Enhancing Hypnotherapy: Light and Electricity

Much has been written about the negative impacts of artificial and blue light at night. So, what’s the best environment to conduct a hypnotherapy session: outdoors under natural light? Or, under red light?

It turns out it’s neither, according to a renowned neurosurgeon I consulted on the matter. What he told me was shocking, literally, as he suggested using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and tDCS, transcranial direct current stimulation (more on this later).

First, what is blue light, and why is it bad at night?

“Although it is environmentally friendly, blue light can affect your sleep and potentially cause disease,” reads an article from Harvard Medical School titled “Blue light has a dark side,” published in July 2020. “Blue wavelengths—which are beneficial during daylight hours because they boost attention, reaction times, and mood—seem to be the most disruptive at night.”

The article goes on to say: “Some studies suggest a link between exposure to light at night, such as working the night shift, to diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.”

To protect oneself from blue light’s negative nighttime effects, the Harvard article recommends using dim red lights at night, which are “less likely to shift circadian rhythm and suppress melatonin.”

The researchers also suggest avoiding bright screens two-to-three hours before bed, wearing blue-blocking glasses/and or downloading an app that filters out blue-green wavelengths, and exposing oneself to bright light during the day (although the author – whose names isn’t cited – fails to specify if the bright light referenced means sunlight).

Hypnotherapy aims to shift the client from beta, or an alert brainwave state, down to alpha (relaxation) and ultimately into theta (meditation/intuition/hypnosis). We stay away from putting the client to sleep (delta). Our lighting should be a tool to help this process. Blue and artificial lights (especially at night, as the research suggests) are not conducive to the hypnotic state, as it keeps the client’s brainwaves in beta.  

So, if we should limit our exposure to artificial blue light, especially at night, what type of light should we use to conduct a hypnotherapy session?

“No light is best,” writes Dr. Jack Kruse, neurosurgeon and health educator.

“A very dim room is best,” he continues. “Cool temperature.”

Kruse, who’s spoken on the issue of light for years, regularly writes about similar topics in his Patreon blog. He went viral earlier this year during an appearance on the Tetragrammaton podcast, hosted by famed music producer Rick Rubin. Kruse appeared on the show alongside neuroscientist and Stanford University professor Andrew Huberman. During the show, Kruse discussed the three pillars of human biology completely ignored by modern medicine – light, water, and magnetism.

I further inquired with Dr. Kruse about anything else I may be missing to enhance a hypnotherapy session, and aid the client in accessing the subconscious mind more successfully. