COULD HYPNOTHERAPY HELP MY SLEEP ANXIETY?

It’s only 7 pm but I’m tucked into a huge king-sized bed at a Kensington hotel, with a mask covering my eyes, ready for a great night's sleep.

I'm here for a hypnotherapy session with Malminder Gill, hypnotherapist to the stars, in the hope it will cure my on-again off-again sleep anxiety. She's created a sleep concierge package, at various London hotels, in response to the rise in sleep tourism, a trend which seems to know no bounds, from sleep retreats to detox cabins – everyone is travelling to get more shut-eye.

Like the weather, most of us can talk about sleep at the drop of a hat – how many hours we've had, how we're not getting enough, or what's been keeping us awake at night. We've also become a little obsessed with analysing our slumber, with millions of us using smartwatches and trackers like the Whoop to see if we can hack our sleep cycles (or make us more anxious about how much kip we're not getting). I can go for weeks on end sleeping like a baby, then out of nowhere sleep anxiety creeps up on me – before I know it it’s 2 am and I’m still wide awake.

Sleep anxiety

Gill says that I’m not alone, and she found many of her clients post-pandemic, picked up some form of sleep anxiety: ‘To begin we were sleeping like babies, because we'd initially been running on a hamster wheel, but it didn’t take long, maybe 6 weeks, before we started to struggle.

‘We were housebound, we didn’t have much movement, there was the stress of the unknown, but also a huge lack of stimulation throughout the day. When you leave the house you’re constantly bombarded and distracted by other things.’

Post-pandemic we’ve all gone back to some sort of normality, but I've spent the majority of my time working from home, while other personal stresses have had an impact on the amount of shut-eye I'm getting. So, could this be where my problems lie?

Sleep expert Dr Sophie Bostock says that no matter whether it's work or personal stress, they all influence our sleep patterns: 'If there's any kind of stressor in your background, then the natural way that the body and brain responds is by pushing your sleep into lighter stages.'

She goes on to say that this makes complete sense from an evolutionary perspective: 'Our ancestors who were sleeping in a stressful environment, where maybe they were camped out next to Sabre-toothed tigers, the ones who survived were the ones who kept waking up and were able to respond to that threat.'

Gill goes on to add that hypnosis can not only relax us but also help to 'reprogramme the mind and ease any anxieties.'

So, what exactly is a sleep concierge service?

Based in a London hotel, it's not a shabby place to try and get some decent shut-eye - as I arrive I'm greeted by a butler and reception staff who take my luggage and ease me into my sleep stay.

As I arrive in my room I eye up my king-sized bed and get excited – its inviting crisp sheets are calling me after a long day at work, but I resist the urge to jump straight in as my chamomile tea arrives and I have a choice to make from my pillow menu. I’m pretty fussy when it comes to pillows, but I choose the anti-ageing pillow, with a silk pillowcase and medium plump it feels perfect for a good night's sleep.

As Gill arrives we chat about the anxieties I have around sleep and what exacerbates them; where I mention a mixture of things – an inability to stop bingeing the latest Netflix show, bad habits I've picked up, and even some personal stressors.

I finally get to crawl into bed and relax with a mask to shield my eyes –and it's time for the 1-2-1 hypnotherapy session with Gill. I'm pretty apprehensive as I've never tried hypnosis before, and have a feeling it's not going to work on me, but, in all honesty, I'm just quite thankful to be horizontal in a comfy bed.

Gill, who also owns her own Harley Street practice, starts with some relaxation techniques, and meditative words which make me sink into the bed and release the day's stresses.

As I drift in and out of consciousness she uses visualisation tools to help me ease my anxieties. Before I know it I'm imagining a calming landscape, with water in front of me, before picking up a rock; which she says represents my anxieties. Gill tells me to imagine the weight of the rock as the anxieties around sleep - feeling the weight in my hands and body. When she finally tells me to throw the rock into the lake I feel a huge weight has lifted.

She brings me back with more calming sounds and meditative words – and by the time I open my eyes, I feel relaxed and ready for a great night's sleep.

Did the sleep hypnosis work on me?

I slept well that night, with my smartwatch informing me that my sleep quality was spot on. But a couple of weeks later my anxieties were back – as I lay awake until the early hours I tried to use the visualisation and relaxation tricks Gill had used on me, but it failed to help me get any kip, making me unfocused and groggy the next day.

Thankfully though, the next time I felt anxious about sleep I was quick to adopt the relaxing and meditative practices and fell back into a quality slumber quite quickly, waking up feeling refreshed. I wouldn't say it's completely helped reprogramme my anxieties, but it has helped me relax more, which is a great start when it comes to nodding off at night.

Can hypnosis help with sleep problems?

Dr Bostock believes that hypnotherapy can be good for calming the body and mind down: 'If you haven't slept well for a long time, and you're feeling extremely anxious, the immediate benefit you get through hypnotherapy is a deep sense of relaxation.'

However, for long-term sleep problems, she recommends a more effective approach: 'CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) for insomnia is very much a toolkit of different approaches to address what's going wrong with poor sleep. It includes both behavioural interventions and cognitive therapies to address the unhelpful thoughts about sleep, and also how to approach relaxation.'

Other sleep-inducing experiences:

  • Hotpod Yoga is introducing Sleep Sessions - the sleep-inducing yoga has a gentle heat and a soft flowing routine - to help you wind down before bed.
  • The Pan Pacific offers a sleep sensory package, with a sleep menu, meditation and even temperature-controlled bedding.

The Sleep Concierge service, which includes a 1-2-1 session with hypnotherapist Malminder Gill can be booked at Mandarin Oriental Hotels in London and selected European properties.

More sleep features:

2024-04-05T14:39:59Z dg43tfdfdgfd