Hypnotherapy for Insomnia and Sleep Difficulties
Article by Paul and Denise Douglass
On this page, we'll talk a little bit about insomnia and sleep difficulties, including...
- What is insomnia?
- What types of insomnia are there?
- How is insomnia categorised?
- What are the main causes of insomnia?
- How can hypnotherapy help with insomnia?
What is insomnia?
Insomnia is a problem where the sufferer has a difficulty sleep... either getting to sleep, staying asleep, having trouble getting back to sleep if they wake up in the night, or waking up too early.
Insomnia can be a big problem for the sufferer, because if you don't get a good night's sleep, then it can affect your day... if you're tired because you haven't slept well, then you can be irritable, tired and have problems concentrating on what you're doing.
Insomnia can be very common, and is said to affect as many as 60% of people at some point in their life, with as many as one in five people having insomnia at any one time.
What types of insomnia are there?
Insomnia can affect different people in different ways, but usually, insomnia will fall into one of four main categories...
- Difficulty getting to sleep - a type of insomnia where the person finds it difficult to unwind and relax enough to drift off to sleep. They may have something on their mind, or be suffering from anxiety or stress
- Difficulty in staying asleep - a type of insomnia where the person has managed to get to sleep, but finds that they continually wake up during the night
- Difficulty going back to sleep - a type of insomnia where the person finds that if they do wake up in the night, their mind starts to think of, or dwell on something, and they can't get back to sleep
- Waking up too early - a type of insomnia where the sufferer may or may not be able to get to sleep, or stay asleep, but for some reason, they wake up far too early in the morning, and they can't go back to sleep
How is insomnia categorised?
Insomnia is usually categorised as...
- Transient Insomnia – A type of insomnia that lasts for anything from one night to a few weeks. Sleep patterns can be disrupted in any of the ways referred to earlier. This form of insomnia can often come about as a reaction to something that’s going on in the persons life at that moment, such as stress, anxiety, depression, money worries etc.
- Acute Insomnia – A type of insomnia lasts anywhere between a few weeks to a few months.
- Chronic Insomnia – A type of insomnia that can affect someone’s sleep patterns on a seemingly never ending basis. Sleep can be affected for years, and this can have subsequent effects on the person’s daytime functioning. This form of insomnia can sometimes give rise to other conditions, such as anxiety or depression.
What are the main causes of insomnia?
There can be many different causes of insomnia and sleep difficulties. The main causes of insomnia can include...
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Stimulants (such as caffeine)
- Stress
- Financial Difficulty
- Hormones
- Jet lag
- Physical problems of the brain or other medical conditions
- Environmental conditions (cold, heat, loud sounds etc)
- Overactive mind
How can hypnotherapy help with insomnia?
If someone has insomnia because of some kind of anxiety or stress, then clearly the most effective way to overcome the insomnia problem, is to deal with that underlying anxiety or stress.
Some kinds of hypnotherapy can help you to relax, and other forms of hypnotherapy can help with the underlying anxieties that could be causing the insomnia.
The easiest way to know which type of hypnotherapy might be right for you, is to come along and meet with Paul and Denise.
Come and Meet Paul or Denise!
If you're in Cambridgeshire, why not come and meet one of us for a chat?
Come along to our Cambridgeshire practice, and you'll get a very warm welcome... we can have a good chat about it all, and see what might be the best way forward for you from here.
If you're not in our area, still get in touch, and we might be able to put you in touch with someone in your area.
