As a therapist and coach, I often check in with my clients early on in treatment about their sleep patterns. Sleep hygiene is closely linked to positive mental health outcomes, and yet so many of us struggle to prioritize it. The inverse is true too — sleep deficiency is linked to increased levels of depression, suicidal ideation, and risk-taking behaviours. The reality is: our sleep habits matter.
When Athena first cracked her rib in early December 2023, sleep proved elusive for her because of the discomfort of lying in bed. Last year, I had the privilege of training with world-renowned hypnosis expert Dr Michael Yapko. I thought, what better time than the present to see if hypnosis could help with Athena’s pain. While not a panacea, I’m happy to say that it has made a positive difference.
Hypnosis is really just a fancy word for focused, absorbed attention — a means for unleashing unconscious processes and as-of-yet untapped internal resources. It can be a remarkably effective tool for things like pain management, insomnia, mood disorders, and unblocking creativity. Some patients even use it as their sole anesthetic for surgery! I’ve been experimenting with it professionally and in my personal life ever since completing the 100-hr training and have found it to be a wonderful skill that just gets better with practice.
Experience a hypnosis session for yourself
I recorded a hypnosis script I did with Athena to help her fall asleep. I’ll let her tell you what her experience was like…
Sleep script (audio file)
Athena’s experience of hypnosis
When we wake up in the morning, one of the first questions Stefan will ask me is how I slept and often the best answer I could come up with is whether or not I was able to sleep through the night.
Even before my recent injury, I would often find myself awoken in the middle of the night by something—a cranky feeling in my hip joint, wanting a drink of water, needing to use the bathroom and so on. Some nights I would take care of what I needed to and drop quickly back to sleep. Other nights, typically when I had some anxious thought chasing its way through my head, I might lay awake for hours.
A few months ago I replaced my aged Series 2 Apple Watch with a brand new one that includes a sleep-tracking function, (available on WatchOS 8 or later). This allowed me to see how often and for how long I was getting up during the night as well as when I was able to get in better quality Deep Sleep and REM (or dreaming) sleep.
You can see how poorly I slept earlier in the month due to first my cold and then the back pain—all the orange banding indicates time awake.
Compared to how I’m able to get far longer stretches of quality sleep now. Most nights I’m even sleeping through the night without any interruption.
To help me relax, Stefan has been doing hypnosis with me before bed. I find that the relaxation piece is key for me because it’s the anxiety and muscle tension that feeds this endless loop of pain.
I’m anxious because I’m in pain. My muscles unconsciously become more tense because I’m anxious. Clenching irritated muscles generates more pain… and on and on it goes until the pain entirely consumes my mental focus.
Hypnosis breaks this cycle because it gives me somewhere else to direct my mind. During some sessions, I will slip in so deeply that I will completely lose track of what Stefan is saying for long stretches of time. In other sessions, typically when my mind is feeling more stubborn, my thoughts will scatter, float for a time and then regroup to something they were focusing on before the session before Stefan’s voice has them wandering off again.
Always however these sessions help me to physically relax, which goes a long way when it comes to dealing with the pain—and getting a better night’s sleep.
Session Transcript
I'm going to invite you to close your eyes. And just start by breathing slowly in, slowly out. Just noticing how it's different as soon as you close your eyes. When you close your eyes, you're no longer focusing on the things around you. Will you close your eyes to the outside world for a moment? You may think of that simple action of closing your eyes as starting to close out the world out there. You might continue to hear sounds in the background, the routine sounds of the environment, sounds that are barely worth noticing for more than a moment. Just letting those sounds gently pass through your awareness, knowing that doesn't require anything of you.
