Customer Reviews

Deep Sleep with Medical Self-Hypnosis

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have a number of sleep CDs, and they basically fall into two categories: 1. the ones that help, and 2. The ones that don't do anything, or even keep me awake. This CD thankfully belongs to the former. It is divided into several sections which Dr. Gurgawich names at the beginning, but I've never heard more than the first two or three before I fall asleep. This is good, of course, but I'd like to sit down with the CD to listen and take notes, so I can see how to use the rest of the program.

I do better with CDs that have guided imagery than those with only music. My problem is that I think too much, and I just can't get my brain to turn off. So, even when I am terribly sleepy, the silence allows my mind to fall into a wakefulness. Having some words to focus on really helps this. (I must admit that even boring audio books often help; though reading before bed is too stimulating).

During the first part of the CD, while the doctor is introducing the program and it's various parts, I do some "progressive relaxation" exercises, which help relax my muscles and prepare me to focus on the words. What he calls "self hypnosis" is different from what people may normally associate with this term. He says that "all hypnosis is self hypnosis", and also that it is similar to the times when we go into a "trance" like daydreaming or disconnecting from the world at hand. He teaches you a trick to help you focus early on in the CD, where you put your thumb and finger together, breathe deeply and hold it for the count of five. This creates a conditioned response (my words) which you can use anytime you are trying to sleep--like being away from home, presumably when you don't have the CD with you.

So, if you are the kind of person who can't shut your mind off at night and go to sleep, or need some calming words to focus on rather than music, I think you'd probably get some relief using this program.

I have been trying to review this set of CDs for a few days, but every time I turn it on I fall asleep!

As a psychotherapist trained in clinical hypnosis, I start out paying attention to the type of induction he is using, but am quickly drawn in and dozing before I can parse out what he's doing. Granted, it's the end of the day and I am sleepy, but this really does work like a charm. I will recommend it to all my patients.

You might want to download it to your MP3 player for other situations in which you want to calm down, like travel, hospital stays, and life transitions.

The two CDs have five different options:

Easy Sleep
Sweet Dreams
Creative Sleep
Healing Sleep
Deep Sleep

It would be fun to use the creative sleep track for a month and see what it catalyzed.

[...]

I like this tape it's much better than others I have listened to regarding the same subject. Does it work? sometimes it does, I often fall asleep without hearing the end
of the tape, other times I have to listen to it all and I'm still awake at the end, I guess it's just me, not the tape.
I'm just a lousy sleeper never can get more than 5 or 6 hours of sleep, I would love 8 but I think that would take a miracle! I have been that way for a long time. I hate to take sleeeping aids so I like listening to Deep Sleep better, I like the self healing part of the tape the best, I strongly believe we are capable of healing ourselves with proper relaxation and breathing techniques and thru self-hypnosis which is what the tape is all about. Dr. Steven Gurgevich has a very soothing voice and he works
a lot with Dr. Andrew Weil who I greatly admire for his integrated medicine beliefs. I would recommend this tape, it's much better than a lot of other ones that are out there.

Dr. Gurgevich has a good program with interesting sessions. He seems quite knowledgeable about hypnosis. The problem is his voice, which is very unusual and sounds to me like he is speaking under water. He runs his words together and I find I can't relax trying to understand what he is saying..he also speaks very quickly. I find I comprehend the words he speaks a second or two after he says them. If I have the volumne louder , it helps, but then when he reaches the high pitch of his voice, it is not restful. The announcer at the beginning of each CD has a great voice and it is to bad he doesn't read Dr. Gurgevich's script. It is possible they could find a better system for recording his unusual voice. Sometimes, I can ignore his voice and have fallen asleep.

I have used this a few times now, both when I first go to bed and in the middle of the night when I can't sleep. I am amazed at the restful level of sleep I achieve.

The author offers several programs to choose from, including the following:
Creative Sleep, which helps build your intuition;
Sweet Dreams, which helps build your dream capability;
Easy Sleep, which helps you sleep in more difficult places, like on airplanes;
Deep Sleep, which promotes restful sleep.

