1 in 3 adults suffer from insomnia, which can be caused by many factors including stress and worry. There are various steps which can be taken to try and combat this illness.

Insomnia happens when a person is unable to get to sleep, stay asleep or get a decent nights sleep. It can be caused by a wide variety of issues, including stress and worry, depression and chronic illness. It is most common in older people, although many young people also suffer from it.

The illness can be short lived, but may also become chronic. It can be made worse by sleeping during the day and can lead to more serious issues in a person’s personal life, such as irritability at work and/or relationship problems.

There are many ways to try and deal with insomnia. If it is quite short lived, then it may be combated with sleeping pills. However, if it happens often, the underlying issues which are causing it should always be dealt with. Taking small steps, such as ensuring the bedroom is completely dark and noise proof, having a comfortable bed, not watching television in bed and trying not to consume caffeine or nicotine prior to going to bed, can all help.

If the insomnia is caused by stress or worry, it is important to get to the bottom of these issues, as it is likely they will become worse with lack of sleep. A set routine can also help with insomnia, as can taking regular exercise during the day.

If you are worried about insomnia, and its effects on your quality of life, then you may want to look into hypnotherapy as a way of dealing with it. To find out more about how it could help you, please visit our fact sheet for further information.

Read the BBC News article here.

According to a recent survey conducted in America, individuals who use mobile phones and computers just before bedtime could be sacrificing a good nights sleep.

Though the survey does not provide exclusive proof that light exposure before bed does cause disruption, experts have recommended a technology curfew one hour prior to bed. This meanings softening the lights, exchanging late night TV for a good book and putting your mobile phone to rest for the evening.

Sleep in America is an annual survey which is carried out by The National Sleep Foundation. The most recent survey involved 1,508 participants between the ages of 13 and 64, 63 per cent of whom reported that their sleep requirements were not being met.

Experts believe that a contributing factor to their lack of sleep could be put down to 95 per cent of participants using electronic devices such as televisions, computers, video games and mobile phones in the hour before they settled down into bed.

The figures showed that in the hour leading up to bedtime, two thirds of 30 to 64 year olds and half of 13 to 29 year olds watched TV most nights. In addition, 56 per cent of 13 to 18 year olds and 42 per cent of 19 to 29 year olds admitted to either sending of receiving text messages most nights. Further more, around one in five said that they had been woken up when sleeping after receiving a text message, phone call or email alert.

The study authors are recommending that in addition to the technology curfew, it is a good idea to also try and stick to a regular waking time.

If you are experiencing frequent disturbed sleep and have had little to no success in dealing with the issue then you may find hypnotherapy is something that could help you. To find out more about how hypnotherapy may be able to help, please visit our fact-sheet for further information, or visit our homepage and use the search tool to contact a qualified hypnotherapist in your local area.

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The study, which involved 14,000 couples found that 30 per cent of male participants complained about being disturbed and kept awake by their partners snoring, compared to only 20 per cent of women. A surprising figure considering the fact there are 10.4 million male snorers compared to just 4.5 million females snorers in Britain (statistics from the British Snoring Association).

Previous research has suggested that many women are too submissive to confront their partners about their snoring, and will often lie awake instead of waking up their other half.

The most recent study also found that women had more difficulty falling asleep and often woke up many times throughout the night, with 24 per cent admitting to struggling to fall asleep up to three nights a week compared to 18 per cent of men.

The Economic and Social Research Council, who funded the study, also found that individuals working long hours tended to be affected by more sleeping problems and are often kept awake by stress.

If you are having difficulty sleeping and extreme tiredness or insomnia are beginning to effect your ability to carry out daily activities then hypnotherapy is an option which may be of help. For further information please visit our hypnotherapy for insomnia fact-sheet, or visit the homepage to locate a qualified hypnotherapist in your local area.

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The scientists followed up evidence taken from over 475,000 participants from eight different countries including Japan, the USA, Sweden and the UK.

From analysing the data they found that the majority of individuals need between six and eight hours of sleep in order to maintain good health.

Professor Cappuccio and Dr Michelle Miller, from the University of Warwick were responsible for conducting the research and found that sleeping less than six hours per night and having disturbed sleep can put individuals at a 48 per cent greater risk of developing or dying from heart disease and a 15 per cent increased risk of developing or dying from a stoke.

“Chronic short sleep produces hormones and chemicals in the body which increase the risk of developing heart disease and strokes, and other conditions like high blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes and obesity.” said Dr Miller.

If you have difficulty sleeping and are concerned that it is beginning to effect your health and ability to carry out every day tasks then an option worth considering is that of hypnotherapy. For information about how hypnotherapy can help sleep issues please visit the Hypnotherapy Areas section of this site, or to locate a qualified hypnotherapist in your local area please use the search tool located on the homepage.

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The survey which was conducted by the Mental Health Foundation and involved 5,300 individuals, found that 60 per cent of the adults questioned admitted to having sleep problems with only 39 per cent managing to get a proper nights sleep.

Experts now fear that the problem constitutes a major public health concern and have warned that some may find their sleeplessness leads to depression, lack of concentration and inability to carry out everyday tasks.

The report found that those who suffer from insomnia are four times more likely to suffer from issues in their relationships, are three times more likely to be moody or have difficulties concentration and are twice as likely to have energy slumps.

The Mental Health Foundation believe insomnia is a ”neglected health concern” which they have attributed largely to job and money worries which tend to keep us lying awake at night. It is now calling for sleep campaigns to spread awareness of the importance of a good night’s rest and has also recommended that GPs receive training to assure they can better diagnose those with sleep problems.

