An app cured Lynn’s night sweats
After months of suffering severe night sweats due to menopause, Lynn Burley was sure she’d never get a good night’s sleep again. But then she found a remedy that, in 10 minutes a day, changed everything!
Will I ever sleep through the night again? Lynn Burley wondered, waking up bathed in sweat for the third time that night. Lately, night sweats and sleeplessness were routine for the Toronto 48-year-old. And the broken sleep left her so groggy that she could barely get through her workday.
It had all started after surgery two years earlier for breast cancer. After her operation, she had been given tamoxifen, an estrogen blocker that caused her body to go into menopause.
Initially, Lynn had controlled the profuse night sweats with over-the-counter supplements like evening primrose and black cohosh, but her oncologist told her they were not compatible with the tamoxifen because they were estrogenic.
Now, as she gazed out into the darkness, Lynn knew she had to find a solution. It’s time to think outside the box, she thought.
Relief at last
As luck would have it, Lynn had just become interested in hypnotherapy as a way to reduce stress and was surprised to learn that it could also reduce menopausal symptoms. She decided to experiment by downloading an app called Grace Space Hypnosis (Gshypnosis.com) that addressed night sweats, and settled into her bed to listen to the first session of her free seven-day trial.
The 30-minute hypnotherapy session started with a gentle guided visualization, the purpose of which was to relax her conscious mind to allow her subconscious to open to accepting suggestion.
Once Lynn was in a relaxed space mentally, the hypnotherapist gave her suggestions to reprogram her thought patterns. The particular script Lynn listened to had multiple suggestions and imagery related to being in a cool place, breathing in cool air and cooling her body. With repetition, the therapist said, her old thought patterns
“Hypnosis encourages a state of relaxation that allows the brain to be receptive to new suggestions”
— Peter W. Gardner, M.D.
would be rewired into new, more beneficial ones, and her night sweats would abate.
After 10 minutes, Lynn fell asleep, never even making it through the meditation. But when she awoke the next morning, she was shocked at the relief she had experienced. “I can’t believe it!” she gushed. “I slept through the night and woke up with dry sheets for the first time in months!” Elated by her success, Lynn subscribed for $19 a month after her free trial ended and continued the sessions. And to her joy, her night sweats were completely cured. Lynn was so enthusiastic about the results, she not only went on to use hypnosis to sleep more soundly and boost her self-confidence but decided to learn to be a hypnotherapist herself. She enrolled in Grace Smith’s hypnotherapy school, where she takes a hypno-oncology course to help people fighting cancer reduce stress, manage pain and harness the power of their mind to heal. “Hypnosis is a relaxing yet empowering process,” the now 50-year-old says with a smile. “I was amazed it worked! It’s such an accomplishment to have battled night sweats—and won!” — Erica Manfred