Sleep Disorders and Insomnia Therapy Birmingham

15/10/2025

Insomnia, Sleep Issues , Misophonia
Client referral posted today ,
" Great, and effective hypnotherapist. Stuarts techniques really work and will change you're life for the better.
Hi my name is Neil. I came across Stuart Downing when I found myself seeking out hypnotherapy to treat problems I was having with my sleep due to living next door to previous neighbours who were very noisy and whom had kept me awake. Thankfully, after a couple of months, the neighbours had moved on, but unfortunately as a result, I developed an anxiety about getting to sleep, which in turn lead to me developing an insomnia which was caused by the anxiety. I had also developed Misophonia as a result, and had become hypersensitive to certain noises, such as any bangs or thuds. Even though the neighbours had left, my anxiety still persisted, which only caused me even more anxiety as I couldnt understand why I just couldnt relax as I knew the neighbours were no longer there. It got too the point where the anxiety around my sleep was so bad, that it really started to have a profound effect on my life. I felt I couldnt enjoy life anymore, I just wasnt happy. I had felt like I had lost the ability to relax, as a result it really started to effect my relationships with my family as I just wasnt me anymore, so to speak. Thats when I knew I had to do something as I felt it was destroying my life. I researched hypnotherapy. I was curious as to how it worked, and researched whether or not it would be beneficial for the issues that I was going through. I sought out a few hypnotherapists, thats when I came across Stuart Downing. I did my research on him, and discovered that he could treat issues around sleep/anxiety. I read his reviews, which were all positive. I booked a consultation with Stuart, who was very friendly and reassuring and explained how hypnotherapy worked and the methods he was going to deploy in helping to heal me. In the consultation, Stuart told me that I would only require three to four sessions at the most, which I was surprised about to be honest, as I felt so afflicted by my issues. What can I say? Well, after just one session, I already noticed a vast improvement in my sleep quality. I was sleeping longer and deeper, and waking up totally refreshed. Over the last few weeks of the sessions , my sleep and anxiety has just got better and better. I feel much less anxious, and lot more relaxed, like a weight has been lifted. I am so glad that I decided to invest in the sessions with Stuart, and would recommend it to anyone who is considering hypnotherapy. Stuart helped me learn that a lot of fear is irrational and totally unnessacary, and that I can rationalise with myself that I do not need to feel that fear. I have also learnt extremely effective relaxation techniques, which have really helped me. I f I ever experience any difficulties in the future, I will be sure to utilise these techniques. So, if you have any issue that is effecting you to the point where it is having a profound effect on you're life, then I would highly recommend that you book yourself a consultation with Stuart Downing, it can and will change you're life!
Neil 14/10/25

If you need help with sleep issues , contact Stuart 07825 599340
stuart@hypnotherapy4freedom.co.uk
https://hypnotherapy4freedom.co.uk/hypnotherapy-services/hypnotherapy-for-sleep-disorders-Sleep Disorders and Insomnia Therapy Birmingham
https://hypnotherapy4freedom.co.uk/reviews

Stuart Downing is a trusted hypnotherapist helping clients overcome their issues across the UK and worldwide. Read his reviews here.

