Hypnosis is associated with the idea of sleep in the minds of many people. Watch a film in which someone is hypnotised and, almost invariably, the hypnotist will swing a watch or twiddle a pencil and say to his subject "You are feeling very sleepy". But, in fact, a hypnotic trance is not actually a form of sleep. More accurately, it can be described as an altered state of consciousness combined with deep relaxation and, as such, can be a very effective treatment for insomnia.

Hypnosis can be particularly useful in treating the sort of insomnia that has no specific cause but is just a habit. It may have started at a time when the patient was unable to sleep because of anxiety or worry. But the insomnia itself may then have added to the anxiety. Eventually, the original cause of the insomnia would have been resolved, but the sleepless nights continued - the insomnia causing anxiety which causes insomnia. In order for the patient to be able to sleep normally again, this vicious circle must be broken and,

in this sort of case, hypnosis can produce dramatic results.

Not only will the relaxation produced by hypnosis help to relieve the anxiety but the therapist is likely to give post-hypnotic suggestions that will also be beneficial. For example, patients may be told that they will stop worrying about their inability to sleep, that they will feel very comfortable and relaxed as soon as they lie down in bed, and that if they perform a certain action (such as saying a particular phrase to themselves) they will start to feel sleepy. They may also be told that, no matter how much or how little sleep they have, they will not feel exhausted during the day - which is perfectly feasible because a great deal of the exhaustion associated with insomnia is caused by the muscle tension that results from anxiety.

Although hypnosis and sleep are not the same, they are very closely linked. In the moments before we drift off to sleep, we are in a state very similar to a hypnotic trance. Moving from hypnosis into sleep is a perfectly natural phenomenon and it’s not unusual for patients who are practising self-hypnosis to fall asleep if they are feeling tired - and it’s not unknown for an over-tired patient to fall asleep during a hypnotherapy session in the consulting room! So hypnotherapists will often teach insomniac patients to put themselves into a trance in order to bridge the gap between wakefulness and sleep.

In cases where insomnia is due to an underlying anxiety, the causes of this can be investigated and frequently alleviated using hypnosis. Nightmares, too, are susceptible to treatment, since the patient’s subconscious mind can be given suggestions that will make the events in the dreams less frightening.

If your hypnotherapist teaches you self-hypnosis, you will need to practise it regularly until the ability to slip from waking into a hypnotic trance into sleep is perfected, so it’s not an instant cure. But its great advantage is that it’s perfectly safe to use a second time, or even a third, should you wake during the night and it has no side effects whatsoever.