Experts have said adults need approximately five hours of sleep each day for optimum concentration and function, though the exact amount will vary from individual to individual.

If you are struggling frequently to obtain a decent nights sleep and feel it is beginning to affect your everyday life then it is essential you visit your GP who will be able to provide you with professional support. Many who are suffering from some form of sleep deprivation find that hypnotherapy is a very useful tool for them. To find out more about hypnotherapy for insomnia please visit our online fact-sheet.

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The study itself involved splitting the volunteers into two groups following a personality screening which defined whether they were naturally introverts or extroverts.

The volunteers were then kept awake for 36 hours, in which some of the test subjects from both groups were allowed to take part in group discussions and play board games and puzzles for 12 hours of the 36. The other group were not allowed any social interaction.

Various tests were then undertaken to measure the effects of lack of sleep and it was found that introverts fared better in the ”maintenance wakefulness test”, which checks whether sleep-deprived people are able to stay awake over a set period of time.

In addition to this, the extroverts who were allowed ‘social contact’ in the first few hours of the experiment did badly in the test, but the extroverts in the group denied social contact performed much better.

The researchers, from the Walter Reed Army Institute in Maryland, believe the results suggest that personality type may have a bearing on an individuals ability to cope with military tasks which require being awake for prolonged periods of time and may also effect those who do shift work.

If you are having difficulty sleeping to the point where it is beginning to effect your ability to carry out everyday tasks then it is important that you seek help from your healthcare provider who will be able offer advice on the next steps. In addition to this, many individuals who have been plagued with sleep difficulties for years and have not experienced relief from traditional medicine opt for an alternative therapy such as hypnosis.

If you would like to find out more about how hypnotherapy could help you then please visit our fact-sheet here or to contact a qualified professional in your local area directly, please use the search tool located on the homepage.

Original article

A poll of around 10,000 individuals found that when worn out, workers are 23 per cent less satisfied with their jobs, with 24 per cent admitting to lower levels of productivity. The results of the survey show that not only are tired employees less motivated and productive, but also that their colleagues have to shoulder extra work.

More than one in four workers (27 per cent) regularly go to work feeling tired and unrefreshed with half of us going into work feeling over-tired more than 20 times a year.

Dr Ian Mak from Cromwell Hospital in West London has warned that if sleep deprivation continues over a long period of time it can lead to medical issues, effecting decision making, reaction time, judgement and can also lead to obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and mental health problems.

If you are struggling at work as a result of lack of sleep then one option worth considering is that of hypnotherapy. The process of hypnosis can help individuals to relax on both a mental and physical level and can often help to uncover the root cause of the sleep issue. Techniques used may include that of visualisation techniques and the process will help to remove bad habits which prevent a good nights sleep and will instead replace them with more beneficial ones.

For more information about how hypnotherapy may be able to help you please visit our fact sheet here and to contact a qualified professional in your local area please use the search tool located on the homepage of this site.

The results also found that when we do eventually fall asleep, one third of us dream about our jobs at least twice a week, with Sunday the most common night for workplace dreams.

In addition to this, four in 10 who manage to successfully drift off usually wake again during the early hours.

Chris Tattersall from Slumberland said: ‘Getting enough rest is directly linked to performance and health. It is ironic and unfortunate that stress from jobs seems to be a barrier to the sleep needed to function and recover.’

If you are suffering from a lack of sleep as a result of work stress or for any other reason then hypnotherapy is an option which is worth considering. A hypnotherapist will help you to relax on both a mental and physical level before accessing your subconscious and making positive suggestions which will help to change a persons perceptions.

More information on how hypnotherapy may be able to help you can be found here and if you would like to contact a hypnotherapist in your local area please use the search tool located on the homepage of this site.

Original article

The London Sleep Centre has defined poor sleep with one or more of the following: difficulty falling asleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, waking up too early in the morning and non-refreshing sleep.

All of the above symptoms can be relieved with the use of hypnotherapy, a gentle process which will help you to fall asleep using a variety of techniques such as relaxation and visualisation. The session will usually begin with the hypnotherapist taking you into a deeply relaxed state which will leave your mind open to positive suggestions.

These hypnotic suggestions are intended to change a persons physical state or perceptions. For example positive suggestions for insomnia may involve the hypnotherapist telling you you’re feeling tired and that you can feel yourself easily drifting off to sleep or if you wake you will fall straight back to sleep again.

If you would like additional information on insomnia and how hypnotherapy may be able to help please click here and to contact a hypnotherapist in your local area please use the search tool located on the homepage of this site.

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After conducting what is known as meta-analysis (pooling together data which can indicate patterns and trends not obvious in individual studies), on 16 studies involving 1.5 million participants, scientists concluded that there is a direct link between sleeping less than six hours a night and dying prematurely.

Those who regularly slept for six hours or less were at a 12% higher risk of dying over the next 25 years or less compared to those who slept for their recommended six to eight hours.

Experts have also linked sleeping more than nine hours a night with an early death due to long sleeping indicating a serious underlying illness.

Professor Francesco Cappucio, head of the Sleep, Health and Society Programme at the University of Warwick, said: “Whilst short sleep may represent a cause of ill-health, long sleep is believed to represent more an indicator of ill-health.

If you are suffering from sleeping problems then hypnosis can often be an effective treatment, helping the individual to relax both physically and mentally and also by helping the patient to understand what the underlying causes may be. If you would like to contact a hypnotherapist in your local area you can do so using the homepage of this site.