Losing sleep at the best of times can leave us feeling sluggish, irritable and low, but what happens when you’re unable to get the rest you need, night after night?
Insomnia is a really difficult condition to deal with, which causes the person suffering from it to lose concentration and focus during their waking hours, makes them more susceptible to infection through a lowered immune system, and generally wreaks havoc across all areas of their life from personal relationships through to work capabilities.
Insomnia is basically defined as persistent wakefulness, or an inability to sleep.
Across the UK, it’s estimated that around one in three people suffer with insomnia at some point in their lives, having trouble dropping off to sleep, or only being able to sleep for short periods before they find themselves wide awake again, counting sheep.
When sleep loss becomes a problem
While many of us may find it hard to get off to sleep as a result of specific intermittent situations, such as before an exam or test, or through excitement before a holiday or special event, chronic sleeplessness is a whole different issue.
The occasional night of broken sleep can be quickly remedied by a lie in or early night the following day, but if we go without sleep for sustained periods due to insomnia, we will soon find that our health and mental state begin to suffer.
The health and emotional issues caused by insomnia
Too little sleep can lead to depression, anxiety, susceptibility to infection and illness, lowered cognitive ability, poor concentration and a general feeling of being unable to cope with life’s everyday challenges and tasks.
Sleep occurs through a specific cycle every evening, with different stages including pre-sleep, where we start to relax, and REM, the deep stage where we do most of our dreaming and processing of the day’s events.
When we lose out on any of these stages, we wake up feeling lethargic and sluggish, without the refreshed feeling that ought to come from our rest hours.
It’s agreed that your average person takes less than half an hour to drop off to sleep, and we are expected to have around seven or eight hours a night to maintain our energy levels and health.
If we consistently miss out on the right level of sleep, we risk being irritable and anxious, or even impaired to the point that we are unable to undertake our work to a good standard, or risk causing an accident through erratic driving.
A fundamental need for us Humans, sleep is one of our most valuable commodities in terms of its restorative and healing abilities.
Using hypnosis to combat insomnia, permanently
If you’re struggling to get enough sleep through acute or chronic insomnia, it’s important that you take some action to prevent the condition from interfering with your work, home life and relationships.
Hypnosis is a really effective treatment for preventing recurrent sleep loss, working with your natural inner resources to remove the factors which are preventing you from sleeping, and support you to learn proven techniques for ongoing management of the condition.
A professional hypnosis coach will work with you through an established three-session plan to make sure that you are able to first remove the underlying cause of your sleeplessness, and then teach you the right methods for getting a great night’s sleep should the issue reoccur.
Self hypnosis is a key aspect of the treatment, giving you tried and tested ways to relax and drift off to sleep, ignoring the triggers which would once have left you tossing and turning through the night.
Sleep is fundamental to all of us.
If you’re finding it increasingly hard to get the right amount of rest each night, try hypnosis as a really effective way of beating insomnia and making positive changes to your sleep patterns for increased health and emotional wellbeing.
What’s your experince of insomnia?
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