Good quality sleep is a habit. If you make changes above, don’t expect changes in your sleep pattern to occur overnight, give it time. And be forgiving of yourself. Nothing prevents a good nights sleep more than increased sense of annoyance at not being able to go to sleep. So quit trying, get up and do something relaxing.

Further Self Help Strategies

Just as external environment and our patterns of behaviour influence our ability to fall asleep easily and readily, so too does our internal environment have an effect. We can make every effort to reduce external stimulus, dim light and listen to soothing music, but if we are making huge, bright pictures in our mind, or chattering away to ourselves in an urgent, intense tone, we are still creating a problem for ourselves. So pay attention to your thoughts as you prepare for sleep. And notice “how” you think them. What is it about them that make it harder to drop off to sleep?

·Are you making images that big, bright, active, crowded? Let them become dimmer, further away, slow down activity…

·Are you talking away to yourself? What sort of tone is that internal voice using? Make it slow down, and drop in pitch. Allow your internal thinking to become as soothing and gentle as you have made external environment. You might find this helpful to do over a few minutes, so internal dialogue gradually becomes quieter and quieter until you can barely hear it.

Self-Hypnosis

Self-hypnosis is a way of relaxing mind and body to a stage at which communication between your conscious and unconscious mind becomes free and unimpeded. There are a number of ways in which this can benefit sleep, not least in that relaxation it brings is beneficial in its own right.

There a number of ways to learn self-hypnosis, but it really is quite simple. When settles in bed, find a way to physically relax your body. Different ways work for different people, so for example, you might like to

1.direct your attention to each part of your body in turn, noticing how tense it feels. Then tense it further, release it and relax. Move on to next part of body. Do this from feet up to muscles in head and then back down again, before just lying there and enjoying sensation of relaxation. Or,

2.visualise a relaxing energy travelling up your body. It may be a golden light, or a warm pink glow. As it travels up your body, notice what energy feels like as it suffuses and relaxes every muscle. Is it warm, does it gently vibrate? Is there a sound like a gentle hum associated with it? (If you represent it differently, that’s OK… everyone is unique in this respect). Alternatively,

3.pay attention to your breathing. As you breathe in, notice what happens to muscles around your body. And as you breathe out, notice how they relax just a little bit further each time you breathe out. As you breathe in, say to yourself (in your mind) in a slow, relaxing voice “Breathe”, and as you breathe out, say “…and relax”

And having reached that state of relaxation, simply say to yourself, in same slow, relaxing manner, and knowing you are addressing your unconscious as well as conscious self “…and tonight, as I sleep more readily and easily each time I do this, I sleep deeper and deeper than ever before, to awake in morning, refreshed, alert and awake”

You can repeat this three times, allowing your internal voice to get quieter and quieter each time you say it.

Adam is an NLP practitioner, hypnotherapist, and mental health nurse with over a decades experience. He is passionate about the use of language to effect change.

First, get a good strong representation of saying "No!" to something. It doesn't need to be related to food. You will want to make sure that your No looks, sounds, and feels congruent and that it truly fits with your beliefs and values.

Second, to reinforce this powerful NO, find 4 other situations where you said NO!. It can be as simple "NO, it's too late to go out now". The most important is that it needs to be congruent. If you are a 100% people pleasers and can't find any NO! situations, think of what it would be, how you would feel and what you would hear if you had courage to say NO! to something or someone. This is this kind of NO! that you need.

Third, Say No! to junk food. Re-access "it's stronger than me" feeling and once you have it, say No! Do it congruently, intensely, and repeatedly. And you can keep on saying No! until you begin to feel that it no longer has any power to run your programs. Notice how feeling diminish and how desire for food is far and disappearing. To finish, picture yourself already slim and fit. You already know it's not hard to do it. Now, say a big "YES! That's what I want!"

As you know, you have power of saying NO! Everybody does. But we are trapped with some limited old thinking that eating is for a reward or for pleasure. We are conditioned to eat for false reasons. When you keep repeating this pattern, you break some old belief and it comforts you: you can change, you can do it, can't you?