Introduction

This chapter explores how an unappreciated, underused, and misunderstood technique–hypnosis–can be a medically sound and effective ways to treat a number of sleep disorders. It should be particularly useful to those who are interested in or need a book on the new science of sleep and in new forms of treatment for certain sleep disorders. Dr. Kohler believes that hypnosis and hypnotic techniques should be at the forefront when considering treatment for sleep disorders. At the turn of the nineteenth century, between 1890 and around 1920, several major developments and discoveries radically changed our understanding of the brain and the function of sleep. Recent advances in understanding of how the brain functions have been so rapid and numerous that it is difficult to keep pace in our understanding of what has been discovered and what these discoveries mean.