With the end of British summer time and the clocks having gone back an hour at the weekend perhaps you are one of the one in three who suffer with some form of insomnia in the UK. If so then now could be a good time to consider a new way of addressing your sleep difficulties.
Most help for insomnia focuses on how to get to sleep and gives various strategies for improving the chances of getting off to sleep, staying asleep and getting back to sleep if you wake during the night. Many of these suggestions encourage you to do “something” but this very act of trying to get to sleep is one of the things that will stop you. If you asked a person who sleeps well for most of their lives how they do it then they will tell you that they do not do anything, sleep just happens without any trying. One of the biggest problems with insomnia is that your body gets used to not sleeping and it becomes something of a habit. This is where hypnotherapy can help as your subconscious mind is accessed whilst you are relaxed and reprogrammed. The habit of not sleeping is replaced with a habit of falling asleep, staying asleep and waking feeling refreshed in the morning. Of course every one has some episodes of disturbed sleep at some time in their lives. This is normal and can occur if you are particularly stressed or worried at any time or have had some recent trauma or loss in your life. This type of insomnia usually resolves itself reasonably quickly and your usual sleeping habits return. Persistent chronic insomnia lasts for over three nights a week and for longer than three months. Many insomniacs feel that they are locked in a battle with sleep and this in itself creates more difficulties in sleeping as the harder you try to go to sleep the more elusive it becomes.
Learning to use both mindfulness and self hypnosis can be useful. Mindfulness can be used to simply accept the present moment instead of fighting with sleep, learning to observe and accept your feelings, thoughts and yourself. Focusing on your breathing and being aware of the process of breathing is calming. Understanding that you can observe your thoughts rather than chasing them takes the emotional impact out of the thought. Anxiety and persistent negative thoughts are reduced, leading to an increased sense of calm and ease.
For self hypnosis you could spend some time imaging you are at a special beach, daydream about lying in the sun or listening to the waves, or imagine a calming waterfall. Researchers at Oxford university found that by doing this insomniacs fell asleep 20 minute earlier. This may be because picturing an interesting and engaging scene takes up more brain space than simply counting sheep and is easier to stay with than some other techniques.
Recent research covering forty years of study by scientists at the University of Arizona suggests that chronic insomnia can kill you. It is linked to higher inflammation of the blood which is responsible for most chronic diseases. This study was published on line by The American Journal of Medicine. As insomnia appears to increase the risk of heart disease, dementia, diabetes and depression then it may well be a good time for you to try a different view and approach your insomnia from a new angle.
The new buzz word is ” gratitude” a phenomena that seems to be taking over from the craze for mindfulness as the ” new must have therapy to cure all ” Although much hyped in recent years as the wonder therapy, mindfulness does have a place and a very useful place for some people in helping to manage their unwanted thoughts and troublesome feelings.
Gratitude was identified by the Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero to be not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all others. More recently the philosopher Dr Robert Emmons in his study of human emotions found in 2003 that being grateful can increase perceived happiness by 25%. Since then there have been further studies which conclude that grateful people experience higher levels of joy, love, happiness and optimism and are better protected from the destructive feelings of envy, resentment, greed and bitterness.
Interestingly we can literally produce feelings of gratitude at almost any moment and one place we can start is by being grateful for who we are. It is too easy to constantly focus inwardly at our negative traits and problems and easily avoid being grateful for ourselves and our lives. Focusing on the negative qualities in partners, children family and friends leads to unhappiness and general feelings of dissatisfaction. Simple as it may seem repetitive constant complaints about the weather will bring you down.Try instead to use gratitude, be grateful for the rain enabling us to live in this beautiful green land. Even when forced gratitude seems to have the same up lifting effect. The same principle applies to your relationships both personal and professional so when you feel irritated by some thing your partner, children, friends or work colleagues have done accessing feelings of gratitude will significantly improve your mood and the relationship. This does not mean you become a doormat or a pushover, if you need to address a problem then do so. It simply means not focusing on the negatives but finding something to be grateful for in your life.
In hypnotherapy the therapist can use hypnosis, mindfulness and gratitude, incorporating suggestions of gratitude to improve feelings of well being, to identify inner strengths which you may have forgotten that you have. I always like to include phrases to encourage you to appreciate yourself and be grateful for who you are. This enables you to change your focus and slowly alter your perceptions, so that whatever problems we have we can learn to reflect and accept the good things in our lives. Throughout the day you can consciously choose to stay present in this moment, accepting that life is a moment by moment process and one moment simply leads to the next, whatever is going on in your life you can be grateful for being you. Incorporating this into your daily life will bring an increased sense of well being.
Certainly I believe that gratitude is probably easier to practice and maintain than mindfulness meditations, it has the added advantage that you will focus more outwardly on the people and the world around you leading to much less preoccupation with any problems or ailments that you may have.