Hypnosis and sleep

One of the biggest things hypnotists will tell you is that hypnosis is not sleep. When James Braid coined the word as an alternative to Mesmerism and seeing his subject go into a sleep like state, he coined Hypnosis after the Greek god of sleep, Hypnos.

In hypnosis circles, the state of somnambulism (sleep walking) where the subject is hypnotised but can keep their eyes open and interact like they are awake also comes from a god of sleep, Somnos the Roman god.

In deeper levels, the Esdaile state brings on profound euphoric states that are closer to sleep but still cannot be called sleep, the brain experiences theta wave activity.

In the Sichort state, however the subject experiences REM activity and can even snore. When the subconscious is asked in this state, it refers to the conscious as sleep. So with this recent discovery that the Sichort state is the same as deep sleep to the conscious mind, the Sichort state is deep sleep as far as the conscious mind is concerned.

So at the mental level, the Sichort state is akin to deep sleep but at the physical level the subconscious slows down breathing and pulse to essential operating levels and the body heals itself 7-10 times faster than being in deep sleep.