Sleep hypnosis
What is sleep hypnosis and does sleep hypnosis really work?
First things first, sleep hypnosis or sleep hypnotherapy as it’s sometimes known, is a type of hypnotherapy to help improve sleep. The best sleep hypnosis teaches you to sleep hygiene such as tips for sleeping and how to get to sleep. We all know how to fall asleep - it’s a natural process - but sometimes we need help and sleep hypnosis can make sleep easier. It’s basically a helping hand for good sleep. It can often take you into what feels like a deep sleep meditation – and it’s super relaxing.
As with any type of wellbeing approach, hypnotherapists cannot make claims or guarantees, because it’s rarely that simple. But all the experts agree that different people, with different sleep patterns, circumstances, backgrounds, environments and other factors, respond in different ways in different conditions. What we do know is - getting your mind and body into a relaxed state and feeling supported is an effective way to work towards better sleep.
With Clementine’s sleep sessions, the sleep hypnosis approach we use includes a range of different relaxation tools, such as progressive relaxation, guided visualisation, guided breathing and hypnotic suggestions for calming the body and mind. Relaxation is an important factor in falling asleep as well as maintaining a healthy mind and body in general. That’s why we love sleep hypnosis so much. It’s great for good sleep.
In addition to the relaxation and sleep suggestions, our sessions are recorded with sleep music to relax. These sleep sessions touch on other topics such as confidence and the skill of letting go of troubling thoughts, which means that as you repeat the sessions, you’re also training yourself in key skills associated with emotional wellbeing and resilience. This boosts your overall sense of wellbeing, which can improve sleep and sleep hygiene markedly.
One of the most common complaints associated with poor sleep is a ‘racing mind’. When the day ends and the lights are switched off, our busy internal chatter can seem to fill our awareness completely, often dragging us into a string of uncomfortable thoughts that stimulate the ‘fight or flight’ response, which in turn, prevents us from drifting off.
For chronic insomnia sufferers, this can be so disconcerting that they delay going to bed at all, which affects their sleep patterns and sleep cycles further. By beginning a hypnosis recording, people have access to another, calmer and more positive voice to listen to. This can prevent the worry and rumination from hijacking their attempts to fall asleep. Good sleep is so important.
What is the difference between sleep hypnosis and sleep meditation?
Hypnosis and sleep hypnosis is different from mindfulness and traditional meditation in that positive suggestions are given, with a specific goal in mind, while a person is in a relaxed state. For example, the sleep hypnosis session you will find in our sleep sessions are very similar to what you’d experience in hypnotherapy and are designed to bring your mind and body into a relaxed state. Once there, we offer some positive suggestions and approaches to support your sleep.
Clementine also helps people find relaxation and we do so using suggestion, imagery and metaphor rather than cultivating full awareness, which is associated with mindfulness.
In our hypnosis for sleep sessions, we give constant guidance and help people to pattern in the skill using visualisations, hypnotherapeutic suggestions, metaphor and story. So you don’t need to do anything in particular, apart from lie back, relax and listen to the session – and fall asleep.
It’s worth noting that there are some striking similarities between hypnosis and meditation in general. Both can lead you to deep relaxation, both can help with sleep and both can cultivate positive change in your mental health and overall wellbeing. However, there are also some marked differences between the two.
First up, hypnosis. Hypnosis is a natural state, one we pass through many times a day, naturally. We can slip in and out of the state without even realising it. We each experience it in different ways. Some might experience a relaxed, trance-like sleepy state, others simply feel super chilled. A hypnotherapist can take you into a state of hypnosis, and while there, introduce positive suggestions and other approaches to help you make the changes you need.
Whereas, the practice of mindfulness, is when a person tries to cultivate awareness often using an anchor such as the breath or sound. Mindfulness helps people observe their thinking as it is happening and while it is happening. It’s not about stopping thoughts or silence, rather, being aware of thoughts or feelings, and accepting them as they are. Mindfulness, if practised regularly, does often help people to sleep better because the skill of noticing and letting go is what you need to release distracting thoughts when the lights go out.
Then there’s meditation. There’s often an overlap between mindfulness and meditation. However, meditation can often provide a different experience to mindfulness. It depends! There are so many different kinds of meditation, including guided meditations, which can allow you to experience insights or cultivate more compassion.
