Hoom secret #1: hypnotic stories

Who could think that a stroll in a Provence village or a trip in a space ship could ... fall asleep!

At the heart of Hoom, numerous stories hide to lead you to the shores of sleep.

What gives these stories strength is that they were written by hypnosis professionals, who know exactly which ingredients to slip in there for you to fall asleep!

Because there are as many sleeper profiles as sleepers, the HoomBand application (available for Android and Iphone) wants to be the most complete possible, to provide a customisable solution, depending on the mood or sensitivity of each.

In this article, we will dissect a hypnotic story, in order to understand how it works.


Summary :

1- Hypnosis, what is it exactly?

In three words: it’s an altered state of consciousness (ASC). Being hypnotised puts you in a state similar to meditation or drowsiness. You are not really asleep but you are not really awake either.

The word “hypnosis” comes from the Greek “hupnos”, which means “sleep”. The Greeks thus suspected that hypnosis had a relationship to sleep!

Far from the spectacular phenomena of hypnosis on TV, we all experience it, in our daily life.

Reading a book and being “absorbed” to no longer paying attention to your environment is a semi-hypnotic state. It’s the same thing when you are watching a Netflix series, you no longer perceive the decor of your room, the exact colour of the objects around it, your mind is “fixed” on something.

Dreamers who lose themselves in their thoughts also approach this state.

It is therefore sure that:

2- It’s effectiveness scientifically demonstrated

Hypnosis is not magic. Science is looking into it and what it discovers is likely to convince more than a few.

A study published in 2014 shows that hypnosis can extend the duration of deep slow sleep, also called slow-wave sleep and this, up to an 80% increase for some people! it is this sleep which allows your cells to regenerate and your immune system to reinforce itself. [1]

Another study shows that 58% of those hypnotised for the experiment note a better sleep quality, and without any side-effects.[2]

We also note that hypnosis had conclusive results on … infants and adolescent insomniacs.[3]

3- A Hoom story analysed in detail

Let’s go behind the scenes of an hypnotic story offered in the Hoom application.

We’ll dissect Space Voyage, which you can listen to (or again) in the free access here:

hoomband-histoire-hypnotique

Phase 1 - Introduction

The history begins like a Netflix type of movie so that our listeners get involved. There is no more life on Earth and it is necessary to leave.

You have been selected from the trinity of dreamers to repopulate a planet of the Trappist 1 system. So you are going to take a ship for this voyage.

Phase 2 - Trance preparation (conditioning)

Currently used a lot in hypnosis, the hypnotic trance represents a change in consciousness outside the woken or sleep states. It allows having access to the immense potential that everyone has and to create a favourable terrain for achieving set goals: I’m stressed -> I need to relax to fall asleep.

We will use the VAKOG technique, by stimulating the 5 senses (sight, sight, hearing, kinaesthetic smell, taste). This method is ideal for the mental preparation of our listeners, for it is through the bias of these five senses that we access information from the world surrounding us, this data being filtered (through our beliefs or deep convictions, education, experience, etc.) before subjectively reaching us.

The following induction will focus mainly on kinaesthetic awareness (touch and body movements).

"To begin, I invite you to move into the “pre-weightlessness” jumpsuit room. This room allows the technical team to tailor the jumpsuit for each traveller and make final adjustments.

..... Are you ready? Very well. Don’t forget, for the “pre-weightlessness” jumpsuit to be as effective as possible, you must be perfectly relaxed. Lie down in the position where you are the most comfortable. Take time to find it, move an arm, leg, or foot ... Very good, are you set?

.... Breathing is more and more calm, and it evolves more and more to become a perfect breathing

.... And when the jumpsuit gently wraps around your fingers, I wonder what material it is made of and what it feels like? What temperature is this jumpsuit? And this feeling of warmth or cold, is it the same at the top and bottom of the body?

Look at yourself from the outside, behind your closed eyelids, as if you were outside your body. Look at this jumpsuit continuing to deploy towards the top and bottom. It’s colour, texture, the noise that it makes.."

