How Hypnotherapy Helped Me Break Out of an Insomnia Cycle
After trying conventional methods, I went out of my comfort zone
A strange thing happened a few months ago: I started struggling with sleep. Despite never rearing its head before I turned 30, this bout of insomnia has brought me incredible stress and exhaustion, and it’s compounded by the fact that I’m a famously sleepy person; eagerly anticipating each evening’s tasty morsel of rest. But alas, recently I have found myself staring at the ceiling for hours on end, willing my brain to shut off, as my partner snores gently beside me—a patter of sounds that have quickly become affronting.
It’s not just me; a recent study conducted by Dyson and sleep expert James Wilson found that adults in the UK are experiencing a sleep crisis. Research found that the average Brit leaves with an 18-day sleep deficit every year. In fact, half of the adults surveyed admit that they regularly contend on just four hours of rest, while the recommended amount is 7-9 hours.
Anyone who has wrestled with insomnia will attest to the surreal reality of navigating life while sleep-deprived. It was something that I was desperate to get to the bottom of—especially as stress and anxiety are part and parcel of modern-day life in a big city. After weeks of trying every sleep hygiene hack I was recommended, I started looking at more unconventional routes—and that’s when I thought of Jessica Boston.
If you visit her website, you’ll learn that she’s a multi-award-winning cognitive hypnotherapist, a trauma-informed coach, and the recent author of Homecoming Meditations—but at its heart, her practice provides a completely different framework for women who are looking to feel at home in their minds and bodies. “I work with women who feel drained by perfectionism, politeness, and the endless chase for ‘enoughness’” she says. “I use a combination of hypnotherapy, somatic healing, and neuroscience-backed techniques to dissolve these patterns of shame, fear, and self-doubt, within the subconscious, while strengthening self-trust, boundaries, and emotional safety”.
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I’ve worked with Boston before, and found her approach deeply transformative. This time around, she recommended her 90-day one-to-one programme Homecoming, because, unless it is a medical issue, insomnia is rarely just about sleep—it’s often something bigger, lurking on the subconscious level.
“Troubled sleep is getting worse,” she comments. “I am seeing a rise in everything that keeps people wired: sugar, shame, screens, and there is also a cultural allergy to stillness and boredom. Your subconscious is always scanning for danger, and right now it gets a steady stream of reasons to stay on alert. Sleep is foundational, so when it goes, everything else gets louder.”
Homecoming is structured in three phases. “The first phase is ‘Foundation,’ which focuses on building trust in yourself and reconnecting with intuition; ‘Protection,’ which teaches boundaries, emotional regulation, and how to stop over-giving; and ‘Vision,’ which aligns the subconscious with future goals and rekindles joy and creativity.” It’s available as the full three-month journey or as standalone single modules, and participants receive up to twelve one-to-one sessions, personalised hypnosis recordings, lifetime access to a resource library, and continuous support via direct messaging.
After each session, Boston uploads tools—including the personal meditations—to each client’s personalised Notion page, which she shares a link to afterwards. It’s a super self-explanatory way to keep track of all the materials you’re given, and I personally found it a doddle.
During my first two-hour session, we discussed my recent experiences with sleep and also looked at the reasons why this rupture could have occurred. This led to a revelation; that like many women, I was overexerting myself—this had taken a toll emotionally and manifested physically. “From early on, we are socialised to doubt ourselves, apologise for our existence, and aim for perfection in everything we do; to feel deep shame and guilt for not giving, doing, or being more,” Boston notes. “This corrodes self-trust and scrambles our relationship with the subconscious. With weak boundaries, it is easy to fall into the guilt and anger loop. You overgive, resentment follows, burnout creeps in, and trust weakens further.”
She continues: “Sleep is safety dependent. When something shocks the system, the body goes into night watchman mode. The cause is personal but always makes sense. I haven’t met a sleep pattern that didn’t change once we understood the context. The only way to know the cause is to listen and ask the right questions. It could be grief, hormones, an unresolved argument, a new responsibility, noise, late scrolling, alcohol, a feeling of being watched or monitored, or an old memory that wants processing. Insomnia is often an attempt at adaptation, but we get caught in a loop and panicking about our lack of sleep exacerbates the very stress that makes it worse.”
What I found most transformative about my sessions with Boston were the personalised meditations. At the end of each session, she would ask me to close my eyes and create a bespoke meditation based on our conversation. She would later refine it, add trancey music, and upload it to my Notion page. She encourages participants to listen to these meditations as often as possible—whether before bed or on a walk. I integrated them seamlessly into my daily routine, and they are deeply soothing—I suspect I will continue to rely on them for years to come.
There have been ups and downs, but generally, my sleep has improved massively. More importantly, though, Boston’s teachings go beyond this issue—they’ve given me a new framework for moving through the world: paying attention to my subconscious. Sometimes your body sends out alarm bells to draw attention to a deficit that needs a gentle nudge. Simply understanding this broke the pattern and gave me a new way to see my temporary lack of sleep: not as a “failure” to rest, but rather as a warning sign that I was out of sync.
A three-month Homecoming journey with Boston costs £4,895, or you can take standalone single modules, as I did, for £1,795. If you do not have the financial means for this, I highly recommend Boston’s recent book Homecoming Meditations, which is designed to help overwhelmed readers soothe their nervous system, loosen entrenched patterns, and build lasting inner change.