08/10/2025

10/02/2025

Insomnia and sleep issues
Lying awake at night, staring at the ceiling, feeling wired but exhausted?
If that sounds familiar , there’s a good chance your cortisol levels are out of control.
And here’s the deal: high cortisol is more than just a bad night’s sleep—it’s a serious roadblock to your health, energy, and your ability to hit the flow state.
Cortisol is your body’s built-in alarm system.
It’s meant to help you handle stress, but when it sticks around too long—especially at night—it can wreak havoc on your sleep.
Studies show that elevated evening cortisol is one of the biggest culprits behind tossing and turning, disrupted sleep cycles, and that feeling of being “tired but wired”.
When your cortisol levels are too high in the evening, your body stays in a state of alertness, making it nearly impossible to relax and fall asleep.
And poor sleep doesn’t just affect your mood—it drags down your entire health, energy, and performance.
The Cost of High Cortisol:
1. Disrupted Sleep
High cortisol messes with your body’s natural circadian rhythm, making it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep. You wake up feeling drained, no matter how long you’ve been in bed.
2. Increased Stress and Anxiety
Cortisol is linked to heightened stress responses. If your cortisol stays high, your body is constantly in “fight-or-flight” mode, which leads to more stress, anxiety, and mental fog during the day.
3. Blocked Flow State
Cortisol doesn’t just affect your sleep—it blocks your ability to enter the flow state. The flow state is where you’re fully focused and performing at your best, but high cortisol keeps your brain stuck in overdrive, making it impossible to focus deeply or think creatively.
Now, imagine what happens when you cut evening cortisol by 25%.
You’re not just lowering your stress—you’re giving your body the green light to relax, sleep deeply, and wake up energized.
Lowering cortisol improves your sleep quality, reduces anxiety, and opens the door for you to finally access the flow state.
When cortisol comes down:
1. Deep, Restorative Sleep
Lower cortisol allows your body to enter its natural rest-and-recover mode, improving sleep quality and helping you wake up refreshed and ready to take on the day.
2. Reduced Anxiety, More Clarity
When your cortisol levels are balanced, you’ll notice less anxiety, better mental clarity, and an increased sense of calm. This sets you up for a more productive, focused day.
3. More Consistent Flow State
With cortisol in check, your mind and body can work together, making it easier to slip into the flow state—where creativity, focus, and high performance come effortlessly.
You don’t have to spend another night staring at the ceiling, trapped in a cycle of poor sleep and high stress.
Lowering your evening cortisol naturally is possible, and it’s the key to better sleep, more energy, and consistent access to the flow state.
Call Stuart - 07825 599340 to discuss your insomnia issue in more detail
Email - stuart .co.uk
https://hypnotherapy4freedom.co.uk/.../hypnotherapy-for...
Client reviews - https://hypnotherapy4freedom.co.uk/reviews

Stuart Downing is a trusted hypnotherapist helping clients overcome their issues across the UK and worldwide. Read his reviews here.

25/01/2025

Sleep has known positive associations with long-term health, but it also seems to significantly enhance short-term brain function.
Sleep may help us to balance out our emotional state, especially when it comes to negativity.
Research shows that sleep is key to long-term memory storage, and may also help enhance short-term focus.
Getting good sleep may help promote our creative abilities, especially by increasing insight in problem-solving.
Good sleep seems to support healthier brain function;
1. Calmer emotions. Fascinating research in the last several decades has shown that sleep plays a role in improving emotional regulation. Unfortunately, sleep deficit may bias our emotional state towards the negative. In one study from 2020, participants were shown pictures after 5 nights of sleep restriction or 5 nights of good sleep. Compared to when they had slept well, people who were sleep-deprived perceived positive and neutral pictures as more negative. In brain imaging scans, sleep deprivation has been linked to changes in the amygdala, a key brain hub in emotional processing. In fact, some of these changes have been shown after as little as one night of sleep loss.
2. Improved focus. Trying to stay focused on any task after sleep deprivation can be a major challenge. Researchers have examined the connection between sleep and the ability to maintain attention to detail, finding that lack of sleep impairs sustained attention, an effect that is reversed after sleep. Importantly, this inability to maintain focus may also make it harder for us to respond to changes in our environment. This could contribute to everything from a worse performance at work to a higher risk for car accidents.
3. Better memory. Scientists are still discovering the incredible range of sleep’s brain benefits. However, sleep’s key role in memory formation is certainly at the top of the list. The formation of long-term memory is thought to be one of the major functions of sleep, a process that involves areas of the brain including the hippocampus and the cortex.
Though good sleep may have multiple positive effects on memory, its role in consolidation (converting fresh memories into stable long-term memories) is thought to be key. Clinical studies show an association between sleep restriction and worse long-term memory. Recently, some have taken this science a step further, boosting sleep’s positive effects on memory through specific sounds and electrical current delivered to the brain during sleep.
4. Enhanced creativity. We’ve all heard stories about a sudden burst of insight coming from a dream. Now research has shown that the link between creativity and sleep is much more than anecdote. Sleep is specifically thought to improve creative problem solving, and it may be the case that both REM and non-REM sleep have synergistic roles in this process. In practice, sleep has been correlated with increased insight into new ways of solving problems, and may be even more beneficial for difficult problems.
Research has convincingly revealed that our brains and bodies perform far better when we get a solid dose of good sleep each night. When it comes to optimizing brain function, few interventions can compare with the positive effects of 7-9 hours of high-quality shuteye each night.
Call Stuart -07825 599340 to discuss your sleep issues and how sleep therapy can help you reset your natural sleeping pattern
stuart@stuartdowning.co.uk
What our clients say -

