Clinical Hypnosis Intervention for Improving Sleep Quality: Emerging Research and Future Directions

ABSTRACT

Research into clinical hypnosis for sleep disturbances is an expanding area with important implications for clinical practice and future research. This issue of the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis includes emerging research on clinical hypnosis to improve sleep quality and disturbances. While clinical hypnosis for sleep is very promising, the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. To address this is an article that examines pre-sleep arousal and worry reduction as potential variables associated with the effects of clinical hypnosis in improving sleep quality. Related to this topic is an article entitled, “Aging adults’ willingness, preferences, and access to self-hypnosis for sleep: A cross-sectional study,” which identifies aging adults’ preferences and access to self-hypnosis for sleep. This issue of the IJCEH also includes an important article on health care professionals’ perceptions, knowledge and attitudes toward clinical hypnosis which considers the need for more training and education in clinical hypnosis among health care providers. Further, a scoping review of hypnotherapy for treatment of depression is presented, followed by an exploration of implicit rapport in hypnotherapy, and a case report on hypnotherapy in oral surgery with a highly hypnotizable patient.