INSOMNIA (SLEEPLESSNESS)

Insomnia is the inability to get to sleep easily and sleep well, or an inability to stay asleep and receive a reasonable amount of rest.

There are three types of insomnia:
- you have difficulty falling asleep when you first go to bed
- you fall asleep when you first go to bed but awaken in the middle of the night and then find it difficult to
  get back to sleep; and
- you sleep throughout the night, but awaken much earlier than you normally would, feeling unrefreshed
  and sleepy.  Typically you're not able to return to sleep.

The most simple and obvious cause of insomnia is excess muscular tension and anxiety over sleeping - and/or excessive thinking or worrying.  It can also be caused by many other things - a traumatic experience, illness, stress, worry and uncertainty, to name a few.

Insomnia often starts with one of the above problems and over a period of time of no sleep the sufferer starts to believe they can never sleep. They then naturally fear the night time, laying there for hours unable to sleep. This fear then causes them more anxiety and more stress making it hard for them to get to sleep easily. Sometimes, even when the initial problem has passed, the sufferer can still suffer from the belief and fear that they cannot sleep, therefore making the insomnia continue.

If you think you won't be able to sleep, it's almost certain that you won't.  If you try not to think of a pink elephant, then you'll probably think of one.  If you try to get an irritating song out of your head, you'll probably struggle.  And of course, if you have to try to fall asleep, you're probably already suffering from insomnia.  Let's face it, you aren't supposed to try to fall asleep - you're supposed to just do it.

So how can hypnosis help?  Well, it's a natural way of trying to overcome any sleep disorder.  Hypnotherapy helps to calm the mind and relax muscles, removing unhelpful behaviours and thinking patterns around sleep.  It encourages positive thinking and behaviour around bedtime, and helps you learn to relax deeply, and therefore maintain a good night's sleep.  Hypnotherapy can help you develop new expectations and make insomnia a thing of the past.  Modern life is very rushed - when you're ready to fall asleep a racing mind doesn't help!

Hypnotherapy helps with insomnia very quickly - in fact many people come to see me for other reasons than insomnia, and are amazed that their sleep improves as a consequence of just starting sessions.  It will help you take control and re-educate your mind into relaxing easily into sleep.  It will also help you to learn how to just slow things down and stop thinking so much.

Once you get into good sleeping habits, then you will find that sleeping well will become a habit for you!  if you sleep well and start waking up refreshed then this just has a knock-on effect on the rest of your day.

Take control of your insomnia quickly and easily.  Don't spend another sleepless night tossing and turning in frustration.  Let me help you resolve your insomnia so you can start getting the deep rest you need.