the night
• more intense and emotional dreams
• lack of sleep making you tired and groggy the next morning
• find it difficult to concentrate or function properly
• feel irritable
• anxiety

How are you sleeping?

The consequences of Lack of Sleep

For some sleep deprivation is a common occurrence but constantly interrupting the sleep cycle can be dangerous. It affects us in a multitude of ways:

• Mood swings – when we don’t sleep well it can affect our moods during the day.  Some of us may become irritable, short and even indifferent.
• Cognitive Function Slows -problem solving, memory retention, recall and focus can decline when we are robbed of sleep.
• Poor Co-ordination -the brain fails to function properly without adequate sleep, so the signals that are being sent to your body are being compromised.

Nine reasons for a good nights sleep

1. Sleep helps you feel your best – So how much do I need?  Eight hours is considered the norm, however on an individual basis, it’s the amount of sleep that allows you to wake up feeling refreshed and able to stay awake during the day.  In a study connected to the American Automobile Association, December 2016, highlights the risk associated with care accidents and reduced sleep. “The results of this drowsy driving study indicate that drivers who usually sleep for less than 5 hours daily, drivers who have slept less than 7 hours in the past 24 hours and drivers who have slept for 1 or more hours less than heir usual amount of sleep in the last 24 hours have significantly elevated crash rates.”
2. Sleep protects you from heart disease and diabetes – Insufficient sleep can result in an impact on immune function and cardiovascular risk.  There is also a link between weight gain and reduced sleep.  Studies have shown a link between sleep deprivation and an increased risk of developing Type2 diabetes.    You know that your family medical history, along with how much you consume and weigh, can affect your risk of developing Type2 diabetes.  But did you know that your sleep habits can also play a role?  It’s true.  In fact sleep deprivation is often overlooked but a significant factor in Type2 diabetes, a disease that involves too much glucose (or sugar) in the blood and increases the risk of heart disease.                                                            “The connection may be hard to imagine.  But the primary reason that regularly skimping on shuteye can increase your risk is because your hormone levels get thrown out of whack. Specifically with ongoing sleep loss, less insulin (a hormone that regulates blood sugar) is released in the body afer you eat. Meanwhile, your body secretes more stress hormones (such as cortisol), which helps you stay awake but makes it harder for the insulin to do it’s job effectively.  The net effect: Too much glucose stays in the bloodstream, which can increase your risk of developing Type2 diabetes.  These effects have been seen with getting between four and a half and six hours of sleep per night. In particular a decrease in slow-wave (or “deep”) sleep – which is thought to be the most restorative stage of sleep- seems to play a major role in maintaining proper insulin sensitivity and blood sugar control” National Sleep Foundation 2020
3. Sleeping burns calories – How many calories does an extra two hours of sleep burn? Almost 300, according to a study at Hendrix College, Conway, Arkansas.  Researchers at the college asked 32 summer students to keep diaries noting how much sleep they got and what foods they ate over a three week period.  The first week the students, students stuck to their normal eating and sleeping schedules to baseline their normal routines. The second week, students were asked to sleep an extra two hours as day.  The third week the students returned to their normal routine.  When researchers compared the students diaries after the third week, they found that the sthe students who got an extra two hours sleep in week 2 ate 300 calories a day  less than in week 1.  When they returned to their normal sleep deprived routines in week 3 , they ate more food.
4. Sleep keeps extra kilos at bay – a study of 68,000 women conducted at Harvard Medical School revealed that women who sleep five hours a night are 32% more likely to gain 30 pounds (13.6kg) or more as they get older than women who sleep seven hours or more. Common sense says that someone who’s awake longer should be using up more calories than someone who’s in bed.  Running around should make you slimmer, right? But the study, conducted over a 16 year period, revealed that even when the women who slept longer ate more, they still gained less weight than women who slept less.
5. Sleep boosts your immune system – Sleeping better may help you fight off illness. Sleep deprivation make’s your body’s emergency stress system kick in.  In a University of Chicago study, men who were vaccinated against flu while being deprived of sleep ( i.e. they were not allowed to sleep more than four hours per night) produced less than half the antibodies to the flu virus than vaccinated men who got a full nights rest.
6. Sleep improves brain function – Not only does sleep deprivation lead to poor health, it also affects concentration, problem-solving skills, memory and mood.  Problems with memory, decreased social interaction and difficulty concentrating can all be linked to lack of sleep.
7. Sleep helps you look better – People who are limited to only four or five hours of sleep a night for several nights not only experience more physical ailments, such as headaches and stomach problems, but also undergo changes in metabolism similar to those occurring with normal ageing.
8. Sleep improves your mood – People with chronic insomnia without depression produce higher rates of stress hormones (cortisol) during the night (sleep hours) compared to people who sleep well, (Natural Medicine Journal June 2010). This puts their body’s in a hyper aroused state that can make it difficult for them to wind down.  The inability t0 sleep causes more stress, which can have  a devastating impact.  People who don’t have enough sleep can become depressed, and that causes insomnia.  Inversely, more and better quality sleep can make you feel happier.
9. Sleep keeps cravings in check – Sleep deprivation also influences your food choices,making you crave high carb and high sugar foods.  This is because sleep loss decrease insulin sensitivity, putting the sleep deprived at risk of Type2 diabetes.  In addition getting too little slepp can increase your appetite and reduce your level of satiety, causing you to crave carbohydrates and sugary foods in particular.  Over time indulging in these cravings and overeating can wreak havoc on your insulin and blood sugar levels, as well as your body weight.  Plus when you are short on sleep you’re more likely to feel tired and are less inclined to exercise, which is a problem because regular exercise helps with weight management and blood sugar control.  So sleeping may make it easier to fight cravings.

