Sleep apnea: how hypnosis helps

Sleep apnea is incredibly exhausting, and it can have all kinds of effects on your life. Fortunately, hypnosis can help you deal with the problems that result from sleep apnea.

What is sleep apnea?

When you suffer from sleep apnea, your breathing occasionally stops while sleeping. This is because the airways can then become blocked. You then often wake up so you can consciously breathe properly for a while. A good night's sleep is then often not possible.

People with sleep apnea also often snore and sometimes even have paused breathing without having to wake up to take another breath.

Because it is so exhausting to not breathe properly while sleeping, people with sleep apnea may also experience fatigue during the day, have trouble concentrating, have difficulty remembering things, and suffer from mood swings.

This can even lead to problems in the workplace, due to falling asleep, for example, and even traffic accidents. It is more difficult to learn new things, and even building a social life can be problematic due to sleep apnea and the fatigue that comes with it[1].

A consequence of this fatigue and physical symptoms is that you are more likely to experience depressive symptoms, anxiety, and may even have suicidal thoughts. People with sleep apnea are also more likely to report that mental health care does not help them effectively, even though they use these services more frequently on average than people without sleep apnea[2].

Sleep apnea device

One way sleep apnea can be treated is with a device that lightly blows air into your lungs. This causes your airways to remain open, so you can breathe normally at night.

Many people who suffer from sleep apnea swear by it. The only problem is that it can look a little crazy. A thick tube of air going from your nightstand to your face and then some kind of mask on your nose. In addition, this device often forces you to sleep on your back or on one side of your body.

You have to love that.

And that’s the crux of the matter: certain beliefs about how you want to be—or even how you want to come across to the partner lying next to you in bed—can prevent you from, for example, purchasing a sleep apnea device. Because, to put it bluntly, it’s “not cool.”

A hypnotherapist can help you figure out what beliefs are now causing you not to want to purchase such a device, even though it may help your problems with sleep apnea. Especially if it is due to your physique and not obesity, for example.

Indeed, beliefs about romance in bed, spooning and the like can prevent you from purchasing such a device. While romance and intimacy is not just something that happens in bed, and even such a device need not stop the magic in the bedroom.

You’ll learn how this works and how, as a hypnotherapist, you can help people overcome obstacles in one of the courses offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands.

Hypnosis can even be used if you undergo a medical procedure for airway clearance; this happens if your physique causes you to suffer from sleep apnea[3].

Sleep apnea cause of death

Because you might wake up at night after briefly holding your breath, it can feel as though you woke up because you were choking . That’s not a pleasant feeling, and it’s certainly something that can make you fear that you might die from your sleep apnea.

That fear isn’t entirely unfounded, because sleep apnea does indeed increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. For example , people are at a higher risk of having strokes, but a sleep apnea machine does not help reduce the risk of such complications[4].

However, it is thus not the case that you actually suffocate from your sleep apnea because you wake up to just breathe again. The body itself wants to stay alive, so it will cause you to wake up to breathe when the sleep apnea causes you to not breathe for too long.

Only if the oxygen level in your blood drops too low while you’re sleeping can this lead to sudden death due to sleep apnea[5]. However, this is often linked to other issues such as advanced age (60+), high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, and heart problems that make it difficult for the heart to pump blood throughout the body.

Don’t have any of these symptoms? Then a hypnotherapist can help you overcome your fear of death caused by sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea obesity

Sleep apnea can have two possible causes, your physique and obesity. If you suffer from a just not convenient physique - which is why you have sleep apnea - slimming down will not help you get rid of it. You probably already have a healthy weight and then found out that your throat is apparently puzzled together just a little differently than those of people without sleep apnea.

For example, about half of people with sleep apnea are not overweight at all, but they have more fat on their necks than people without sleep apnea[6].

If you’re overweight, losing weight can go a long way toward reducing sleep apnea symptoms[7]. Losing weight is actually much easier when you ’ve had the help of a hypnotherapist.

For example, a hypnotherapist can install a virtual (imaginary) gastric band for you, making you feel full more quickly while eating. As a result, you’ll eat less and effortlessly lose a few kilograms. In a study of people who received a virtual gastric band and had a BMI of at least 27, there was even one person who lost 17 kilograms (!) in 24 weeks. That’s just under half a year[8].

Tadaa! The sleep apnea is suddenly a lot less present, too.

In addition, a hypnotherapist can also help you address your beliefs about nutrition, your self-esteem, and even your perception of taste to make it easier to eat healthier.

How to do this as a hypnotherapist is something you will learn during training at the Hypnosis Institute Netherlands.

Incapacitated by sleep apnea

Do you use a CPAP machine? Have you lost weight, but still suffer from sleep apnea and the associated symptoms of fatigue and difficulty concentrating? And is this so severe that you can no longer function properly at work? Then you have a higher risk of burnout and (periods of) work disability or illness[9].

This is obviously not a pleasant prospect, but fortunately there is much you can do about it and a hypnotherapist can help you with this.

Setting boundaries, taking breaks on time, and, if necessary, finding a job or working hours that better suit your energy level are the best ways to reduce illness and absenteeism.

However, setting boundaries, taking rest and even less hours at work are things that often depend on the beliefs you have about life and how you are supposed to function in it.

For example, many people who suffer from burnout find it difficult to say “no” because they’re afraid of losing their jobs.

People who work full-time may find it difficult to work one day less per week, because their ego considers it important to put in long hours.

It can be anything.

Through regression , you can discover which beliefs cause you to keep working instead of resting when you’re actually very tired. Then, in your mind, you go back to the first time you felt that this was the right thing to do. You might even notice that you can’t say no to friends or family because you’re afraid of losing their love.

Then, in your mind, you start doing something with that moment to fix the belief[10] to a belief that helps for you, reducing stress from the idea of being allowed to set your limits. For example, a therapist can help you empathize with the other people who were there at that moment, and you can even use your imagination to change the whole moment.

So you can even let your adult self talk to your inner child.

After that, you will find that a burden falls off of you, making you feel good about standing up for yourself and pointing out that it's better to take a rest, because otherwise you're just going to make mistakes from fatigue anyway. In the end, that doesn't help anyone.

Would you like to learn more about what hypnosis can do for you? Then join the free online masterclass to discover the wonders of hypnosis.

Or sign up for one of our seminars or training courses if you want to help others—or yourself—solve problems.

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