[http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/living/health/14994579.htm?source=rss&channel=dfw_health]
Dallas-Fort Worth
If he's sawing logs,
you may need
treatment
By CAROLYN POIROT
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
Monday, July 10, 2006
Star-Telegram/Ron T. Ennis
Researchers say at least 35 million to 40 million people snore regularly in the United States. If
your spouse is among them, you know that even one person is too many. But of the hundreds of
devices, sprays, drops, pills and procedures that have been promoted to help people stop snorting,
honking and whistling in their sleep, none works consistently.
That's why a few programs -- including one developed by Arlington hypnotherapist Deryl
Harrison -- are attacking the problem from the opposite end: by helping the partners of snorers
tune out the snoring and get some sleep.
"You can't stop someone from snoring, but you can stop yourself from hearing it," Harrison says.
"You can relax the body and relax the mind in such a way that you filter out the sound. It
becomes background noise."
Harrison's program includes an hourlong one-on-one therapy session and two 20-minute CDs.
The counseling session is offered to jump-start the process, but some people only need the CDs,
Harrison says. The first CD combines music with "suggestions" in Harrison's calm voice, leading
listeners through the process of relaxing and accepting the sound of snoring as they fall asleep.
The second CD is music only.
All the music was designed by two-time Grammy winner Chris Booher, formerly with Asleep at
the Wheel, specifically to help people drift off into sleep. Booher worked with Harrison on earlier
CDs designed to help people lose weight, stop smoking and relieve stress.
The program has made a believer of Bobbi Green, 44, who first tried hypnotism when she wanted
to stop smoking about 15 years ago. As the security director at an Arlington high school, Green is
accustomed to a lot of noise, but she was having a hard time relaxing enough to sleep through her
husband's snoring at night.
If he's sawing logs, you may need treatment – page 1
"He says I snore, too, but he can apparently sleep through mine," she says. "It was just annoying
because he would fall asleep and start snoring happily before I could even get to sleep. I tried
earplugs and poking him to wake up and turn over, but that was annoying to both of us, and it
never helped for long. It was pretty frustrating, and it just made sense to me that if hypnotism
could stop me from smoking, it could stop me from hearing the snoring."
Green says she used the tapes every night for about the first month. Now she uses the music-only
CD, but only on nights when she doesn't go to sleep easily.
"I put in the CD, and as soon as it starts, I go to sleep. I used to use the talking part, but now I
hear the music, and it's my cue to relax and go to sleep. It has literally conditioned me to relax
and ignore any snoring that's going on -- mine or my husband's."
Harrison came up with the idea out of self-preservation: His wife, Sandra, says she was
threatening to build a little shed in their back yard and make him sleep in it before he thought of
suggestion therapy to cure the problem.
"We had been through gels and sprays and nose strips, when he offered to apply suggestions to
help me block out the noise," she says. "The first morning after that, I woke up and couldn't
believe he had been snoring all night and I had slept right though it, but I knew he had, because
he snored every night."
Harrison says his whole approach teaches a person to let go of sound.
"If you try to make the sound go away, the more you try, the more angry you get. It makes the
problem worse. We can't make ourselves fall asleep; we have to let ourselves fall asleep," he says.
"True control comes from letting go."
If he's sawing logs, you may need treatment – page 2