Hypnotherapy

The 6 Benefits of an Early Bird Sleep Pattern on Mental Health.

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Most of us know just how important a good restful nights’ sleep is to our feeling of well-being the next day. What many of us don’t know is the impact of when we choose to sleep can be just as important on how we feel.

I want to share with you the powerful impact waking up early can have on our Mental Health.

Now for those of us who aren’t ‘Morning People’ the thought of waking up early can seem horrifying, but with a bit of discipline we can re-organise our day and reap the benefits on both our body and mind.

  1. Organise your day & be more productive

The first benefit of waking early is that you can use this extra time when few of us are awake to start to plan your day and create a to do list. By creating a plan for your day, you can get yourself in the right mindset to go about and complete your tasks, you will also experience less anxiety and worrying unnecessarily. When you direct your mind towards your goals you start using the Reticular Activating System. This is a built-in part of the brain that filters content that is related to what you want and think about in life, So, if you are in a positive mindset, it will look for all the things that confirms your aspirations. An example would be if you decided you wanted a specific car, you will find that you suddenly notice this car in adverts, on the roads, in car parks etc.

A study that was published in the Journal of General Psychology in 2008 highlighted that “those who woke up early procrastinated less than those who woke up late. Individuals tend to be more disciplined and focused on their goals, thereby improving productivity”. Studies also indicate that individuals that rise early tend to be more agreeable and cooperative, they were more determined to achieve projects and tasks.

2. Time for Quiet, Calm and Silence

Studies indicate that when you wake up earlier than most people, you have time that affords you some quality peace and quiet in a noisy busy world, an invaluable commodity.

During those quiet moments you have time to hear your thoughts. It gives you quality time to relax, read a book, do some exercise or even meditate. These quiet moments have positive effects on the brain, and some of these include:

Reducing blood pressure

Increase oxygen levels in brain

Reduce migraines

Boost mental health.

3. Time for Breakfast

When you wake up early you give yourself time to eat a good nutritious breakfast. The benefits of eating a nutritious breakfast are numerous and some of these include:

  • Provides energy for the day
  • Help you focus
  • Reduces risk of being overweight
  • Lowers negative cholesterol
  • Reduces risk of Heart Disease and Diabetes
  • Maintains a healthy bodily rhythm
  • Improves mood and positive thinking.

4. Improved brain clarity & function

According to a study carried out by Christoph Randler biologist at Germany’s University of Education, if you suffer with a foggy mind throughout the day, starting to change your sleep patterns to waking early can improve your brain function.

Those who wake up early tend to find they are more creative, engage with work more and are funnier. The have improved problem solving and critical thinking skills and have an increase in memory function, all vital skills that improve your effectiveness at work and play.

5. Become more positive and improve mental health

The biggest benefit of waking up early is on your mental health. This is as a result of the collective benefit of all of the above. Those who don’t get up early are at a higher risk of developing depression and other mental disorders.

By waking up later it increases the chances of developing negative thoughts which can overwhelm those who suffer with this, by readjusting your sleep patterns and sticking with it can gradually improve your outlook to a more positive way.

6. Better Sleep & gives you more energy

By shifting your sleeping patterns and going to bed earlier and waking early in the morning, evidence points to deeper sleep patterns. You get a better quality of restorative sleep. Once you have established a set routine of going to bed at a set time and getting up the same time every morning, your natural body clock readjusts so that you can feel sleepy when its time and get up refreshed when its time. It is also important to continue this routine at weekends to maximise the benefits. The importance and benefits of getting a deeper sleep pattern established include:

  • Tissue repair
  • Bone repair
  • Lowered blood pressure
  • Relaxes the body
  • Increased blood supply
  • Releases growth hormones that can build muscle and tissue.

Waking early conclusion While acknowledging getting up early can be difficult for some, including the writer of this blog, with a determined effort and some strategies to maintain your discipline I can add my own experience to confirm the benefits are worth the effort.

The importance of mental relaxation

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Happy New Year 2019

In a world where so much attention is placed on achieving goals, we are constantly busy doing and trying to accomplish a whole multitude of different tasks every day. As a result, we can often neglect the very basic needs of our highly worked, but incredible solution focused and more positive aspects of our brain.

For many of us we will see a good night’s sleep as the holy grail for a balanced life. New research carried out by the National Council for Social Research discovered that the most rested people scored 15pts higher on a happiness scale than those that struggled to get the sleep they felt they needed. It is estimated that as adults we need between 7-9 hours of quality sleep a night. However all too often we don’t achieve that perfect night’s sleep and this can have a knock-on effect on our relationships and work productivity, as we end up feeling sluggish throughout our day.

So how can we help ourselves to overcome the problems that lead to a lack of sleep?

As a clinical Hypnotherapist and Psychotherapist, I am often asked ‘How can I relax?’ There are many ways to relax and unwind, relaxation is different for everyone. For some it’s finding a way to rest an over-worked body, but for others and more commonly among those people I encounter, is a need to rest an over-worked mind.

This may sound like a simple activity, but for those who are used to worrying about, well just about everything, it can be difficult to change habits that have formed in the brain over time.

This is where Hypnotherapy comes in as a useful and powerful tool to help ease and relieve our troubled minds. Hypnotherapy can restore balance to a potentially over-worked mind, allowing it to process the worries of the day, bring stillness and calm to the body and free up time to allow an individual to enter a deeper more restorative quality sleep during the night.

Today neuroscientists have identified four main types of brain activity that can be measured by an EEG device. These are outlined below.

Of these key brain wave states, the one that is identified as being associated with creativity is the awake and resting thought process. This is associated with activity in the pre-frontal cortex, and this is the area when logic and reasoning can present us with solutions to problems.

Meditation states have also shown that during periods of physical and mental rest, we allow the mind to quieten down, and during this period of deep mental and physical rest our minds can recover and process our feelings and issues. The more we are able to find ways to do this, the less stress we carry with us during our waking day. This in turn frees the mind to have a more effective, deeper and restorative sleep.

Here is a list of different ways in which we can allow our mind that vital time to relax from our worried state.

  • Read a book or a magazine, even if it’s only for a few minutes. This can allow your mind to escape your worries for a short time.
  • Run yourself a bath, watch a film, play with a pet or try out a new recipe. All great and enjoyable methods to focus on something other than your worries.
  • Mindfulness and Meditation –

Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Try to keep your shoulders down and relaxed and place your hand on your stomach – it should rise as you breathe in and fall as you breathe out. Count as you breathe. Start by counting ‘one, two, three, four’ as you breathe in and ‘one, two, three, four’ as you breathe out. Try to work out what’s comfortable for you.

Breathing in this way gives our mind a focus and allows us to begin to take control of our own mind. One of the methods that we can learn that teaches us to calm and relax our mind is Mindfulness. You can find a qualified teacher. This has been proven to improve anxiety or depression.

  • Take a walk in the countryside or through a local park, taking time to notice trees, flowers, plants and animals you see on the way.
  • Spend some time taking part in conservation, whether that’s digging in your own garden or taking part in a local green project. You can find projects and outdoor activities to suit whatever level of mobility you have.
  • Look for a local Hypnotherapist that offers mental relaxation classes or sessions.
  • Look for a class you’d like to try, such as yoga, Pilates or gentle stretching. These activities help focus the mind and body allow us to restore a balance to our thinking.
  • Try painting, drawing, making crafts, playing a musical instrument, dancing, baking or sewing.
  • Listen to your favourite songs. Turn up the volume and dance or sing along or put your headphones on and close your eyes, really listen to the music. Can you pick out different instruments? Can you hear a drum beat or a certain rhythm? Focus on the music, and let other thoughts fade away.
  • Think of somewhere relaxing and peaceful. You might choose a memory of somewhere you’ve been, or a place you have imagined.

If we consider that we are more productive as people when we are relaxed and in a calm and creative mindset. It should therefore naturally follow that if we allow ourselves the freedom to ensure we make the time and effort to relax and invest in our own long-term wellbeing, then this is a priceless gift to ourselves.

Welcome to Illuminating Minds

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What is Solution Focused Hypnotherapy ?

This form of Psychotherapy is designed to reduce anxiety and Stress related symptoms. It is called Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) and as the name may imply during our sessions we focus on the solutions for future, rather than dwelling on and analysing the past. It is structured to empower people to change the way they think, and as long as a person is committed to this change and follows the process it can be highly effective in relieving symptoms of stress and anxiety.

By focusing on the solutions and not dwelling on the past problems we instead ;

  • See where you are currently.
  • Highlight and illuminate where you want to be going forward.
  • Empower you with the tools to make the changes required.

When it comes to the mind we say ‘Use it or lose it’. We are looking to lose the ruminating on painful memories part and rewire and fire the brain with positive actions that can only move us forward.

Famous quote

“You can’t effect the cards you are dealt, but you can determine how you play them “ Milton Erikson

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy uses practical, modern, well-researched strategies to help people make significant and beneficial changes in their lives.

It is an extremely effective treatment for Fears, Phobias, Giving up Smoking, Anxiety, Weight Loss, Depression, IBS, Sports Performance and many more.