Is hypnosis still helping me if I drift off to sleep then awaken at the end of the session?

I use the hypnosis downloads before I go to sleep, since it is the only time I have that is not likely to be interrupted. I tend to fall asleep during them. Sometimes I wake up at the end and hear either you or Roger cheerfully inviting me back to the room and sometimes not.

Is the hypnosis still effective in this case? It seems to be…

This question was submitted by 'Pat'

Mark says...

Hi Pat and thanks for writing in.

Well, certainly some of the sleep downloads fade out so that people can just sleep on, but, as you say, many of the downloads awaken people from trance at the end. Although I know some people cut off the very end bit so they can listen to all the downloads as a gateway into sleep.

But really, I think, your question is: can the hypnotic downloads still be effective for you if you drift off to sleep during them?

Sometimes we feel we have been asleep after hypnosis if we have relaxed quite deeply, so it's hard to know how much of what you experience is sleep and how much is hypnotic trance in this case.

Hypnosis is akin to the REM (rapid eye movement) state seen in sleep time dreaming. In fact, swinging a watch to elicit REM is an old way of actually inducing hypnosis. The early part of sleep is very light and REM-rich, which means that people may still be open to suggestion during the very early stages of sleep before they go into deep sleep, which is less amenable to suggestion.

The fact that you awaken when it is suggested to you to 'come back to the room' shows that, if you had dipped into sleep, it would have been of the very light, more 'hypnotic' or REM-rich variety, not the slow wave deep sleep that only happens around 90 to 120 minutes after falling asleep.

This coupled with the fact that you have noticed the hypnosis is working for you shows that all is good, I think. : )

All best wishes,

Mark