When it comes to managing anxiety disorders, William Shakespeare’s Macbeth had it right when he referred to sleep as the “balm of hurt minds.” While a full night of slumber stabilizes emotions, a sleepless night can trigger up to a 30% rise in anxiety levels, according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley.

UC Berkeley researchers have found that the type of sleep most apt to calm and reset the anxious brain is deep sleep, also known as non-rapid eye movement (NREM) slow-wave sleep, a state in which neural oscillations become highly synchronized, and heart rates and blood pressure drop.

A BRIDE whose anxiety was threatening to spoil her big day managed to make it down the aisle – after turning to hypnotherapy.

Rudheath couple Danny and Bryony Pearson tied the knot on a ‘magical’ day back in May, thanks to long-term friend David Webb of Mid-Cheshire Clinical Hypnotherapy providing the treatment.

How one woman learnt to let go of the bullying in her past by facing it front on – by Carla Caruso

I’m perched on a couch in an incense-tinged side room of a yoga studio. My eyes are closed and I’m nodding as a hypnotherapist softly speaks, encouraging me to cast my mind back to the past. So far, I haven’t been made to dance like a chicken or remove any clothing, like I’ve seen TV hypnotists persuade people to do. The session is actually quite relaxing.

An ad on a deals site has led me down the path of hypnotherapy after a looming book deadline has given me an anxious stomach.