Floating Leaf: Deep Sleep Hypnosis
Discover a gentle self-hypnosis technique designed to help you let go of what you cannot control. By giving your analytical mind a soft distraction, you can allow a profound, restorative sleep to naturally take over.
Series: Sleep Hypnosis
For the best experience, listen with headphones or earbuds.
- Listen
- In the evening, to let go of what you can't control.
- Technique
- Self-hypnosis: gentle confusion: Softly tangled phrases, so the mind stops trying to keep up.
Who is this session for?
This session is designed for anyone who struggles to turn off their racing thoughts at bedtime. It is especially helpful on nights when you feel overwhelmed by things you cannot control and need a gentle way to quiet an overactive, analytical mind.
How does it unfold?
- at the startPreparationYou are guided to understand that there is no effort to make and nothing to achieve.
- around 1 minInductionYou focus on the comforting, heavy sensation of your eyelids naturally sealing shut.
- around 4 minDeepeningYou mentally walk down a safe staircase, occasionally pausing to double your relaxation.
- around 6 minCore SessionYou try a counting exercise while visualizing a leaf and a cloud, gently exhausting your conscious mind until it surrenders.
- around 11 minAnchoringYou set up a simple breathing trigger to help you reach this peaceful state even faster on future nights.
- around 12 minDriftingThe voice gradually fades into long silences, allowing you to slide completely into a deep, uninterrupted slumber.
Why does it help you sleep?
This approach uses a gentle cognitive distraction to help you fall asleep. By asking you to count backward by threes while visualizing two separate things at once, your conscious mind becomes softly overwhelmed. It quickly realizes that holding onto control is too much work, making it much easier to simply let go. As your analytical thoughts fade, your body naturally follows, sinking into a profound state of physical and mental rest.
How to listen
Listen to this recording as you lie comfortably in bed with the lights out and the volume set low. You do not need to stay awake to hear every word, as drifting off before the end is exactly what your mind and body need.
Session published on · a site run by Stéphane H., founder of Alcyonia · description written on
Did this session help you?
Add a few wordsMusic: The Water Lily Pond, Alan Frijns.
Listen somewhere calm, never while driving. This relaxation session does not replace the advice of a doctor or health professional.
Read the session script
Welcome… Self-hypnosis is a completely natural state, much like being deeply absorbed in a good book… You remain in control at all times, and you can choose to follow my voice or simply let it drift… There is nothing to achieve here, nowhere else to be, and absolutely no effort to make… If you fall asleep before the end, that is exactly what your body needs…
If a thought wanders into your mind, or if you hear a sound outside, it only becomes a signal to drop even deeper into comfort…
Right now, you are lying in your bed… you can feel the mattress supporting your body… you hear the sound of my voice… and you can allow yourself to relax completely…
Bring your attention to your eyelids… Imagine your eyelids becoming so incredibly heavy, so deeply relaxed, that they just do not want to open…
They feel so comfortable, so loose, and perfectly sealed, as if locked in a soothing, heavy rest… It feels so good to just keep them closed… and simply enjoy this comforting weight…
Take a slow, deep breath in, filling your lungs with peace, and as you exhale slowly, let all the tension melt away completely…
And as you exhale gently, you can feel yourself sinking deeper… We are going to walk down a beautiful, safe staircase of ten steps… With each step down, your relaxation will double…
Ten… taking a step down, doubling your relaxation, feeling your body settle beautifully into the mattress…
Nine… drifting deeper and deeper into comfort with every soft and gentle breath you take…
Eight… let yourself come up just a fraction, a tiny bit lighter… and now drop down twice as deep… deeper into absolute comfort…
Seven… and six… the deeper you go, the better you feel… and the better you feel, the deeper you go…
Five… letting go even more… four… coming up just a little bit… and then letting go entirely, sinking twice as far down…
Three… two… and one… When you reach the bottom of the stairs, your mind will be ready to completely let go of the day…
Sometimes the mind wants to keep carrying things it cannot control… To help it release, I want you to try to count backward from one hundred by threes… One hundred… ninety-seven… ninety-four…
And as you try to count, I also want you to picture a green leaf floating gently on a slow-moving stream… AND at the exact same time, visualize a soft, white cloud drifting slowly across a clear blue sky…
Counting backward… ninety-one… eighty-eight… while seeing the leaf on the water… AND the cloud in the sky… all at once…
It is a lot for the conscious mind to manage… and you can let go of the numbers now, or in a few moments, whenever your mind is ready to simply surrender to the calm…
It is perfectly fine to lose count, to let the numbers fade away… letting the analytical mind step back… leaving only the gentle rhythm of the water and the sky…
And as your mind lets go of what it cannot control, you can begin to sink deeper into sleep… like a smooth, heavy stone gently drifting down through warm, calm water…
Sinking slowly through the clear, comforting water… deeper and deeper… surrounded by a perfect, silent warmth… The deeper the stone goes, the more profoundly you rest…
Your mind and your body know exactly how to rest… They know how to heal, how to restore, and how to leave the entire day behind you… You are safe, and you are ready for deep slumber…
And tomorrow night, and every night, whenever your head touches this pillow and you exhale slowly three times to release the day, this deep letting go will return, even faster and even deeper than tonight…
If you ever need to wake up, you will naturally return to full alertness… but for now, you can just allow yourself to sleep…
In this beautiful space, time stretches out… Every minute of rest feels like an hour of deep healing and profound calm…
You do not need to listen to every word I say, because it is so easy to sleep deeply and peacefully right now…
There is absolutely nothing left for you to carry, just a profound sense of peace washing over you…
There is nothing you need to manage or control, just the soothing embrace of the quiet night…
Just drifting further and further into the comforting and quiet darkness of your own mind…
Just let yourself sleep… a beautifully deep, continuous, and wonderfully restorative sleep…
- Sleep hypnosis · 12 minCity Lights Fading: Deep Sleep HypnosisLet go of the digital noise and drift into a deep, restorative rest.
- Sleep hypnosis · 14 minSafe Shore: Hypnosis for HabitsTake a gentle step back from daily habits and find your calm.
- Sleep hypnosis · 11 minInner Refuge: Hypnosis for FocusQuiet your mental noise and rediscover the joy of focusing on just one thing.
Did this session help you sleep?
Tell us in a few words. Your feedback helps us improve the site, and we read every message.
Please don't include health data or personal information.
The Sunday letter
Every Sunday evening: the week's sessions, a new exercise and a bedtime-ritual idea. As a gift when you subscribe: the guide “How to fall back asleep: 7 things that help” (PDF) and the “7 evenings to unwind” program.
Just your email, never sold. No health data.