Stuart Downing is an expert life coach offering life and business coaching in London, across the UK, internationally, and online coaching.

15/06/2022

Sleep has known positive associations with long-term health, but it also seems to significantly enhance short-term brain function.
Sleep may help us to balance out our emotional state, especially when it comes to negativity.
Research shows that sleep is key to long-term memory storage, and may also help enhance short-term focus.
Getting good sleep may help promote our creative abilities, especially by increasing insight in problem-solving.
Good sleep seems to support healthier brain function;
1. Calmer emotions. Fascinating research in the last several decades has shown that sleep plays a role in improving emotional regulation. Unfortunately, sleep deficit may bias our emotional state towards the negative. In one study from 2020, participants were shown pictures after 5 nights of sleep restriction or 5 nights of good sleep. Compared to when they had slept well, people who were sleep-deprived perceived positive and neutral pictures as more negative. In brain imaging scans, sleep deprivation has been linked to changes in the amygdala, a key brain hub in emotional processing. In fact, some of these changes have been shown after as little as one night of sleep loss.
2. Improved focus. Trying to stay focused on any task after sleep deprivation can be a major challenge. Researchers have examined the connection between sleep and the ability to maintain attention to detail, finding that lack of sleep impairs sustained attention, an effect that is reversed after sleep. Importantly, this inability to maintain focus may also make it harder for us to respond to changes in our environment. This could contribute to everything from a worse performance at work to a higher risk for car accidents.
3. Better memory. Scientists are still discovering the incredible range of sleep’s brain benefits. However, sleep’s key role in memory formation is certainly at the top of the list. The formation of long-term memory is thought to be one of the major functions of sleep, a process that involves areas of the brain including the hippocampus and the cortex.
Though good sleep may have multiple positive effects on memory, its role in consolidation (converting fresh memories into stable long-term memories) is thought to be key. Clinical studies show an association between sleep restriction and worse long-term memory. Recently, some have taken this science a step further, boosting sleep’s positive effects on memory through specific sounds and electrical current delivered to the brain during sleep.
4. Enhanced creativity. We’ve all heard stories about a sudden burst of insight coming from a dream. Now research has shown that the link between creativity and sleep is much more than anecdote. Sleep is specifically thought to improve creative problem solving, and it may be the case that both REM and non-REM sleep have synergistic roles in this process. In practice, sleep has been correlated with increased insight into new ways of solving problems, and may be even more beneficial for difficult problems.
Research has convincingly revealed that our brains and bodies perform far better when we get a solid dose of good sleep each night. When it comes to optimizing brain function, few interventions can compare with the positive effects of 7-9 hours of high-quality shuteye each night.
Call Stuart -07825 599340 to discuss your sleep issues and how sleep therapy can help you reset your natural sleeping pattern
stuart@stuartdowning.co.uk
What our clients say - https://stuartdowning.co.uk/client-reviews

08/06/2022

Sleep has known positive associations with long-term health, but it also seems to significantly enhance short-term brain function.

Sleep may help us to balance out our emotional state, especially when it comes to negativity.

Research shows that sleep is key to long-term memory storage, and may also help enhance short-term focus.

