Why can't I sleep?

For most of us, bedtime is a lovely time when we snuggle up either alone or with a loved one and drift off into a very pleasant sleep.

But it’s not like that for everyone. In the UK it is estimated that over 35% of us are unable to get a regular good nights sleep. If this is you, what can you do to help yourself?

Here are my tips:

Make your bedroom a room you enjoy being in, keep it:

• warm but not too hot
• clean and tidy
• cosy
• calm
• relaxing. 

Switch off or put down TVs, PCs, books and phones at least 30 minutes before going to bed, as they all act as mental stimulants.

Get a bedtime routine so your body recognises the wind down time.

For the first three weeks, go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time, even on days off or if you feel that you need a lay in; this will help your body clock to go into auto pilot.

Keep a pad and pen by your bed; if you wake in the night worrying, write it down, you should then be able to go back to sleep knowing it won’t be forgotten.

If none of this works, get yourself down to your GP for a check up; just to be on the safe side.

If everything is OK and you still can’t sleep, then there may be something going on in your subconscious or maybe something in your conscious brain that you are ignoring, hoping it will go away!

Then that may be where your friendly hypnotherapist comes in. 

While you are feeling relaxed we can talk to the subconscious part of your brain; the part that conducts millions of checks per second keeping you safe and protecting both the inside and outside of your body. Not the conscious part of your brain that often ignores the subconscious and sabotages the good messages the subconscious has sent it.

When you are relaxed your subconscious and conscious parts of your brain work together at the same time and when this happens we can make massive changes to your thoughts, behaviours and sleep pattern.