Estimates reveal that approximately a third of the UK population struggles to either get to sleep or stay asleep each night.

Insomnia is usually caused by a trigger. This is often a stressful occasion such as a divorce, or it could be something simple like a common cold. Whatever the trigger is, it temporarily affects our ability to sleep. As humans we’re very intolerant to a lack of sleep. If we don’t sleep well for a couple of nights, we start to worry.

We then start to focus our attention on it to try and fix it. We might try to catch up on sleep by either going to bed early or by laying in. By doing so we actually make the situation worse, as usually we’ll spend our time in bed either worrying about the trigger event or our inability to fall asleep.

Quite quickly we condition our brain to see our bed as a place to worry. We start to fear being awake, so the emotional part of our brain registers this as a threat. This activates our fight/flight response, our body temperature, heart and breathing rate rise. This is quite the opposite of the conditions we need to sleep. This is why we can be struggling to keep our eyes open on the sofa, but as soon as we lay in bed we find ourselves alert and unable to sleep.

We then often resort to doing activities such as reading, being on a device or watching TV in bed to entertain us while we can’t sleep. This further weakens the connection with our bed as being a relaxing place to sleep.

 You cannot force sleep. You will only sleep when you have sufficient sleep drive, a regulated sleep/wake cycle, are not anxious and have a strong connection with your bed. If you are unfortunate enough to suffer from insomnia, research reveals the most beneficial thing you can do is to wake up and get up at the same time every day. Set an alarm clock and make sure you’re out of bed at this time. This helps to regulate your sleep/ wake cycle. Over time your brain learns when to release melatonin at night to make you sleepy and when to release cortisol in the morning to wake you up. We are very lucky in Fairfield to have beautiful surroundings on our doorstep. Going for a walk and exposing yourself to natural light in the first half of your day will also help to regulate your sleep/wake cycle.

Ian Murton is an award-winning clinical hypnotherapist based in Fairfield. He specialises in helping children and adults to overcome their anxiety and insomnia. You can find out more about his services at ianmurtonhypnotherapy.com.