BEDTIME ANXIETY SOOTHER SESSIONS - What ARE THEY?

Bedtime anxiety soother sessions are designed to 'wash over' you while you lie in bed, preparing for sleep. You can engage with them as much or as little as you choose. The soothing voice and soft music will naturally help you relax and let go. 

Anxiety soothers rise and fall in volume and tone, and include subtle emphasis on certain words and phrases with the music, to give a hypnotic and sedative effect. 

They work beautifully well for people with sleep and nighttime anxiety, because they distract attention away from: negative thoughts, rumination, catastrophizing thoughts and a critical inner voice.   

Bedtime anxiety soother sessions are highly relaxing.

Guided sleep meditation will help you feel more relaxed and ready for sleep. It guides you through anxiety-reducing techniques which will help you reduce stress and tension throughout your mind and body, through positive and soothing verbal encouragement. Guided sleep meditation uses meditative techniques, such as focusing your attention on the present moment, away from stress and anxious, jumbled thoughts that crowd your mind at bedtime and ultimately prepares you to drift off into sleep. 

Guided sleep meditation is highly relaxing too.

Guided sleep visualization is very similar to guided meditation, but encourages your imagination to help you 'see' scenarios, places and images in your mind's eye, taking you on an imaginary journey that only you can 'see'! While you are engaging in this imaginary world, a relaxed state is created and anxious thoughts are reduced. 

Guided sleep visualization uses meditative techniques, ultimately encouraging you to drift off into sleep. 

Guided sleep visualization is highly relaxing, although for those with Aphantasia, (the inability to voluntarily visualize mental images in our mind's eye) this is less likely to be effective. 

Sleep Hypnotherapy uses hypnosis techniques (e.g., breathing, relaxation and/or visualization) to create full relaxation throughout your body, while keeping your mind focused. In addition, through hypnosis, you can be encouraged to allow your consciousness to release so that you can fall asleep. The 'therapy' part of hypnotherapy means that it is also designed to help with an issue, through positive suggestion or subliminal messaging. 

Please be assured that anything suggested to you during hypnosis, in contradiction with your will, moral, ethical and legal compass, will not be absorbed successfully and will be rejected by your mind - despite how it looks in stage hypnosis! 

The hypnosis techniques we use are highly sleepifying! 

Sleep Like a Log has developed a new way of combining music with hypnotherapy. 

HCA - Hypnotic Choreographed Audio means that the background music and voiceover recording have been edited in a choreographed way to create a greater hypnotic listening experience. HCA ensures that certain moments in the music e.g., chord progression, musical highlights, dynamics and cadences, are specifically placed to enhance and highlight certain phrases and words in the voiceover. When certain words and phrases are emphasized by certain moments in the music, more attention can be drawn to them and their significance is therefore implied. For example, our minds naturally understand final, or 'perfect' cadences in music. They suggest an ending of some kind. In Clare's voiceovers, these perfect cadences are used to suggest the end of a section in the voiceover. This gives the recordings natural beginnings, middles and endings throughout, to which, our minds connect and consciously and subconsciously respond. 

At Sleep Like a Log, we are developing a range of relaxation-inducing, long-play

sound combinations to:

• mask intrusive, worrying thoughts that prevent you drifting off to sleep. 
• mask disturbing sudden changes in night-time sounds that cause sleep disturbance. 
• potentially help with ADHD symptoms - focus & relax (read more HERE)  

What types of sound do we use?

Pink Noise Pink noise is almost the same as white noise, but it has reduced higher frequencies. Many people prefer pink noise as it can be experienced as more soothing and 'warmer' than white noise. Research shows that pink noise, played at a low volume, improves sleep quality and duration. 

Please note: if you are already experiencing hearing issues, this sound may cause mild ringing in your ears. Do not continue to listen if your hearing changes.

READ MORE

Brown Noise (or Brownian Noise): Brown noise has more output across the lower frequencies audible to the human ear; deeper and similar to distant rumbling thunder, waterfall, or wind. Brown noise can help with relaxation and improve sleep. Brown noise is less powerful than Pink noise. Play on a low volume: 60 decibels or less.

Some research shows that Brown noise can help with ADHD symptoms: focus and productivity during waking hours. 

Please note: if you are already experiencing hearing issues, this sound may cause mild ringing in your ears. Do not continue to listen if your hearing changes.

READ MORE

Ambient: general background noise around you, mixed sound, e.g. in a cafe, or garden

ASMR: Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response sounds are highly subjective! e.g., whispering, hair-brushing, movement of wooden beads, tapping or scratching. Many people find that certain sounds give them 'tingles' and/or cause them to drift into a meditative & calming state. 

READ MORE

And MANY MORE...

For some, e.g., those with Misophonia disorder (having a decreased tolerance to specific sounds) certain ASMR sounds might have the opposite effect.  

These aren't for everyone, but when you find some that help, enjoy them!