Getting good sleep may help promote our creative abilities, especially by increasing insight in problem-solving.

Good sleep seems to support healthier brain function;

1. Calmer emotions. Fascinating research in the last several decades has shown that sleep plays a role in improving emotional regulation. Unfortunately, sleep deficit may bias our emotional state towards the negative. In one study from 2020, participants were shown pictures after 5 nights of sleep restriction or 5 nights of good sleep. Compared to when they had slept well, people who were sleep-deprived perceived positive and neutral pictures as more negative. In brain imaging scans, sleep deprivation has been linked to changes in the amygdala, a key brain hub in emotional processing. In fact, some of these changes have been shown after as little as one night of sleep loss.

2. Improved focus. Trying to stay focused on any task after sleep deprivation can be a major challenge. Researchers have examined the connection between sleep and the ability to maintain attention to detail, finding that lack of sleep impairs sustained attention, an effect that is reversed after sleep. Importantly, this inability to maintain focus may also make it harder for us to respond to changes in our environment. This could contribute to everything from a worse performance at work to a higher risk for car accidents.

3. Better memory. Scientists are still discovering the incredible range of sleep’s brain benefits. However, sleep’s key role in memory formation is certainly at the top of the list. The formation of long-term memory is thought to be one of the major functions of sleep, a process that involves areas of the brain including the hippocampus and the cortex.

Though good sleep may have multiple positive effects on memory, its role in consolidation (converting fresh memories into stable long-term memories) is thought to be key. Clinical studies show an association between sleep restriction and worse long-term memory. Recently, some have taken this science a step further, boosting sleep’s positive effects on memory through specific sounds and electrical current delivered to the brain during sleep.

4. Enhanced creativity. We’ve all heard stories about a sudden burst of insight coming from a dream. Now research has shown that the link between creativity and sleep is much more than anecdote. Sleep is specifically thought to improve creative problem solving, and it may be the case that both REM and non-REM sleep have synergistic roles in this process. In practice, sleep has been correlated with increased insight into new ways of solving problems, and may be even more beneficial for difficult problems.

Research has convincingly revealed that our brains and bodies perform far better when we get a solid dose of good sleep each night. When it comes to optimizing brain function, few interventions can compare with the positive effects of 7-9 hours of high-quality shuteye each night.

Call Stuart -07825 599340 to discuss your sleep issues and how sleep therapy can help you reset your natural sleeping pattern
stuart@stuartdowning.co.uk
What our clients say - https://stuartdowning.co.uk/client-reviews

04/06/2022

Separation and attachment anxiety
If your child has separation anxiety, he/she might have recurrent and excessive distress about anticipating or being away from home or loved ones, he/she might refuse to go to school, get repeated nightmares about separation, or even have headaches, stomach aches or other symptoms when he/she separates from you or other loved ones. There is a danger in not treating separation anxiety in children, as it can be misread by teachers as a lack of ability to focus in the classroom.Hypnotherapy for separation anxiety for children is effective as it trains the thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. Within a few hypnotherapy sessions, they will be able to adapt themselves to the new situation. Many parents have reported that it is far more effective than conventional talk therapy, which doesn’t treat the problem where it arises
Early attachment interactions are thought to shape people’s attachment patterns later on in adult life. For example, a secure adult has a similar relationship with their romantic partner, feeling secure and connected, while allowing themselves and their partner to move freely. On the other hand, a loss of a romantic partner such as divorce may trigger depression among people high on attachment anxiety, because their anxiety relates specifically to separation and abandonment. Those who suffer from panic attacks often have a history of childhood separation anxiety. The sudden arousal of the social separation can lead to panic attacks. The panic attacks and separation anxiety make one feel as if the center of one’s comfort or stability has been abruptly removed.

It's not unusual to have some degree of separation anxiety as an adult at certain points in your life (e.g., after the death of someone close to you or when experiencing other losses). This would be considered episodic separation anxiety. However, adult separation anxiety disorder is a recurrent and persistent problem that is not linked to anything objective that is going on in a person's life at the time.

