I Tried Sleep Hypnosis Every Night For A Week. Here Is What Happened!

My sleep has been totally disrupted for the past six months. It has gotten even worse since this whole pandemic situation started. My anxiety has been higher.

If I am two days before my period starts…forget it. I won’t be sleeping at all. Darn hormones!

I was looking up ways to improve my sleep hygiene when the idea of sleep hypnosis came up. This seemed kind of foolish to me at first. I always thought hypnosis was complete quackery to be honest.

Nevertheless, I kept looking into it. I found many sleep hypnosis videos on YouTube and was very intrigued.

I decided to try them out each night for a week. Read on for how it went!

First, a little background on hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy was started back in the 18^th century (1701-1800) by a German physician named, Franz Mesmer. The doctor came up with it on his own which caused a great deal of skepticism in the science community. He really believed in what he was doing though and felt that he was helping his patients with their various ailments.

Hypnosis is still done to this day even though the science is shaky at best and can’t be agreed on. It is about getting into a state of mind in which concentration is heightened. When one is this way, they are allegedly able to take directions and suggestions easier.

People are started off in a relaxed position- either sitting or laying down. A trained therapist guides the hypnosis sessions by talking to them gently, with a calm voice.

The conditions that practitioners claim hypnosis can treat are smoking habits, anxiety, depression, phobias, insomnia, GI problems (ex.IBS), pain and sex drive issues. The number of suggested sessions ranges from one to six depending on what conditions people are wanting to fix.

Becoming a hypnotherapist requires training. This involves formal education and clinicals. After criteria is met, the candidate can then obtain their certificate and start practicing. If one wants to pursue a certificate, they need to be in certain career fields. These careers include social work, physicians, dentistry, ministry, counseling, psychology and other healthcare work.

Finding the videos

As mentioned before, I found a lot of sleep hypnosis videos on YouTube. It was a little bit overwhelming as I didn’t know which ones to choose.

I decided on trying the videos by a man named, Michael Sealey (find his channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelSealey/featured). He has been on YouTube for quite a few years and has hypnosis training.

He has so many videos and they all sounded good! I clicked on his playlist called Deep Sleep Hypnosis (see it here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO9OtUmChpP_Po7RGMHFJ4kNbavmHhYhJ)  and went from there.

There are 46 videos included in the playlist. I chose seven of them-one for each night of the week. My plan was to get into bed at around 10:00 PM and listen to the videos on my phone with ear buds (that is recommended).

How each night went

Monday

This night’s video: Sleep Hypnosis for Calming an Overactive Mind

I was really excited to start trying sleep hypnosis. The reasoning behind choosing this video was due to it being for helping reduce the clutter in our minds. This is one of the reasons why I have trouble sleeping-too many thoughts running through my head.

 After taking a relaxing shower, I hopped into bed and fired up the video on my phone. I decided to lay flat on my back at first but then eventually switched to laying on my side. It was more comfortable to me.

I fell in love with Michael’s voice right away! It is soothing with a deep tone and accent (he is from Australia).

Unfortunately, I was expecting too much from it my first time. I was thinking that I would fall asleep easily which did not happen.

Focusing on his guidance was hard for me and I was not able to reduce the thoughts running through my head. I chalked it up to it being my first night trying it and that maybe that was just not the right video for me.

I was still excited to try again!

Tuesday

This night’s video: Hypnosis for Life Healing Sleep- Manifesting Health and Cleansing Chakras

I chose this one because “life healing sleep” sounded good to me. Also, I have always liked the sound of rain so that being in the video was a deciding factor too.

Let me tell you, that voice of his combined with the soft rain sound was heavenly! I got so relaxed throughout the time listening to it and felt peaceful.

With this video, I was able to concentrate on his guidance better. I ended up falling asleep before it was over. Success!

Wednesday

This night’s video: Sleep Hypnosis for Jaw Relaxation & Teeth Grinding

I have a teeth grinding issue that is worse in the evening so I was interested in trying it out. If you know anything about teeth grinding you would know how bad it is for your mouth/jaw and how achy you can get because of it.

Honestly, I don’t remember if my grinding stopped as I passed out about 15 minutes after I put it on. This seemed strange to me because I wasn’t even that tired when I laid down in bed. Another success?

His voice is like butter to my ears!

Thursday

This night’s video: Sleep Hypnosis Release Negativity with Deep Mind Change

I chose this one because releasing negativity in my mind is something I need to do. My negative self-thoughts have gotten better over the years but there are some improvements that can be made.

I did get to a calm and happy state when listening to it. It really got me thinking about who I am and where I want to be in life. I also loved the faint amount of music that was playing in the background.

I didn’t fall asleep during the video, so I decided to put on Tuesday night’s video again because I loved it so much. It didn’t take me long to drift off to sleep once I started it. Success!

Friday

This night’s video: Sleep Hypnosis for Celtic Healing Energy| Clearing Negative Energy for New Growth

I chose this one because the title and the thumbnail looked nice. Celtic healing practices have always been fascinating to me so I felt this would be right up my alley.

The music in the background was so calming to me. My brain really responds to it in combination with his voice.

I loved this one as I found it to be very beautiful. It made me fall asleep peacefully!

Saturday

This night’s video: Sleep Hypnosis for Floating Relaxation| Calm Your Mind for Deep Sleep

Okay, I don’t know specifically why I chose this one. However, it was an absolute pleasure listening to.  Beautiful and simple. For whatever reason it hit me hard (in a good way!) and left me being fully focused on the relaxation of my body.

I fell asleep a couple minutes after it ended.

Sunday

I decided to do Saturday’s video again. The plan was to do a different one each night, but I just had to go back to the previous video.

It was just as wonderful as the first time and I fell asleep a couple minutes afterwards again.

My final thoughts on sleep hypnosis

I loved the sleep hypnosis videos overall.  The video I did on Saturday and Sunday was my absolute favorite out of all of them. Tuesday’s video was a close second.

As you can see, the sleep hypnosis did work for me. I think it was because I really wanted it to.

Hypnosis is not like what you see in the movies/shows. You don’t fall into a trance when the hypnotherapist counts backward from ten. It is about getting you to concentrate so that positive changes can be made over time.

Don’t expect miracles if you try any of the thousands of sleep hypnosis videos that are available, but they could help you to relax a little bit. You never know!

Will I be putting on more sleep hypnosis sessions?

The answer to that is… I actually have been putting them on every night since! The videos really help me to sleep and they are safer than medications.

I also plan on trying out the morning meditation videos that Michael Sealey offers (maybe I will do a post on that in the future?!)

Have you had any experiences with sleep hypnosis/general hypnosis/meditation? What are your thoughts on it?

Thanks for reading!

Some sources used-

https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/hypnosis/about/pac-20394405

https://www.britannica.com/science/hypnosis

#sleephygiene   #sleep   #covid19   #stayathome   #anxiety   #depression   #hypnosis   #michaelsealey