Sleep is the most important function that human beings perform every twenty-four hours. Quality deep sleep balances most of the physical and mental stress generated in the past sixteen hours. The balance allows all systems in the body to function properly leading to consistent “good” health.

It’s been my experience that most people have no idea how important sleep is until they have trouble going to sleep. Then they might buy a new mattress, have alcoholic drinks before bed, watch TV until they fall asleep and finally start taking sleep medication.

Studies have shown that alcohol and sleep medications in the bloodstream prior to going into unconscious sleep affect the deep sleep cycles in direct proportion with the amount in the body. The more alcohol and sleep medications in the body the fewer deep sleep cycles and thus lower stress balancing while asleep.

Two articles in the newspaper this past week pointed out the importance of sleep. One article was headlined “Inadequate deep sleep is risk factor for diabetes” and the other “Children who sleep less weight more.” Both studies point to the risks of inadequate sleep. According to the studies, the diabetes risk happens because of the body’s inability to regulate blood sugar levels and the other affecting the children’s metabolism.

The lack of daily stress balancing gradually leads to a greater and greater imbalance that affects every part of our physical body as well as our mental health. The immune system and metabolism process function on a lower level and our thinking process becomes cloudy affecting all of our life decisions. There are studies that show the speed of the aging process directly tied to the imbalance of stress.

So what can we do about sleep and balancing stress? Learn self-hypnosis and practice it every day for at least one-half hour. According to many studies, thirty-minutes in an altered state can give you the equivalent of eight hours of quality deep sleep. Some studies indicate that deep rest in an altered state cannot be duplicated by quality sleep.

If you would like to learn more about stress and balancing processes, please read my explanation of hypnosis and self-hypnosis on this website.

This morning I tried a new yoga exercise on a CD that was given to me by a friend. The exercise was in fact a hypnosis session with its own special Indian yoga name. The session was built around two focusing processes, being aware of your breathing and body awareness.

Most of the “altered states” processes coming from India along with Eastern philosophy have been various forms of meditation. Meditation involves focusing on a mantra or sound until the mind is calm then dropping the focus and allowing the mind to be free.

Meditation usually takes a person into the “alpha” brain wave state, which is the first level of the altered states. There are meditations that will take one into “theta” but only after many years of practice. My hypnosis process takes most people into “theta” on the first or second session.

In the 1970’s I gave a self-hypnosis seminar for several Buddhists Monks. At the end of the first hypnosis session all of them commented on how easy the process was and how deeply focused they were. These Monks normally did a daily “sitting” meditation, sometimes as long as twenty hours in a day.

In 1984 I gave a series of seminars in the Midwest. After one of the seminars, which always included a hypnosis session, a man invited me to meet with him the next morning. He introduced himself as a “born again” Christian and a member of a large national Christian organization. He told me that what I was teaching could be what his organization was looking for; a method of meditation/altered states that Christians could use that had no connection to Eastern philosophy. As far as I know, nothing came of our meeting.

If you would like to know more about “altered states” and “brain waves”, go back to my site and read “ Hypnosis and Self-Hypnosis Explanation”.

We all visualize. Six out of ten people describe visualization as looking at a picture on a screen on the back of their forehead, the others describe visualization as a feeling rather than a picture. Whether it’s seeing a picture/movie or the feeling of a picture/movie, the end result is the same. Visualization has an effect on our body functions as well as our mind.

In the Self-Hypnosis Course, I teach sensory imaging which is much more effective in causing changes in body functions than regular visualization. Sensory imaging is visualizing with all five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch while in a deep focused state. The average person can image reasonably well with one or two of their senses. It takes practice to use all five effectively.

One of the best examples of effective sensory imaging was achieved by one of my cancer clients. He was in his early 40’s and loved to swim in the ocean. During one of our sessions, I asked him to imagine himself at the beach, getting ready for a long fast swim in the ocean. Then I asked him to imagine wading into the ocean and as soon as it was deep enough, to begin swimming as fast as he could for one-half mile, then turn around heading back for the beach. The entire distance was to be covered in a very short time.

After a few minutes, his breathing radically changed and he started to have beads of perspiration on his forehead and face, then his arms and legs. He was lying on a couch in a deep state of focus and looked very relaxed. There was no physical movement.

At the end of the session he reported that the swim was as real as any he had ever taken. He was amazed at how fast he was able to do the one-mile course and how he could taste and smell the salt water, feel the cold water and even hear seagulls.

He was equally good with his immune system imagery. He had no side effects during a series of radiation treatments.

Learning to use sensory imaging while in a deep focused state is very effective in setting goals in the goal seeking mechanism as well as effecting changes in the body such as reducing muscle spasms and stopping bleeding.

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