Using emotional freedom techniques to put an eight-year insomnia spell to rest

Even years after the trauma has passed, a single traumatic event can occasionally cause havoc on the sleep system. This was certainly the case with “Danielle,” who had not slept well ever since her husband had died eight years ago. Most nights, she struggled to get to sleep and frequently didn’t do so until well after 2:00 a.m. On some nights, she would sleep better but wake up at three in the morning. unable to return to sleep.

In situations like this, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT or “Tapping”) can work wonders. The Mind-Body connection is used by the effective healing method EFT. It combines contemporary psychology with the age-old practice of acupressure. When tapping on meridian points gently and focusing on stressful memories from the past, the brain’s stress center receives signals to deactivate the charge surrounding the events being thought about. When it comes to insomniacs, this frequently entails removing nervous system kinks so that restful sleep can return, even if it hasn’t in years.

Five EFT sessions worked in Danielle’s case.

As she lay awake at night, her head was spinning in all directions due to the current events, so in our first session, we concentrated on neutralizing them. She said she felt much lighter after our session and slept well for a few nights before her insomnia struck again.

In our second meeting, we revisited the evening her husband had passed away. Her husband passed away from a heart attack while they were on a cruise. She recalled how she felt when she first realized what was happening, and we worked through her feelings of panic and helplessness. She didn’t want to leave her husband’s side as she was performing CPR, so she couldn’t even stay on the phone long enough to get the assistance she needed. Finally, she screamed for assistance from outside her shiproom out of desperation. Surprisingly, a fellow passenger who was a nurse approached to offer her services. The ship’s medical staff arrived shortly after, which helped Danielle feel a little less panicked. Nevertheless, she still recalls feeling somewhat removed from the situation and out of her body. We continued tapping until we no longer felt anxious or helpless.

She then experienced the deep sorrow of losing her husband and the guilt of not being able to save him. She was extremely relieved after we tapped on these emotions until they were rendered neutral.

It was a big moment when she said, “I completely accept myself, even though I can’t save him. It’s over and I forgive myself for not being able to save him. There is nothing more I can do; I’ve done everything I can.” For the following few nights, she said she slept superbly.

We completed the remaining tasks in our sessions. We tapped down the guilt she felt at “not being as good of a wife as she could have been,” “not being as good of a mother as she could have been,” and she did some deep forgiveness work for herself and others.

In her most recent session, she claimed that her sleep patterns had become so much better that even when something during the day had upset her, she simply told herself not to worry about it or lose sleep at night – and she didn’t! When I last spoke to her, she was still getting excellent sleep. After eight years, what a relief!