How to use hypnosis for better sleep.

Hello, I’m Jonathan Garside from The Hypnosis Clinic. One of the questions I get asked all the time is ‘Can you do anything about my sleep’? According to the Sleep Foundation, Insomnia is a sleep disorder that affects as many as 35% of adults. It can have serious effects, leading to excessive daytime sleepiness, a higher risk of car accidents, and widespread health effects from sleep deprivation. Common causes include stress, an irregular sleep schedule, poor sleeping habits, and issues like anxiety and depression. Our modern lifestyle can also have a direct bearing on our sleep, keeping the brain stimulated until late in the evening, such as by working late, playing video games, or using other electronic devices. The use of caffeine, alcohol, nicotine and even our diet can have an adverse effect on our sleeping patterns. So what do we do to be able to get better sleep. Well, my work using Hypnosis to improve sleep over 26 years has taught me a lot about how to get good quality sleep. The first thing to learn is you need 3 basic things to get good sleep; first, your mind has to be calm, second, you have to be relaxed and third, you need to be confident that sleep is something that’s safe to do. It all starts with being calm in your mind, and that means clearing out all thoughts about the events of the day and any worries about the following day. Your mind needs to be calm to enable sleep to come and find you. And maybe that’s a revelation for you! Yes, sleep has to find you. There’s no point in you trying to hunt for sleep, it doesn’t work, sleep just runs away in the opposite direction, that’s why the harder you try to go to sleep, the more sleep eludes you. Sleep is shy, so don't think about it, don’t analyse it, don't worry about it - only then will sleep come and find you. The second thing you need is to be physically relaxed, and tired! When you’re stressed your body becomes tense, so practice relaxing each part of your physical self in turn - find a nice soothing colour to imagine your body relaxing to and allow your muscles just to relax and take it easy. Thirdly, keep telling yourself that sleep is a safe place to be, have confidence that sleep will come and find you, and do your best not to worry about not being able to get to sleep. Concentrate on your breathing and keep your mind and body as quiet as possible. Even if sleep doesn’t come and find you straight away, that’s OK; lying in bed, resting with your eyes closed is almost as good as being asleep, so be reassured that even without sleep, your body is resting safely, and that you are getting some benefit. If you think it’s about time you got a decent night’s sleep, check out our sleep blog for more tips about how to do it. To find out more about the work I do helping people to enjoy better quality sleep, make an appointment for a free consultation. You can either come to meet me at our clinic in London’s regent street, or via a Telehealth video call. I look forward to meeting you soon. Sweet dreams.