Then there is sleep meditation - mindfulness and meditation sessions that can specifically help with sleep, including something called hypnogogic mindfulness, which helps you to retain awareness as you fall asleep. There’s also Yoga Nidra, which is another form of relaxation or sleep meditation, which can aid sleep and help with insomnia.
How to use hypnosis to help you sleep. How can clementine help with sleep hypnosis?
The best way is to make a habit of listening to a session as part of your night-time routine when you get into bed. It’s a bit like having your very own sleep hypnotherapist or sleep hypnotherapy session – by your bedside.
Many people are on the lookout for tips for sleeping or how to get to sleep fast. Sleep routines are important for quality sleep. We have routines already, it’s just that they’re not always that helpful. If you get into bed and automatically check your phone for emails, this is part of your routine, and it may well be keeping you from some good shut-eye.
One of the key ideas we had when developing the Clementine sessions was that we wanted to help people integrate healthy practices into their existing routines, rather than giving busy people even more work to do in order to be well. That period when you wind down at the end of the day ready for sleep is a prime example of how we can help with this.
Most people do something between the moment they climb into bed and when they fall asleep (ahem!). This could be reading or listening to an audiobook. But for many people, that time will be filled with worrying, planning, ruminating, fretting. In other words, anxiety-inducing thinking is, for a lot of people, a part of their sleep routine.
Listening to a Clementine recording at that time, rather than worrying, is a way to substitute in a better, healthier and calmer way to spend those moments. By doing this repeatedly, you will be creating a new and better sleep routine, training your mind to associate bed with a calm, and soothing voice rather than nervous chatter.
What is the importance of sleep?
Sleep helps the brain so that we can recover and regenerate. During sleep, the brain can process information, consolidate memory, and enable us to learn and function effectively during the daytime*. This is why we are encouraged to get a good night’s sleep in the run-up to a job interview or big event, rather than staying awake all night to prepare.
Whilst we sleep, our brain is not only strengthening memories but it is also reorganising them, picking out the emotional details and helping us produce new insights and creative ideas.
Sleep affects our ability to use language, sustain attention, understand what we are reading, and summarise what we are hearing. If we compromise on our sleep, we compromise on our performance, our mood, and our relationships. Sleep has also been shown to combat depression and protect the immune system.
SOURCE:Mental Health Foundation, 2011
How can I get better sleep? Combined with How do I get a good night's sleep?
It’s important to have a good sleep routine and good sleep hygiene. Our Clementine sleep sessions train the mind in healthier thought patterns and perspectives. Here are some tips on how to get sleep and ways to have good sleep hygiene:
1. Create a calming sleep routine:
Wind down at the same time each night
Wake up at the same time each morning
Budget 30-60 mins before going to bed as a wind-down period. Lower the lights, avoid screens, avoid work and other stressful distractions, begin lowering your body temperature because being too hot can impede sleep
Build in habits for calm (e.g. listen to a Clementine recording, try some light stretching, read).
2. Build in good daytime habits:
Take regular exercise
Spend time outdoors in the sunlight
Have an early cut off time for caffeine (preferably nothing caffeinated afternoon)
Cut down on alcohol and smoking
Avoid eating late. If you need to eat within a couple of hours of bedtime, have light snacks, low in sugar.
3. Optimise environment:
Crack a window. Fresh air/lower temperatures are conducive to better sleep
Block out the light with blackout blinds
Reduce noise - consider using white noise machine or earplugs
Splurge on decent bedding and mattress.
How does hypnotherapy help me to sleep?
Hypnotherapy is a great way to slip into deep sleep meditation. It helps you to learn how to fall asleep and find good sleep. Sleep hypnosis teaches people how to get to sleep and how to sleep better by offering guided sleep hypnosis. Ultimately, it helps to get to sleep fast and improve your sleep hygiene.
How does Clementine help?
Clementine helps with all of the above. Our sleep hypnotherapy sessions help you to train yourself to relax both physically and mentally. You learn about healthy thought patterns. At the same time, you practice the skill of recognising and letting go of or reframing negative thought patterns. These guided sleep hypnosis sessions can become part of a healthy sleep routine. These sleep hypnotherapy sessions include hypnotherapeutic suggestions for better sleep, sleep music to relax, tips for sleeping and ways to achieve good sleep.