Aloe used self-hypnosis to overcome insomnia
living the day she planned and wanted with Reveri.
Aloe had been experiencing chronic insomnia, having trouble falling asleep and also waking up in the middle of the night. She noticed how lack of sleep had a negative effect on her day almost immediately, not being able to get to do what she wanted. After reading about Reveri in the New York Times she decided to give it a go and has since been able to proactively take charge of the day. We spoke about sleep’s role in each part of the day.
Could you tell us a little about your problem and how Reveri helped you to deal with insomnia better?
“Not sleeping really messes up your day. It makes everything that you do in a day harder and if I’m able to sleep more often using this app it makes a huge difference in my outlook on the day and in my productivity during the day, so I really value it.”
“I noticed an impact almost right away. Because one of my problems was falling asleep and the other was waking in the middle of the night. And I always do the Improve Sleep (one of Reveri’s hypnosis exercises for sleep), just as I lay down to go to sleep and it really does clear out my mind of things I’ve been dwelling on during the day and I’m falling asleep much faster than I used to.”
Aloe first tried using meditation to help with her insomnia explaining, “I had tried meditation before I found this. And again it was through the NY Times because they really seem to be fixated on meditation, and meditation didn’t do me any good at all. Somehow there’s a subtle difference between the self-hypnosis and meditation, that does make a difference.”
We find a lot of members think similarly about meditation and self-hypnosis. So we asked Dr. Spiegel what the difference between the two was;
“Hypnosis is focused attention - narrowing the beam of awareness to intensify it, while dissociating - putting outside of conscious awareness feeling, sensations, thoughts that would dilute the focus. And openness to new thoughts, sometimes termed ‘suggestibility’. Hypnosis is typically experienced more rapidly, and is done for a purpose - to solve a problem like stress or pain or insomnia rather than to be in the state itself. Thus hypnosis is more western, more doing than being, while meditation is more eastern, more being rather than doing.”
What’s the most positive impact you’ve noticed in yourself?
“Well, I’m a retired professor. And my ‘hobby’ now, that I’m not teaching, is doing researching and writing. And my best time for research and writing is first thing in the morning, and if I haven’t slept well, it’s not any fun. And if I’ve slept well, I love it and I have to remind myself to stop eventually to have breakfast and to get up and move around.”
Aloe, like many of us, does her best work in the morning. Often times, if we do not eat the metaphorical frog in the morning it can seem like too daunting a task and be put off until the next day. Having quality sleep can be the difference between having the energy to do a task and putting it off.
“Now that I’m retired and I have a lot more flexibility in my schedule it is easier to put things off. So I really appreciate it. I feel like it really helps my self-discipline a lot. To structure my day and do what I had hoped and planned to do. Having had a good night’s sleep.”
Recognizing that we sometimes rely on self-discipline and willpower to complete these tasks, Aloe said, “if I haven’t slept well I put off the challenging things until tomorrow. In thinking, “Maybe tomorrow I’ll have a clearer head and have slept well so that’s when I’m going to do the harder things.”
Sleep is one of those things we all do but don’t give much thought to. If we were to take a closer look at our own sleep routines we could probably improve the other parts of our day.
“Having a clear head is crucial for doing that. It really helps to have had a good night’s sleep. It makes a big difference.”
Can you identify a time, maybe recently, where without your knowledge of self-hypnosis, you would have had a difficult time?
“Well last week I had a 2-hour Zoom meeting that I had prepared a couple of months for.”
“There were four other people in the meeting and I played, not the principle, but an important part in the meeting, and I didn’t freak out about it the night before because I was able to fall asleep. So, that was something recent that it helped with.”
What about Reveri would you tell another person you wanted to highlight it to?
“It would be, that it does take practice. But the results, even the first time I tried it, it really helped clear my mind for sleeping. That you need to be patient, but that it is something you can practice.”
How could we make hypnosis more mainstream?
Aloe makes comparisons to how hypnosis has been portrayed in society in saying, “the connotations of hypnosis I think need to become more sophisticated. But, having articles in the NY Times and other publications, respectable publications and more general audience publications that explain and give evidence without beating someone over the head with it in an article helps. And being honest about it.”
“When I tell somebody I’m practicing meditation they’re impressed. When I say I’m practicing self-hypnosis they’re like, “Is this a nightclub act or something?”
At Reveri we aim to make hypnosis mainstream and help hundreds of millions of people benefit from it by learning how to manage conditions such as stress, chronic pain, insomnia, overeating, and addiction. We may be working against some long-held beliefs, but the immediate relief Reveri members are experiencing from scientific-backed research and clinical studies is helping us erode each “nightclub act” connotation, one by one.
How, do you think, would hypnosis becoming mainstream help more people?
“I think people are under so much stress as it is, especially these days, and people are so polarized. And so, it is so easy to lose your temper and it’s so easy to cling to ideas that have been discredited. That I think if we became more patient and if we were able to listen better to each other that a lot of difficulties today would lessen.”
“And I think that self-hypnosis is a way to calm down and a way to feel more in control of yourself and in control of your life.”
“If you’re feeling better, you will treat each other better.”
Aloe is a real Reveri member using a pseudonym for the purpose of this testimonial.