Phase 3 - Deepening of the trance

Just like for the trance preparation phase, there are a number of techniques for deepening the state. Thibault Gouttier, hypnotherapist who created this story, works largely with the Fluff technique

In hypnosis, Fluff is a verbal filler. This filler does not mean “talking without saying anything”, it most often includes linguistic tools belonging to the Milton Model including comment adverbs, embedded orders, analogue markings, presuppositions, etc

Here we are going to continue the deepening with the space ship’s takeoff. This is a new stage symbolising spiritual elevation, letting us leave our worries behind us, on Earth, in the past.

The traveller is advised to leave behind everything that burdens him, we have them watch it all distance itself with the Earth (visual), we invite them to pay attention to the beginning of the weightlessness phase inside the body and its evolution (kinaesthetic), and to let their self be rocked by the sound of takeoff (auditory).

"Around you, we meet other dreamers who leave with you on this voyage ... Breathing is even deeper ... You go even deeper ...

...The life that goes on, which follows its course. The idea that the present moment of the word, and the past of that word. And the muscles relax ... Soon, takeoff. Even before feeling what will go through your body in a few moments, you begin to imagine ...

When the ship takes off, in the calm and lightness of the ships of our century, how will it react? Imagine it before feeling it in a few seconds ... As if you were above or beside you. Look at you in your jumpsuit, lying down. When the takeoff begins, you will leave your entire past behind you. The only thing that will matter is you, and what you are going to do with your life. What purpose, what idea, what goal are you going to live for?

.....Weightlessness ... I’m sure that it be a strange sensation, won’t it? Breathing must be very different there when the body weight is lighter and lighter ... almost imperceptible ... the unexpected feeling ... As time goes by, slower and slower ... dragging on ... and slows ... Like air in the lungs ... And slows, like ideas ... and slows like thoughts ... to finally stop ... thinking ... suspending all motion ... The muscles which are perfectly relaxed, yet relax more ... Time to settle down ... to fall asleep ... In a sleeping and calm space..."

Phase 4 - Release (Turn on sleep mode)

This is the hibernation through cryogenics phase in our story. We try to asking the listener a bit after several phases where he has been asked a lot, with a lot of stimuli. This time, we seek the void, calm, weightlessness.

The voice of artificial intelligence trusts in its desire to have a floating body, a history, a past to forget, a past to recall, a future to create, having emotions ... the idea is to make the listener “fortunate” to live.

"Now we are going to put you in the cryogenics room. This large white room,

Take time to observe the mechanism that cryogenises travellers. To peacefully put to sleep the bodies, souls, thoughts, in order to wake them up perfectly relaxed after the trip. Sleep the most relaxing night, and wake up recharged, ready to lead any mission whatsoever.

And at what moment does the sensation also start to be felt inside the body? And how it passes from the skin surface to inside? And the more it continues to set in ... you already feel the drowsiness setting in... the breathing settles down ... the muscles that completely relax ... more and more ... better and better

... and this chest which breathes ... the face is really relaxed, we can feel the weightlessness ... as in everything ... the ... body ... you are no longer ... there ..."

And it ends with a complete shutdown of the body and mind to finally sleep achieved through artificial intelligence. Like a checklist, everything is confirmed by a “pleasant beep”.

Checking the neuronal state of receptivity to sleep: OK ✓
Checking the traveller’s deep breathing: OK ✓
Checking the traveller’s muscle relaxation: OK ✓
Checking the accompaniment and sleep sound: OK ✓
Checking the cryogenic sleep chamber 42: OK ✓
Checking the ship’s auto-pilot: Space jump engaged ...

In our stories, we can also use other methods:

To recap

The hypnotic stories on your HoomBand HoomBand are thus especially effective:

  • if you have problems falling asleep
  • if you have trouble relaxing alone

Our library of sounds and stories is frequently updated.

Currently, the hypnotic stories most appreciated by HoomBand users are:

With your headband properly adjusted and hypnotic story active, there is little chance of disturbing your rendezvous with Morpheus.

Discover other HoomBand secrets for you to fall asleep:

Sources

[1] Hypnosis extends restorative slow-wave sleep, research shows, Science Daily, University of Zurich, 2014

[2] Hypnosis extends restorative slow-wave sleep, Irina Chamine et al, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2018, Irina Chamine et al, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2018

[3] Hypnosis for treatment of insomnia in school-age children: a retrospective chart review, Ran D Anbar and Molly P Slothower, BMC Pediatre 2006