The author suggests daily use, but so far I get results from my intermittent use. I don't always fall asleep during the time I'm listening, but that doesn't seem to matter. After I do go to sleep, I get the rest I need. I highly recommend it.

First, I am not an expert on hypnosis and have never been to see a hypnotherapist. Nor have I ever listened to any hypnosis CD's other than the two in this set. I have recently purchased, read and used a self-hypnosis book with varying degrees of success. That said, I feel this CD set is definitely worth a try for those who are suffering from sleeping problems.

I'm not the best sleeper myself, having difficulty getting to sleep, and then frequently waking up and unable to return to sleep. This became especially troublesome when I hit 50 and the "change" began (insert creepy music here). I listened to the CD's and really followed his program the best I could.....and I zonked out for several hours and woke up ready to get on with my day. I was pleasantly surprised to say the least. I need to keep trying it out, but for now, my results were quite good.

He talks softly about breathing, and takes you on some guided meditation type inductions (riding a magic carpet), discusses what hypnosis is and how it can work for you, how you can take control of your sleeping habits and situations, among much other useful information. His voice was not hard to listen too, especially if you love Winnie the Pooh. He sounds very much like Winnie so it's like a soft lovable Winnie is talking you through all this.

I will post an update as I get more experience with this set, but for now I am pleased with it. If it continues to deliver what it has so far I will certainly give it a raving review.

It's always challenging to review self-hypnosis CD's because they are often a hit-or-miss proposition. They depend so much on the quality of the speaker's voice in addition to the specific content of the hypnotic induction-- what one person calls "soothing" another might find "grating." That said, the overall quality of these two discs is excellent and they achieve their promised results. Like other reviewers, I, too, didn't even hear much of the program the first time I used it because I fell asleep. That in itself is testimony to its effectiveness. I had to listen to the CD's during the day to actually hear what he said so I could write this review.

It is very clear that Dr. Gurgevich has better insight and empathy for his listeners than many other hypnosis practitioners. He addresses the common concerns of people with sleep issues. He understands that sometimes voices can disturb someone, as can room noises, as can the mind's natural resistance. He notes the value of closing your eyes (and turning off lights or TV) because visual stimulus keeps the brain awake. Here are some specific aspects of this program that differentiate it from typical relaxation/sleeping discs.

1. Dr. Gurgevich uses short but effective inductions. He doesn't do entire body relaxation scans (which can actually make anxious folks more anxious) but confines his inductions to simple breathing and thumb/finger exercises. Short and sweet-- and powerful.

2. He also divides sleep into different categories:
Easy sleep-- which is designed for people in difficult or unfamiliar settings like hotel rooms;
Sweet dreams-- which is designed to help people connect to their inner selves;
Creative sleep-- designed to help people solve problems or create new ideas in their sleep;
Healing sleep-- designed to promote self-healing; and
Deep sleep-- to help you feel completely rested when you wake.
You can choose one or two tracks based on your goals or you can play them all.

3. He does not include traditional "wake up" messages at the end of each track, so that you can play them with the knowledge that you won't be induced to wake up 30 minutes later. This is particularly helpful if you're playing all the tracks in a row. (Dr. G wisely knows that people with anxiety issues often worry about waking up at the end of the session.)

4. He uses a hypnotic style similar to Dr. Milton Erickson which uses storytelling and metaphor. If you are actually listening to every word (and he encourages you not to-- just let his voice be in the background) you might wonder why he's telling stories and not doing the TV version of hypnosis, i.e. "You're getting sleepy. Very sleepy." This is a different form of hypnosis that is actually more effective-- you're not being ordered to feel anything, so your conscious/subconscious mind doesn't resist as much.

5. He helps people who might normally resist hypnosis or have difficulty relaxing due to outside noises by helping you reframe those noises as a cue to further relax. These discs are excellent for anxiety reduction even if you don't fall asleep.

I think the only objection people might have to this set of discs is Dr. Gurgevich's voice. There's nothing wrong with it-- it's just that voices are so individual that not every voice works for every person. But he himself would encourage you to let the voice just be in the background-- maybe turn the volume down a little if you find his voice distracting.

