A Powerful Visualization For Beating Insomnia & Sleeplessness
Years ago, I quit my corporate job to become a hypnotherapist because I realized how powerful the medium was for people who struggle with addictions and setbacks of all sorts. Despite my initial skepticism, I've found that hypnosis, or "meditation with a goal," as I like to call it, is an effective way to reprogram the limiting beliefs that are holding us back.
And as a hypnotherapist, I’ve listened to many clients ask for the same thing again and again: better sleep. Research continues to prove that sleep is an integral part of any wellness routine, yet too many people out there struggle to get enough of it, and some even try to sacrifice it altogether.
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I love working on insomnia because it’s a rising tide that lifts all ships. When sleep improves, so does just about everything else: digestion, food choices, creativity, communication, productivity, you name it.
So if you struggle with insomnia or occasional sleeplessness and have already tried the usual fixes—turning off your phone a few hours before bed, eating dinner earlier, waking up at the same time every day—it might be time to go deeper and address the root of the problem. By conducting visualizations that get to the cause of your sleeplessness on a subconscious level, you can get closer to the rest you really desire.
Here is one self-hypnosis strategy inspired by my upcoming book, Close Your Eyes, Get Free that can help you identify and break free from these stubborn blocks.
First, imagine your sleep patterns as a tree.
Picture a big, beautiful tree. The limbs are reaching out and up toward the sky, swaying in the wind. These limbs represent the issues we can see—the physical manifestation of what is happening beneath the surface. Insomnia itself is a limb.
The trunk connects the limbs in the air to the roots beneath the ground. Issues like stress and anxiety are "trunk issues"; when stress increases, insomnia typically gets worse. Root issues are the true cause of what's going on above the surface.
I have found that nearly everyone has a similar root cause of their insomnia. At some point in time, an alarm started blaring, and it hasn’t been turned off yet. That alarm screaming "Danger! Warning!" continues to keep them awake, even if their conscious mind has absolutely no recollection of what set if off. It could have been college exams, the birth of a child, a traumatic experience, the divorce of your parents when you were a child, your own divorce, or something else entirely.
Today, think back to when your sleep began to diminish and allow yourself to wonder, "What could it have been that set off my alarm?"
Even if you thought you'd made peace with whatever first triggered your insomnia, until you actively turn it off, it will continue to ring. Self-hypnosis is an amazing first step for turning down and eventually dismantling that blaring alarm.
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How to start practicing your own bedtime self-hypnosis.
- Right before bedtime, get nice and cozy in your bed. Take note of your starting stress level. Ten represents a full-blown panic attack, and 0 means no stress at all. Remember this number.
- Ground your energy by imagining gentle roots growing from the base of your spine down into the center of the earth.
- With your eyes closed, count down from 10 to 1 to yourself, or follow along to this video. Repeat, "I am going deeper and deeper" after each number.
- Imagine taking every single one of your thoughts and putting them inside a box, then seal the box shut. Imagine telling the thoughts that you’ll be back for them in the morning but that they have no place in the bedroom while you sleep; that now it’s time for you to rest. Then imagine storing the box for the evening anywhere else in your home.
- Once you have imagined the box of thoughts has been stored elsewhere, imagine returning to your bedroom, crawling back into bed, and getting cozy once more.
- Take a nice, deep, letting-go breath and repeat three times silently or aloud: "It is safe for me to sleep. I take care of myself by sleeping. The more I sleep, the healthier I am in mind, body, and spirit."
- Then vividly imagine sleeping for a full eight hours, waking up refreshed, rejuvenated, and recharged. Use all of your senses when doing this; see it, smell it, taste it, touch it, feel it.
- Once you're done imagining eight hours of glorious sleep, smile, notice your new number on the scale of 0 to 10 that we started with, and now drift off into a restful night’s sleep.
Keep in mind that hypnosis is a process of conditioning, and the more you practice, the deeper, more long-lasting the results. Imagine how much your life is going to blossom once you’ve nurtured and healed the root of your past sleep issues. All you have to do is sit back, relax, close your eyes, and get free.
Ready for more practical hypnotherapy from Grace? This guided visualization will inspire you to take action to help the planet.
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Grace Smith is a renowned hypnotherapist, founder of Grace Space Hypnosis, a provider of hypnosis education, products and services, and Grace Space Hypnotherapy School, a hypnotherapy certification program. Smith is a recurring guest on CBS’s hit show The Doctors, and her work has been featured in BuzzFeed, Bustle, the Atlantic, Marie Claire, Forbes, InStyle, and more. Her private clients include celebrities, CEOs, professional athletes, and government officials; her keynote speeches and workshops have taken her to Procter & Gamble, Summit.Live, Women Empowerment Expo, Ritz Carlton, PSE&G, Soul Camp, and Verizon.