Typical symptoms of adult separation anxiety disorder are:
Recurrent excessive worry about separating from a place or a person that you are close to (like a spouse)Persistent and recurring fear about losing people close to you or that something bad will happen to them (when there is no objective reason for feeling this way)Recurrent reluctance to go to school or work or go elsewhere due to fear of separating from someone close Persistent and excessive fear of being alone Persistent and excessive fear or reluctance of going to sleep without having someone who is close to you in the house or nearbyRepeated complaints about headaches and other physical symptoms when you are separated from the person or people that you are close to Recurrent nightmares about separationThis anxiety causes significant impairment in one or more major areas of your life (e.g., your relationships, work life or in other significant areas).These symptoms last a month or more, and they are not attributable to any other physical or emotional causes.

There are many ways to treat adult separation anxiety. Clinical hypnosis is a safe and effective form of therapy. It allows you to relax enough to get to the unconscious causes of the problem. You maintain a dual awareness of the here-and-now as well as whatever comes up in the clinical hypnosis session. It also allows you to discover if you are being triggered by other prior events in your life.
Fortunately, research shows that a person’s attachment system, along with his or her sense of security, can be changed for the better. For example, a relationship partner who acts as a reliable security figure can restore a sense of felt-security and help the person function more securely. Effective treatment via reflective awareness and cognitive re-appraisal can facilitate neuroplasticity changes in the patient’s non-conscious mind and increase capacity for secure attachments.
With Clinical Hypnotherapy, I will help you to break down the walls of this self-created prison – with rapid results.
You will achieve all that you desire, no more living in the shadows of life.
You’ll release your mental block, laugh more often and become the person you knew you could always be.
You will grow greater self–confidence, self assurance ,create opportunities, express yourself, realize your ambitions, goals and dreams… become the person you always knew you could be.
Become the Person You Always Knew You Could Be.

Zoom online appointments

Call Stuart - 07825 599340 to discuss how neuroplasticity can rewire your addictive issues
stuart@stuartdowning.co.uk
https://hypnotherapy4freedom.co.uk/hypnotherapy-services/hypnotherapy-for-anxiety-disorders

What our clients say - https://stuartdowning.co.uk/client-reviews

02/06/2022

Bipolar Disorder and Hypnotherapy
It can sometimes feel like you’re completely at the mercy of unpredictable, dramatic mood and energy changes.Life with bipolar disorder is a pretty major challenge. Everybody’s moods fluctuate but when you have ‘manic depression’ the highs and lows are so much higher and lower, with good moods where you feel like you rule the world and bad moods where you feel like the world has completely crushed you.
Typically, when those euphoric moods get going, you feel like you can do anything, like there cannot possibly be any bad consequences of what you do. You lose all sense of perspective and rational judgement, leading you to behave in ways which have disastrous results.
When the downward swing starts, it all heads off in the other direction. Everything is terrible and the whole world is against you and what’s the point of getting up in the morning, or indeed anything? Once again, you have lost your perspective.

Learning to read storm warnings

Although other people can see the signs of these moods coming on, and developing into full blown emotional hurricanes, it can seem as if there’s no way for you yourself to tell that it is happening and that it’s time to take preventive action.

But overwhelming and insurmountable though these patterns might feel, it is actually possible to get more control, to learn to spot the danger signals, and take action to avoid getting derailed – again.
The goal with hypnosis for bipolar disorder is to reduce the client’s stress levels and help them to focus on the positive aspects.
Call Stuart 07825 599340 to discuss how hypnotherapy can bring balance back to your life .
stuart@stuartdowning.co.uk
https://hypnotherapy4freedom.co.uk
What our clients say - https://stuartdowning.co.uk/client-reviews

Online Zoom appointments

Stuart Downing DMH DHyp CPNLP EMDR Dip MNACP

Professional Hypnotherapist - Life Coach & NLP Master practitioner

www.stuartdowning.co.uk

www.harleystreetaddictionspecialist.co.uk

www.hypnotherapy4freedom.com