I know that if you have insomnia, you want it fixed. I know, because I’ve suffered from insomnia and I know how much it affects your life, your work, every aspect.
But did you have any idea insomnia can directly lead to anxiety and phobias?
I was taught how this works in my training at HMI, and I’ve seen this over and over again in clients. Here’s what happens.
Your brain runs on glucose (blood sugar), and your brain primarily takes up blood sugar while you’re getting deep, restful sleep. It can take up a bit when you’re awake, but nothing to the extent that it does while you’re getting good sleep. This is really your brain’s time to “tank up” on fuel for the following day. It’s one of the primary reasons why mammals sleep. So, if you’re not sleeping well, your brain doesn’t get the blood sugar it needs to feel alert and awake the next day. (This also leads to cravings for foods that convert quickly to blood sugar, such as sweet foods and simple carbs like bread, which explains the connection between insomnia and obesity.)
When your brain doesn’t get enough blood sugar at night, you crave these foods the following day and tend to eat poorly. This leads to blood sugar spikes and drops during the day. Because your brain runs on blood sugar, if blood sugar drops significantly and suddenly, that is perceived as a threat to survival–you could pass out. It’s also an uncomfortable feeling, often accompanied by feelings of vague to intense nervousness, even nausea.
The brain, always working to make connections between how you are feeling and what is happening in your environment, scans your surroundings to determine what is creating these bad feelings, and links the bad, nervous feelings to that. An example of this is a client I had who, all of a sudden, developed a fear of elevators that was rapidly developing into a fear of all enclosed spaces (claustrophobia). Upon examining this, we found that he’d been trapped in a conference room all morning with nothing to eat but donuts, and about an hour and a half later had gotten into an elevator–just as his blood sugar was dropping. The day was 9/11, and with his already heightened emotional state, the link in his mind between the bad feelings and being in the crowded elevator was created. As he anticipated those feelings the next times he got onto elevators, wondering if he would feel that way again, and why it was happening, the link was reinforced and from there, as anxieties will do, began to spiral outward.
Unless you’re diabetic, you’ve probably never been taught proper blood sugar management, and the impact your blood sugar can have on your mood and how improperly managed blood sugar can lead to insomnia, weight gain, obesity, diabetes, anxieties and more.
It’s well known that anxiety and insomnia often go together, and this is one of the reasons why that is so (there are others, too.) If you suffer from insomnia or anxiety, fears or phobias, the good news is that hypnosis can help. I’ve helped hundreds to regain their sense of control over these issues and I’m certain I can help you as well. If you’re ready, I’m here to help.
