We’ve all been there. The nights when sleep just won’t come or you find yourself waking up in the early hours and you toss and turn, becoming progressively more anxious about whether you’ll ever drop off.
The proportion of people experiencing sleep problems increased from 16% before the pandemic to 25% in April 2020. *
Mercifully, for most of us, these episodes are sporadic, one-off events that come every now and then and disappear for weeks, months or even years. But for others, they can be chronic conditions that happen night after night and have a destructive effect on the individual’s emotional and physical wellbeing.
A good night’s sleep is essential for good emotional and physical health but for so many people bedtime becomes a time of anxiety, stress and even despair.
There are three different types of insomnia: difficulty in getting to sleep in the first place, which is known as primary insomnia; waking up several times in the night and having difficulty dropping back off easily, which is called middle insomnia; and waking up very early and being unable to go back to sleep at all, a condition known as terminal insomnia and one that often occurs at times of stress or depression.
The effects of insomnia aren’t limited to the night-time either. Sufferers report feeling anxious during the day as they worry about the coming night’s sleep and the impact of a bad night’s sleep can leave people feeling exhausted and low on resources the following day.
Many factors can play a part in insomnia: stress, anxiety, hormonal changes, life events and depression can all be triggers for sleeplessness. Doctors may prescribe sleeping pills, but although they may help solve the immediate problem of being unable to sleep, they don’t address the underlying causes of the insomnia and, of course, there’s always the danger of becoming dependent on them.
The fact is, no-one loses the ability to go to sleep – our mind and body know an awful lot about sleep because they’ve been doing it since we were very small. But people can lose touch with their ability to sleep.
HOW WE CAN HELP
Our hypnotherapy for insomnia sessions work at clearing the stress, anxiety and unhelpful patterns that are preventing you from sleeping or having good quality sleep, resolving any underlying emotional issues that may be in play and also reacquaint the subconscious mind with your own innate ability to sleep.
Hear it from the clients…
“I’ve been having problems sleeping for a while, and it started to impact on everything I did, so I was so relieved to work with Tom at Zoë Clews & Associates. I’m now sleeping in a way that I haven’t done since I was a child.”
“I went with an open mind and if I am honest not believing this would be something that could work for me. How wrong was I!
Tom has been a great support to me and has helped me overcome some long ongoing issues. He has always been professional, friendly and easy to communicate with and open up to. Tom quickly grasped who I was and the nature of my problem enabling him to work through this with me quickly and effectively.
I know that if I ever need to revisit at any time in the future he’ll be there to put me back on track.
Thank you Tom for everything”
“I slept like a baby, and I could just observe how anxious I would get just as I was about to fall asleep. It was interesting to observe the feeling… I feel good today, and happy. Thank you so much.”
*GOV.UK. 2021. Health and wellbeing during coronavirus: COVID-19 mental health and wellbeing surveillance: report. [online] Available at: <https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-mental-health-and-wellbeing-surveillance-report/2-important-findings-so-far> [Accessed 25 August 2021].
