Sleep deprivation seems to be a common issue with clients in Reading &Wokingham!! In the past two years that I have been practising Hypnotherapy at bliss centre, I have seen at least one client almost every fortnight with sleep problems.
In the U.K. one in three people suffer from some kind of sleep problem: problem going to sleep initially or getting back to it after waking up in the early hours; or else getting only light, dreary and tiring sleep that leaves you hungering for more and more sleep….
Insomnia/Sleepless nights can be completely a medical condition or a combination of medical and psychological conditions but there are a considerable proportion of insomnia patients who cannot sleep properly because of purely psychological reasons. These are the people who are getting a lot of relief and help from Hypnotherapy.
The sequence of sleep disturbances varies:
* Some people find it difficult to go to sleep and toss around at night listening to their partner’s snoring and deep breath….until early hours in the morning.
* Other people go to sleep very well but on the dot of early morning hours (three or four o’clock in the morning) they will wake up and find it almost impossible to go back to sleep again.
* Still other people cannot achieve what we call REM sleep that is they hover between light to moderate sleep patterns so that when they wake up they feel even more tired than when they went to sleep, because they cannot manage any deep sleeping patterns. As clients describe it: “it is as if I am running and working in my sleep; am on a rollercoaster….”
The important question is: Why do some people find sleep such a luxury that they crave every night for while others sleep off like a baby and wake up after six/seven hours feeling fresh and energetic?
There are several reasons:
1. Cognitive over activity and conditioned habit patterns incompatible with sleep: over analysis of past events, ruminations during pre sleep, conditioning oneself “it’s no use; I will not sleep!!” often the mind is kept so busy working that even if we do fall asleep we find that we wake up and carry on thinking from exactly where we dozed off!!
2. Central Nervous System excitation: anxiety, tension contained in the muscles which keeps indicating to the mind that the person has some unfinished work and cannot let go; anxious people keep thinking in vicious circle patterns so that they never reach deep sleep or find that they cannot relax enough to fall asleep, even if they have a nice glass of wine or a hot bath!!
3. Underlying (unconscious) conflicts or fears that disrupt sleep: often the mind has been conditioned to always maintain control because in the past (maybe early childhood, or after a trauma or major loss) loss of control over emotions felt too vulnerable, fragile, fearful. Then the mind does not let go even to the extent of keeping the mind awake. If we sleep the unconscious mind starts working on our fears and this is what leads to dreams /nightmares. We have conditioned our brain not to let go and keep a good check on these fears with the results that it will not allow us to sleep. E.g. a woman went through a major divorce; she spent hours thinking about the past and the events so that when the sense of release comes, she should be able to let go and relax; surprisingly enough it is then that she finds she cannot go to sleep!!!
As a Hypnotherapist I can explain sleep problems as being a cause of the Unconscious mind’s being in a state of alarm. The unconscious brain is that part of our brain that learns all our responses in life and then responds to similar situations almost instinctively. So once you have learnt to walk as a baby you do it without thinking after that; once you have learnt driving you drive without thinking too much after that. In the same way sleep is a natural and instinctive response to a state of safety.
Hypnotherapy comes to the rescue within two or three sessions; the mind in an insomniac has been programmed(either through stress, anxiety or habit) to stay awake and thereby despite changed circumstances later on, when it should let go, you find that you can no longer change its habit of keeping you awake!!
In Hypnotherapy we access the unconscious mind where all the programming happens and we help you change the past programming and set newer, more constructive ways of behaving and more importantly we program the mind to go back to sleep properly and in a state of safety. In a nutshell we retrain your unconscious mind to become natural and safe with sleep so that you go back to sleep as you used to when you were born!!!
See what a client who is back to sleeping well has to say:
“It happened in just two sessions!! I have never been a great sleeper but I took that as natural until I got married and was amazed that my wife could sleep off like a log while I am still brushing my teeth….by the time I came to bed she was sleeping like a baby. Then we actually had our first child and then I lost my sleep, however light and less, completely. I just could not go back to sleep after the first time the baby woke us up in the night.
Seeing me arrive to work as a very tired and stressed man, my boss suggested therapy and I looked into Hypnotherapy. I came to the first session thinking “there’s no way she can make me relax. I have been so tensed lately!” But within fifteen minutes I was deep into that craved- for world of peace where my mind became so quiet and calm I was amazed it could happen to me…”
By the end of the second session, where Amreeta taught me self-hypnosis, I was sleeping very deeply by starting off with my self-hypnosis when I went to bed; we ended after three sessions and I am writing this after four months of having last seen Amreeta in Wokingham and I am very happy to sleep a full night’s sleep after long agonising years of sleepless nights. Hypnotherapy has given me back my sleep!!”(Client in late 30’s from Wokingham, Berkshire)
Trained as a Psychologist and Hypnotherapist Amreeta has been in full time practice since the past four years in Reading, Wokingham, Windsor and Maidenhead, Berkshire. She specialises in certain areas which are: depression, anxiety, panic attacks, low self-esteem, anger management, sexual problems/abuse and phobias.
Amreeta works extensively with adults and children facing symtoms listed above and finds with experience that an average of four to six sessions are needed for most issues except where is a deep history of sexual abuse or child abuse where the sessions can go up to eight/ten sessions.