How to use EFT/Tapping with the intention to improve your sleep.

I am often asked how can EFT/Tapping help someone find sleep again naturally.  That is a big question that I will try my best to answer in this blog. Every person struggling with sleep has different circumstances.  I would advise anyone who can’t sleep to first check with their doctor to rule out any medical condition that needs to be addressed.

For most people, myself included, we live an extremely busy lifestyle. This busy lifestyle creates a lot of stress in our bodies and minds.  If we are unable to process that stress and release it, it can disrupt our sleep pattern.

How many of you can relate to a scenario similar to this one? 

You had a really busy day at work running off your feet trying to accomplish a very big to-do list. You even skipped your lunch break so you could get a few more things done.  You then rush home and need to make supper, take care of your kids and bring them to their activities. You need to find time to clean the house and do laundry. Don’t forget to try to fit in exercise or any other kind of self care for yourself.  It’s 11:00 pm at night and you realize that there are still 10 things on your to-do list that you didn’t get a chance to even think about today and you didn’t take any time for your own self care. Your body is exhausted, yet your mind is fully awake.  It’s starting a mental to-do list for tomorrow. Knowing you need to get up early you decide to finish your list tomorrow and go to bed. You try to distract yourself by either watching tv or browsing Facebook to help you fall asleep.

Once in bed, what happens?  

Your mind keeps going because it’s not done processing all the things it needed to get done today. It’s not ready to shut off.  It is remembering the other 10 things you didn’t write down on your list because you forgot about them and you are now remembering them. You tell your mind to stop worrying about it and you will do it tomorrow, however it’s winning this fight and you stay awake half the night feeling frustrated that you can’t sleep.  You know you’ll be even more exhausted tomorrow. This feeling of dread overtakes you as you think of how you need to perform tomorrow but you already know you are going to wake up exhausted.

Day after day, this cycle continues.  

You feel stressed and overwhelmed but you just keep going thinking tomorrow will be better.  But the accumulation of these unprocessed emotions fills up your metaphoric cup. You function on caffeine to make it through the day.  Your mind and body is working hard to process all the stress and it’s affecting your sleep.  

Without sleep, we can’t function properly.

Usually by the time someone has stopped sleeping, it’s years of accumulated stress.  It might be that they have one specific event that happened that caused their cup to overflow and they believe it’s the reason they aren’t sleeping. They aren’t entirely wrong. However, if they weren’t carrying all that extra unprocessed emotions from the past, they might have been able to deal with this additional event and still continue sleeping.

This is where people get even more overwhelmed and don’t know how to start using EFT/tapping to help improve their sleep.  I’ll be really honest here and say it’s not a simple one session process. You first need to decide YOU want to make changes so you can start sleeping again.  YOU need to find time to schedule your self care in your calendar, and that includes time to do your own tapping. Once you are ready for these changes, here is how I suggest starting.

First, start tapping with what is happening in the present moment.  I often hear people talk about their lack of sleep all day long. They are so focused on this lack of sleep and it’s causing them stress just thinking into the future nights coming and knowing they aren’t going to be able to sleep.  I ask my clients “just thinking about going to bed tonight, what negative emotions are coming up for you? Here are a few examples of a script we might use to be specific to their issue:

Even though, when I think about going to bed tonight, I feel anxious that I might lay there and not be able to sleep, I deeply and completely accept who I am.

Or 

Even though I feel this dread knowing that my mind won’t shut off when I try to sleep tonight, I deeply and completely accept who I am.

You need to keep tapping until you feel better about the thought of going to sleep tonight. 

Afterwards, you need to switch your focus on a recent night where you struggled to sleep.  What was the reason? What do you feel about that?

Even though last night I was awake from 3 am to 5 am unable to sleep because my neighbor came home with his loud vehicle, I feel this frustration because I was really tired and wanted to sleep. I deeply and completely accept who I am.

Or

Even though I remember my husband snoring really loud last night, I feel this resentment that he gets to sleep well while I lay there awake listening to him. I deeply and completely accept who I am.

Once you’ve processed the emotions about your lack of sleep, then you need to start processing the emotions about your daily stress.  If you take time everyday to process the stress that has happened in your day then it will be easier to fall asleep and stay asleep.

It’s not an overnight process. It might take a few weeks or even a few months to find sleep again. It takes time to deal with the accumulation of stress we have that is keeping us awake.  I like to break it down in 5 different areas that can affect us and work through each one with my clients. These areas are family, work, money, health and spirituality. Start with the area that you are feeling the most stressed about and work through those events/situations.

I also recommend working with a practitioner.  A skilled practitioner can help you find events in your past that might still be contributing to your lack of sleep today.  I wrote this blog https://tappingintosleep.com/why-do-we-resist-going-to-sleep/ about a client of mine (with her permission of course).  She was still resisting going to sleep and it was due to some childhood events where she was made to go to bed at 6:00 pm when all her friends were outside playing.  She still resisted going to bed as an adult because she didn’t want to miss out on anything.

Each one of you has a different reason why you aren’t sleeping.  Once you find your reason, then you can tailor your tapping to your own specific issues and hopefully sleep will come back naturally for you.

Until next time, sleep tight!