Just being very present in this moment as you get ready to go to sleep, letting your mind grow still, and ever more comfortable. Noticing how good that feels. You might notice that there are thoughts: We all carry voices in our head from time to time. It’s entirely normal. And you might notice that you often talk to yourself about the things that have happened earlier, or things that are about to happen in the future. Sometimes it can be soothing to recognize that you can slowly turn down the volume of that voice. Like a bright light, that you're dimming, until you find yourself thinking in a slow, quiet whisper, in a dim light. How surprisingly and wonderfully quiet it can get inside your head.
We know that people who sleep well tend to report that they think about nothing really, when they go to sleep. And even though people say that, that answer isn't really entirely accurate, because their minds aren't really empty. They continue to think, be aware of themselves as they fall asleep. And when you ask them what they focus on they'll tell you that they focus on something simple and easy. They might imagine themselves in a special place, a safe and beautiful and relaxing place. Maybe imagining a vacation spot, a happy memory of playing with the dog, or being outside in the sunshine, feeling the light against your skin.
What matters is that you have that same ability to choose to focus your thoughts. on the things that soothe you, the things that relax you, make you feel good. And a good night's sleep is one of those things that you can enjoy every night. You have the freedom to choose where your thoughts go when it's time to go to bed. You can think about the kind of nothing that is really something soothing. You can conjure up your own images, your own sound, your own smells or tastes, your own feelings that help you feel comfortable drifting off to sleep.
And as you drift off to sleep, I want to remind you of one thing: That you have freedom in your mind. And there's so much freedom in allowing yourself to relax and not have to think. And you can feel the freedom of being able to drift off to sleep deliberately, and slowly. That it's something that you can allow yourself to experience by gently nudging your thoughts in a useful direction — in this case, the direction of drifting off into a wonderful peaceful sleep.
Just take a moment right now to let your mind go where it wants to go to be comfortable. Giving yourself permission to be in no place, be nowhere, be in the middle of nowhere, in a place where you don't have to think, or you can just allow yourself to rest, comfortably. A place where you can notice the rhythm of your breath, the rising, falling of your chest, letting your breath enter slowly in, slowly out.
Little by little you might notice yourself becoming aware. You really aren't thinking about anything in particular. And how your attention stays more focused on the wonderfully comfortable immediacy of the safety, the warmth, the deeply comfortable warmth, of your blankets in bed. Noticing your body feeling heavy, weighted down as you give yourself permission just to lay there like you're melting into the bed.
Perhaps you notice your body feeling surprisingly light, almost like it's floating in the air, like a cloud. You can notice the subtle sensations associated with falling asleep. Being curious about which parts of your body seem to drift off first, which parts are heaviest — it takes such an effort to move them — which parts are light and free. Your mind growing ever quieter. Really embracing the wonderful feeling of drifting off, effortlessly. Noticing that as you drift off, you might find yourself in a kind of in-between space not yet being fully asleep. Also not yet really being fully awake either.
And in this in-between place between being asleep and being awake, you discover how it feels to have your body be fully supported by the bed. To have your mind drifting along, not really lingering on anything in particular, feeling your fuzzy blanket and the wonderful calming sensation as you let yourself drift ever deeper into comfortable rest. Noticing the pillow against your head, the neck, just perfect. Just letting yourself be in the middle of this experience of drifting into a deep, peaceful sleep, a deep peaceful sleep that allows you to sleep all through the night surprisingly well by scattering your thoughts all over until there aren't any. Leaving you perfectly at ease with the idea of sleeping well, nothing on your mind or in it, your body perfectly comfortable, relaxed within yourself as you notice your mind and body drifting.
No need to drift off to sleep quite yet, unless you really want to. You can allow yourself the luxury of taking your time of being in this restful time, this state of mind and body. When you wake up after this deep restful sleep many hours from now, you'll notice yourself feeling rested, relaxed, alert and energized. Such a powerful experience of discovering quite naturally that you can sleep deeply and you can just enjoy the comfort, and the sense of peacefulness that you can carry with you into your dreams. Allowing yourself to drift off, drift off and sleep, drift off and sleep incredibly well. At your own pace.
Sleep well.