Use the Beat Sleep Anxiety Script to Help Nervous Sleepers Get the Rest They Need

Sleep anxiety disrupts lives every day, leaving people tired, cranky, and unproductive. More insidiously, it can create guilt or drive self-directed anger in those who suffer from it.

The Beat Sleep Anxiety Hypnosis Script from The Script Collection was put together to help clients regard sleep with less worry and judgment.

The sympathetic pre-talk explains how and why many attempts to "consciously control an unconscious, instinctive response" tend to backfire. Examples are used to illustrate the concept, such as how someone who purposely tries not to blush will often turn redden despite their best efforts.

The affliction is explored more deeply through a sympathetic description of ways in which it can manifest. The client is led to understand sleep anxiety as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The strategy for the hypnosis work is explained. The client is assured that hypnosis can help change their unconscious attitude towards sleeping, which will in turn calm their waking thoughts about bedtime. They learn that, rather than relying on positive thinking, this treatment will help them calmly detach from their thoughts and expectations around sleep.

An extended induction is used to lull the client into a state of relaxation. The client is guided to focus on their breath while flowing language adds subtle nods towards restful sleep. The client is urged to get a sense of hearing a yawn and settling down. Embedded commands direct them to notice how their thoughts have become sleepier and "more distant."

The client is guided to imagine a glorious sunset, and to feel as though they are growing more relaxed as the colors change. The client is guided to progressively relax their body, beginning with the face and moving all the way down to the toes as a countdown ushers them into a trance state.

Once the client is fully calm, the trancework begins with a reminder of the session's goal. The client is asked to picture their future self as someone who approaches bed time with a calm mentality.

They are reminded that they have previously experienced "deep, sound sleep" which means their "body-mind knows" how to replicate it. Without the conscious mind getting in the way, this "natural, instinctive" sleep can happen again.

It is acknowledged that when you peer through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars, everything appears "small and distant," planting the seed that it is possible to change our perspective on something to achieve a sense of distance.

With this concept in mind, the client is asked to imagine themselves at the start of a walk in the countryside. At first they can hear the passing traffic, but as they walk into the woodland, the sounds fade away until all that remains is silence and they are surrounded by "lush foliage, beautiful views, and peace."

A story is told about a woman visiting her hypnotherapist for sleep anxiety. During hypnosis, the therapist encouraged her to allow her worries to "simply be there" instead of trying to control them and suggested that her mind works better and more instinctively when it's allowed to follow its own path.

Now, the client is guided to see their own anxieties as if through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars. Their thoughts can be seen "drifting off beyond the horizon" and softening until they "become imbued with a sleepy, calm, gentle ease." The experience is described as being imbued with a "color of relaxation and calm" that permeates their bedroom, their bed, and the entire process of going to sleep.

The client is further relaxed into a deeper state of rest. Embedded commands instruct them to give the part of their mind that knows how to "naturally fall asleep" the freedom and space it needs to function without interruption.

It is suggested that a year into the future, having experienced 12 months of deep, sound sleep, the client will look back on today and see their sleep anxiety as foreign and distant. From this future perspective, the client is encouraged to notice that their old worries just aren't there - which frees them to focus on more fulfilling things. The client basks in this future for a while, enjoying the feeling of sleeping soundly through the night and waking up refreshed.

Now, the story of the woman who visited her therapist for help with sleep anxiety is revisited. She found that through hypnosis her mind "naturally became quieter," allowing her to get better sleep. Embedded commands instruct the client to mimic this process and integrate the session's lessons deeply at every level of their being.

Add the Beat Sleep Anxiety Hypnosis Script to your script library today.

Beat Sleep Anxiety is also available as an MP3 download.