When you think of hypnosis you may think of people doing unusual and funny things on a stage. There was a time when it was popular to use hypnosis as a performance for some entertainers.
Hypnosis is so much more than that. When used effectively, it can actually work to heal a variety of disorders for those that are hypnotizable.
But what is hypnosis? And what is sleep hypnosis? Can it help you get better sleep?
Sleep hypnosis has been around for a long time and is now making a trendy comeback as people search for natural ways to get better sleep. Can sleep hypnosis work for you? If so, it can possibly be added to your treatment plan if you’re suffering from insomnia or any other type of sleep disorder.
What Is Sleep Hypnosis?
Hypnosis is a sleep-like, or trance-like, mental state where the mind is completely relaxed and open to certain external suggestions. Usually a trained professional is needed in order to reach this state safely and successfully.
Sleep hypnosis is used to help people get to sleep, stay asleep, and get better nights of sleep. The person listens to cues that prompt deep relaxation and induces a state where it’s easier to drift off to sleep.
Sleep hypnosis can be achieved with a hypnotherapist or through a recording. It can be a series of repeated words as you concentrate on what is being said and nothing else. It can be soft music with guided visual suggestions putting you in an ideal environment for relaxation and deep sleep.
Contrary to some old beliefs, you remain completely in control of your mind and body.
Does Sleep Hypnosis Work?
Sleep hypnosis is a safe and effective way of drifting off to sleep if done correctly. It is suggested that a person needs to be open and believe in the idea of sleep hypnosis in order for it to be effective.
Still, about 25% of people cannot be hypnotized. These people simply cannot be influenced by suggestion. Obviously, sleep hypnosis won’t work for you if you are part of this group of people. The only way to find out if you are hypnotizable or not is to give it a try.
Sleep hypnosis can be added to a treatment plan as a supplementary tool for treating insomnia, sleepwalking, nightmares, or other sleep disorders.
Can Sleep Hypnosis Help You?
Are you suffering from insomnia? Can’t get to sleep or stay asleep? This can quickly lead to a lack of sleep and some pretty unproductive days.
Before reaching for the sleeping pills you can give sleep hypnosis a try to see if it can help you get to sleep naturally. Sleep hypnosis can be added as a practice along with other habits that you incorporate into your sleep pattern.
If you have done other things like providing a comfortable, quiet, and dark environment in which to sleep in and still experience insomnia, maybe it’s time to try sleep hypnosis.
Many people claim that they are sleeping better and much deeper thanks to sleep hypnosis.
Hypnosis for Deep Sleep
Deep sleep is the part of sleep when your body and mind heal themselves. The immune system restores itself and cell rejuvenation happens. It’s vital to get enough deep sleep every night in order to feel energized during the day.
As you sleep, you go through cycles. The first 2 cycles are where you may experience dreams. The last 2 cycles are considered deep sleep with the REM (Rapid eye movement) providing the deepest stage of sleep. There are no dreams in these cycles. These are the most important cycles as they are the most restorative. You go through these cycles many times during the night.
Studies show that sleep hypnosis can increase deep sleep by 80%.
Self-Hypnosis for Sleep
Self-hypnosis is possible if you can manage to calm your mind and thoughts. Most insomnia sufferers claim that stress and worries are what keeps them up at night. Self sleep hypnosis can help in these cases.
🌀Prepare Your Space
Make your bedroom as comfortable and as quiet as possible. Set the perfect temperature in your space and settle in. Make sure your sheets and bedding are comfortable.
🌀Get into Position
Place yourself in your favorite sleep position and get ready to fall asleep.
🌀Breathe
Take several deep breaths and start to feel relaxed.
🌀Visualize
Choose a location that you find calming and that makes you happy. Let’s say, the beach for example. Visualize that beach with the rolling waves. Imagine that each wave that comes in relaxes a part of your body. Starting from top to bottom. Think of nothing else and bring back your thoughts to your beach images if you drift.
You can add some relaxing music if you want. Choose music without lyrics to better stay concentrated on your visualizations. Drifting off to sleep with calming thoughts instead of worries should provide better sleep.
Sleep Hypnosis Videos
There are many sleep hypnosis videos available with many of them having millions of views. That means that a lot of people turn to sleep hypnosis for better sleep. These are guided spoken or music-only videos that provide an excellent relaxing environment.
We tried a few of these videos and have come up with our top list of sleep hypnosis videos. Try them all or just a few to see what best suits your lifestyle and taste. These recordings are best listened to with headphones.
Micheal Sealey is one of the most popular sleep hypnosis and guided meditation YouTubers with over 1 million subscribers.
Here are our favorite videos on his channel.
This video by Thomas Hall is 8 hours long and will guide you through the whole night prompting you awake and out of hypnosis in the morning.
This is another sleep hypnosis video from Hypnotic Labs that we enjoyed.
This video is 8 hours of Tibetan music to help get you some deep sleep. This is the video for you if you don’t enjoy spoken words but still want to benefit from deep relaxation and sleep hypnosis.
“The right kind of music can soothe us into a perfect state of relaxation. Add this scientifically-based, 8 hour-long video to your nighttime playlist and catch more Zzzz's.”
Countdown...3,2,1...ZZZZ
Sleep hypnosis is not to be feared. Millions of people globally are benefiting from it every single night and getting some relaxing and rejuvenating sleep because of it.
Sleep hypnosis therapists can treat more specific sleep disorders like sleepwalking or night terrors. They hypnotize their patients and instill triggers that tell the person what to do when they sleepwalk or have nightmares.
Sleep hypnosis may or may not work for you. But you basically have nothing to lose by giving it a try. You are probably ready to give it a go if you have tried several things to help with your insomnia.
At the very least you will have a calm mind and relaxed body before drifting off to sleep and that’s always a good thing to help you get rid of the day’s troubles and get you those much wanted deep sleep zzzs.
