Ah, sleep, my elusive frenemy. I spent years trying to sleep through the night. I tried anything that seemed safe and healthy enough, but still, I would lay down in bed, tired after a busy day, only to have my brain loudly declare it was TIME TO WAKE UP!!!
I’m going to share some things that legitimately did help me, and then get to what has absolutely changed my life.
– Melatonin. Yes, it helped me get to sleep. I could usually get sleepy enough to drift off. But it never helped me stay asleep. If I awoke to use the bathroom, my brain would be spinning again.
– THC and CBD. To be clear, these are VERY different things, but they can help each other to be effective. I’m not going into any details about that…it’s a matter of personal choice and it takes much experimentation to get the balance right for your own body. I tried them, they both helped a little in different ways, but not in all the ways I wanted them to, and not long term.
– Sleep hygiene. Yes, this is important and it can definitely help to some degree. But for me, just doing all the right things before bed was never enough to convince my brain that it should sleep instead of trying to solve teenager problems or redecorate the living room. (Speaking of which…)
– Hypnosis. Now we are getting somewhere. I talk about hypnosis a lot, because it really worked for me, not just on sleep but on so many other things that were blocking me from sleeping. I discovered it rather by accident and it turned out to be nothing like the woowoo I expected. It is scientifically proven to help reprogram the parts of our brain that we can’t seem to control on our own: the subconscious parts (only 95% of our thought processes, so not super important, right?) My heartfelt gratitude and undying devotion goes to the team at HypnosisDownloads.com. Their short, affordable hypnosis sessions changed so many aspects of my life, and helped me and my kids through some incredibly trying times.
– Hypnosis: Upgraded. I started out using hypnosis to deal primarily with issues that were causing elevated stress levels and accute anxiety attacks. This helped me sleep better in general, but I still struggled with monkey brain in the middle of the night. And while those internal issues were quieting themselves and integrating into my awareness so I could address and release them, I still wasn’t sleeping great. I eventually decided that sleep itself was the goal of hypnosis in my life, because I had come to understand that the lack of sleep could, in itself, be causing even more stress on my body, as well as a lowered psychological resiliancy.
Finally, finally….I found something that worked for me, and it was my past experiences with hypnosis that led to the solution.
Ahhhh….Michael Sealy, my hero.
I am not sure how I discovered Michael Sealy’s hypnosis recordings on YouTube, but after one listen, I was hooked.
Listening to his soothing voice to fall asleep every night was nothing short of magical. My conscious mind would entrain to his voice and my subconscious would finally stfu — probably because it was actively engaged in whatever Michael was saying — and let my body get some sleep. It was pure bliss.
At first, I was still waking up in the middle of the night, but I knew the fix. More Michael Sealy! He had a couple of recordings for “getting back to sleep” and I started using those when I woke up to use the bathroom and found my brain spinning yet again.
Soon, the YouTube gods introduced me to other hypnotherapsists who had created channels to help people with sleep and other issues. As I found other creators who felt safe and resonated with me, I started creating playlists that would last all night long.
Around the same time, these content creators were also making 8 and 9 hour recordings that were getting rave reviews from viewers. I was not into those as much as my own playlists, mainly because my subconscious apparently needed more. It didn’t just want music or repetitive affirmations…it wanted to be engaged and even challenged. Ok, fine, my dear subconscious. Whatever you want. As long as you let the rest of me get some SLEEP!
How’s my sleep now?
I have now been using hypnotherapy and guided meditations for sleep for about three years. I have seen the differences in my fitness and sleep metrics. Although I am not always great about going to bed on time, and I still have an occasional restless night due to high mental activity, my sleep efficiency is leaps and bounds above what it used to be. I am almost always in the 80-95% efficiency range, and hitting 100% is not unheard of.
All this extra good sleep has reduced my stress just by knowing that when I do go to bed, I’m not facing just one more frustration, or the added stress of knowing that my lack of sleep is unhealthy. Instead, I go to bed knowing that I’m going to rest, rejuvenate, restore and heal my body and my mind, and wake up feeling good.
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