Top Tip:- Eat breakfast within 30 minutes of getting up and include protein such as eggs, yoghurt or nuts.  This will help your body to make hormones such as serotonin and oxytocin, which are essential for well being and keeping anxiousness at bay.  Eating all your meals at the same time each day reprograms your body clock.  Having your body clock in a routine helps sleep.

Sleep Strategies

Good sleep stratagems will help you sleep well and can limit the negative effects of poor sleep.

Five hints for a calmer and better sleep

1. One hour before bed. Limit news intake and avoid your mobiles, tablets, social media, stop work tasks, emotive subjects with your partner or anything that’s going to keep your mind active.  Instead do something to boost your mood before bed – a humorous TV program ( not in the bedroom) or an uplifting podcast, calming music, reading  light fiction, can help you unwind and sleep.
2. Have structure to your day – Our brains and bodies love structure.  Wake, exercise, eat and sleep at similar times each day.  If you are working from home, whatever time you normally finish work do the same at home.
3. Focus on your breathing – Think about rest rather than sleeping.  Follow your breathing by silently whispering the words “in and out” to induce sleep.
4. Learn to relax – Relaxation can switch off the stress response, physically and mentally. Find something that works for you. Hypnosis for sleep audio, mindfulness meditation, long hot bath, or progressive muscle relaxation.  Focus on  where you are holding the stress and gradually allow yourself to release it, kimagine the tension floating out of you as a stream of smoke to the sky and dissipating like the clouds in the sun.
5. If you can’t sleep  get out of bed – Your bed should not be a battleground.  If you are constantly tossing and turning, get up, reset and return to bed.  Instead of focussing on sleep, try to enjoy the sensation of merely resting, knowing all is well and safe, allowing yourself to drift, slowly drift down and down.

Hypnosis for sleep can help many of sleep issues and insomnia.

If you are not sleeping well hypnotherapy, a combination of hypnosis and NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) may be able to help you sleep the way you deserve. It uses different approaches to induce relaxation, such as focussed attention, symptom control and guided imagery. Unlike sleep medications, it has no side effects, so it can be an aid to those who can’t or don’t want to take sleeping pills.  It can help overcome bedtime restlessness – ease the worry, tension and anxiety that prevent sleep – and can shop the way to the deep restorative rejuvenating sleep that we all need.

Hypnosis for Sleep – Sweet dreams