How did you sleep last night?

Many of the people that I see in my consulting room each year have been struggling for a long time with interrupted sleep, inability to get to sleep, nightmares or even night terrors. Sleep problems can be incredibly debilitating. When you are waking up in the morning in a fog of exhaustion, it is difficult to feel good.

I have just been reading this story written by Lorraine Fisher in The Daily Mail Online who found relief from nearly 18 months of severely impaired sleep after just two hours of hypnosis:

Lorraine writes:

‘My insomnia – a condition that affects nearly a third of Britons at some point – had such an innocuous beginning. A trivial argument with a friend in August 2006 had left me furious and unable to sleep as I replayed the conversation over and over in my head.

At 4am I crept into the lounge and put on the TV. Eventually the noise of the programmes drowned out the conversation going on in my head and I fell asleep.

That should have been the end of it, but it wasn’t. For the next night, and every night after, the same thing happened. I’d go to bed at 11pm and find myself getting angry or upset at things that
had gone on during the day. By 4am I’d be on the sofa, watching TV and
drifting off.

Throughout 2007, I existed on three or four hours’ sleep a night. I was moody, irritable and constantly close to tears.

I bought all sorts of miracle cures including homeopathic pills and tapes of soothing music. I had long baths, exercised more and cut down on alcohol, as experts advised. Nothing worked’

As her sleep problems worsened, Lorraine eventually gave up her job on a newspaper, thinking that this might help alleviate stress.

Finally, she found herself at her GP surgery where, she explains, I was ‘begging my GP for sleeping tablets. As he wrote a prescription for a powerful tranquilliser, I asked him about hypnotherapy – something I’d seen on the internet.’

Sadly, Lorraine’s GP was not very encouraging about hypnotherapy telling her that ‘it works for some people, but I wouldn’t…’

So instead she took the tranquilisers, which helped. But she began to find that the insomnia returned as soon as she skipped a dose. This was when Lorraine had one of those personal ‘a-ha’ moments that so many of my clients report. She writes: ‘I realised if my mind was stopping me sleeping, it was my mind that had to be treated.’

Lorraine sought help from Greenwich hypnotherapist, Philip Batchelor. She writes:

‘The night after the second session I woke up – but at 7am with sunlight pouring through the curtains. I felt elated. It’s a fluke, I thought, until the same thing happened the next
night, and every night after that… [...]‘

Four months on and I am still sleeping well. Insomnia was ruining my working life and relationships but now I feel able to cope with the stresses of everyday life. I am calmer, happier and just annoyed that the cynic in me stopped me going to hypnotherapy sooner.’

What a great story and thank you to Lorraine Fisher for sharing her experiences so that others can benefit.

When I work with people on sleep problems or any other kind of issue, I often find that hypnotherapy and hypnosis are a kind of ‘last resort’ for the people who consult me. These clients have often reached the point where they say they will ‘try anything.’ However, I do believe that this is gradually changing.

The image of modern hypnotherapy is changing. I now receive many referrals from GPs in my local area for a range of issues from sleep problems to depression, phobias, stress and anxiety. These GPs  understand my work, have read the latest research into hypnotherapy and know how hypnotherapy can be of real benefit to their patients.

And each time someone like Lorraine Fisher has the courage to tell their story of how hypnotherapy helped them, it makes it a little easier for someone else to find the help they need. Heart-warming stuff for a Monday morning.