Insomnia is an issue that is hard for those who haven’t suffered it to understand quite how detrimental to day-to-day living it can be. For Susan, battling a constant feeling of tiredness made it hard to get through the working day and even recreational outings were out of the question, particularly if driving was involved, for fear of accidents.
Only being able to sleep in ten minute snatches at a time really affected her health. Lack of sleep impacts on the immune system and made her very susceptible to picking up bugs. Consecutive bouts of insomnia would trigger acute migraines and was likely to have been one of the contributing factors that led to Susan developing the viral condition ME, which causes extreme exhaustion.
By the time Susan consulted hypnotherapist Georgios Theodorou she was in a sleep cycle of between 2 to 4 hours of rest followed by a period of wakefulness and only achieving a complete night’s sleep of 6 hours twice a year when lack of sleep finally caught up with her.
Susan was taught how to use visualisation to picture herself feeling sleepy so she could bring on the feeling of being sleepy and then actually become sleepy. This was instead of her usual habit of talking to herself in an impatient voice that she couldn’t sleep, making it impossible to wind down and relax. Thankfully, it only took one session for Susan to change her thinking and enjoy a good night’s sleep.
Unfortunately, Susan soon needed more of Georgios’ help because her boyfriend in the meantime developed his own sleep problem – snoring! Still a very light sleeper, Susan worried this latest discovery might not only affect her relationship, it would set back her new night time regime.
The answer lay in a series of exercises to help Susan change her attitude towards the snoring. She began by thinking about the issue and how she felt about it. Her first response was ‘angry’. By saying it aloud she was then able to use affirmation to reduce her initial reaction to ‘frustration’ and then to ‘feeling tired’ and finally down to ‘relaxed’.
Slowly she was able to convince her mind that the noise was no longer invasive but it was soothing and even something she liked to hear.
She said with relief: “I no longer feel as though I want to smother him in his sleep! I am delighted that by using these combined hypnotherapy techniques; I am beginning to get my life back.”
Susan has come on leaps and bounds since undergoing just two sessions of hypnotherapy and believes it holds the answers for many others dealing with this debilitating problem.
To find out more about dealing with insomnia and other sleep issues, contact Georgios Theodorou at Birmingham Hypnotherapy Clinic on 0121 241 8227.