How to beat insomnia

Sleep is nourishing and restorative.

Lack of sleep therefore can lead to many physical, mental and emotional health problems.

According to statistics, insomnia affects about 20 per cent of the population in the US.

The main causes are anxiety, stress and worry. If you’re worried about your kids, the mortgage or a big project at work, you are likely to have stress and trouble sleeping.

Another common cause of insomnia is the way people respond to their inability to sleep.

After not sleeping well for several days, you may become even more worried, frustrated or depressed. You then place added pressure on yourself to sleep.

This leads to increased anxiety at bedtime, which further interferes with sleep. In no time at all, a vicious cycle of ‘failure-worry-more failure-more-worry’ develops.

Are you one of those people tossing and turning in your bed at night?

Lying awake worrying that you can’t get to sleep and how you’ll be too tired in the morning to do all the things you have to do — you have programmed your mind into lying awake and insomnia has become a habit.

Changing habits through willpower alone can be difficult because habits become an automatic reaction and are locked into the subconscious mind.

That’s why the methods used by a trained hypnotist work so well. A hypnotist has the ability, resources and know-how to help reverse negative sleep patterns to healthy restfulness, simply by communicating directly with the client’s subconscious mind.

Just relaxing into a pleasant state of hypnosis can help to reduce stress, increase self-esteem and overall health and will aid better sleep.

When your sleep becomes disturbed, your goal should be to restore your previous sleep pattern as quickly as possible.

Intervention

Swift intervention can cure most types of sleeping problems and prevent them from becoming chronic.

A regular sleep schedule is useful. Go to bed at the same time each night, even on weekends, and wake without an alarm clock, if you can. 

Encourage your body and brain to adopt a consistent sleep-wake cycle; after a while, this conditioned pattern will take over naturally, on its own.

Deal with worries several hours before bedtime. Make a list of all your immediate problems and concerns and then write down one or two actions you could take the next day to help resolve them.

Develop a sleep ritual. Doing the same things each night just before bed signals your body to settle down for the night.

Avoid over-stimulus before going to bed. Read a book rather than watching the news, action movies or anything with violence or upsetting content.

Lower the brightness of lights in the bathroom or bedroom if possible with dimmers.

Keep a pad and pencil by your bed. If you wake in the night with a critical thought, jot it down, thereby transferring your thoughts from your brain to the paper and avoiding worry that you will forget it by morning.

One of the best things you can do to prevent or eliminate insomnia is to learn how to deal with stress more effectively.

When stress is removed, normal sleep patterns are usually quickly restored.

A hypnotherapist can help you to change your ‘bad’ sleep habits so that you have a good night’s sleep.

You can accomplish more and feel less stressed with the wonders of a relaxed and rested mind, clear to take on the day’s challenges and create a healthy, happy and productive life.

Monica Dobbie is a licensed hypnotherapist and is an expert in the field of sleep issues. She has also given international presentations on this subject. Call 505-7531 or e-mail [email protected]. Website www.hypnosisbermuda.com