Finally, here's my tip on how to use them. If you have an Ipod or similar mp3 player, load the discs onto it. Listen to the "Introduction" and "About this program" tracks one time (before bedtime) and then remove them-- you don't need them. Create a playlist that contains just the five sleep tracks. Then either use comfortable headphones or a bedside speaker system, turn on the playlist, close your eyes and relax. Tell yourself it's OK if you don't fall asleep, just listen. And see what happens. I suspect most of you won't make it through all five sessions.

Years ago -- when I was in middle school (I'm 28 now) -- the sleep issues that seem to plague my family in a hereditary fashion caught up with me. Too young to begin taking Rx pills for sleep and desperate for some way to spend more time in the REM stage of sleep, my mother found a hypnotherapist who taught me various techniques I could use on my own, in addition to taking me through several guided sessions. I was a pretty skeptical kid, but they worked surprisingly well.

This year I decided to go back to trying this method of regulating my sleeping patterns, but I wasn't necessarily interested in starting live sessions again. I tried several audio options and found them all useful but not ideal. I found numerous recordings in which the voice of the speaker was too sharp and rousing, or the volume changed at some point and pulled me out of that relaxed, receptive state with an unpleasant start, or the amount of time spent on the guided imagery wasn't sufficient and felt rushed, so I was unable to relax as quickly as the speaker seemed to assume that I was, leading to a lot of replaying or solo relaxation exercises before starting the audio at all.

This is the first series of sessions that had everything that I was looking for. Dr. Gurgevich's voice is...well, unusual...and it takes a little bit of getting used to, but I think that it's actually very well-suited to achieving what he's setting out to achieve -- he has great control over his intonation and I've never once been startled out of that trance-like state by a pop of consonants or increase in volume or pitch (these things don't sound like a big deal, but they really can be!). The repetition of phrases and ideas allows for time to really internalize what he's talking about, so I never feel rushed. I have yet to make it all the way through the first hour-long segment.

Which brings me to my one complaint thus far: I really wish that the audio mp3 was divided more appropriately than into two hour-long segments. There are actually five sessions spread across the two segments, and they can be listened to sequentially, which is nice...but the lack of different tracks makes it VERY difficult to locate a specific session. Last night I was curious about some of the others I haven't heard, but trying to locate them -- especially on my iphone, which is where I have the audio loaded to listen to in bed -- is virtually impossible. I'll have to sit down and figure out the timestamps for each of the two tracks that mark the start of new sessions.

I tend to get "stressed out" and unable to sleep, and when I do sleep, I often fall into a fitful sleep, awakening frequently and not feeling rested in the morning. The first night I used this audio CD I feel asleep quickly, slept well and felt rested the next day. I have now used it for four nights, with the same results!

Some things I like about the CD:

1. After listening to each session/track, the CD stops playing. I like this, because if you're asleep, you don't want it to keep going! I have never had to listen to more than two tracks to fall asleep.
2. I think Dr. Gurgevich knows what he's doing. He explains things in an easy to understand way, but doesn't speak down to you. You can tell the CD was well thought out, planned and delivered.
3. It is helping me to get a better night's sleep!
4. I like the fact that it is Dr. Gurgevich's voice on the CD. You feel like you are being instructed by a knowledgeable practitioner, rather than an actor or actress.

I can't think of anything I don't like about the CD. If you have difficulty sleeping, I would recommend you try this CD. It's like magic! I have just purchased Dr. Gurgevich's weight loss CD. I will post my review after giving it a try.

This CD Auidobook is meant to help the listener to learn techniques to help him/her fall asleep without using OTC or Prescription drugs to put them asleep. These sessions taught by the author, are actually easy to learn and are safe when heard in the proper way. I myself do it in my bed room. Does Medical Self Hypnosis work? I think so. I have been listening to the sessions for a few days now, and so far I have
been sleeping well, through the night and I am going to save a lot of money on sleeping aids. Does the warm milk trick work? Maybe for some.
I think as long as you listen and follow the directions this audiobook will help. The reader's gentle monotone voice will probably do the trick.
Sleep Well everybody.