Since the inability to sleep is mostly due to the interference of thoughts. The therapeutic approach to sleep is directed at producing a relaxed state of mind and body. Thereafter, the right hemisphere of the brain is engaged to reduce the potency of logical thoughts.

Here is some of the techniques for to train your mind and body to relax deeply:

• Progressive Body Scan Relaxation:

Instead of letting the mind runs free (the mind usually tends to overthink), we start by directing conscious attention on breathing, as it is something we do unconsciously. By consciously narrowing down the focus of the mind to only one thing – breathing, the mind will slowly become quiet.

Next, we direct your attention to various parts of the body right from the head to the toe, relaxing each part of the body through the body scanning. After this, the rise and fall of the lower abdomen are consciously noticed by keeping one hand on it. Immediately, a “calming effect” gets induced, the intruding thoughts will slowly drift away and you can gradually fall asleep.

• Thought Redirection:

People can sometimes be disturbed by snoring sounds or outside interferences which hinder sleep. In such cases, the mind perceives it as “annoyance”. Such exaggeration is possible with some individuals. You can change the perception of the snoring sound into a “soothing” experience with a rhythmic pattern attached to it

When thoughts are redirected in this manner, sounds that hinder sleep can actually be used for the benefit of inducing good sleep. Once the mind is able to overcome outside interferences, we can utilize positive affirmations to induce sleep. For example, you can repeat sentences like “Sleep is coming to me.”, instead of thinking, “I am still unable to sleep!” which will only hinder your sleep.

• Imagination:

Without any doubt, imagination can sometimes be a hindrance to sleep. Suppose you are looking forward to tomorrow’s important meeting and you might just be imagining terrible weather that could ruin the meeting. You are actually drawing conclusions even before they have happened. Also, there are good chances of individuals ruminating about their past. In both cases, our imagination is ruining our ability to sleep.

This calls for deploying the same imagination for good. In other words, instead of thinking about the future or past, the thinking should be directed at creating pleasant situations in the mind. For example, imagine yourself floating on clouds or being in a forest surrounded by a waterfall. The soothing feelings that accompany the visualization will help you gradually go to sleep. Each person is different and would have to possibly deploy an associated technique that works best.

• Self-Havening:

This is one of the new ground breaking sensory techniques that is capable of producing delta waves in the brain with the help of touch. Delta waves are known to produce a soothing sensation that can induce good sleep. By these havening techniques you can overcome your sleeping issue. Self-havening happens on the face, arms, and palm, with repeated rubbing of these surfaces in a clockwise motion while expressing thoughts of gratitude. The thoughts could be about feeling good for having had a good day and so on. By combining thoughts of gratitude and the rubbing motion creates delta waves in the brain that would help in creating an ideal situation for good sleep.

• Self-Hypnosis:

Incidentally, each of the above-mentioned techniques is integral to conducting self-hypnosis. In self-hypnosis, the brain functioning is lowered from an abundance of beta to alpha waves. The latter is known for producing soothing and calming feelings compared to the former which is associated with fear, paranoia, and depression. Self-hypnosis is done with the inclusion of the above-mentioned techniques in a step-by-step manner. This includes:

• Lookup and then close your eyes (Induces Relaxed State)
• Focus on abdominal breathing
• Start focusing by visualizing an imaginary staircase
• Imagining going down the staircase while counting backwards from 10
• Imagine reaching a beautiful place – a beach, garden, etc.
• Lie down in that place without thinking anything
• Use positive suggestions that would induce sleep (optional)

Here the primary effort is to switch from the left logical part of the brain to the right hemisphere associated with creativity, imagination, and aesthetics. Once you are able to make that switch, the intensity of the thoughts is reduced, so sleep can come easily.

We have also seen individuals have trouble sleeping because of unresolved fears from the past. And once the fear is removed, the individual regains their natural sleep rhythm again.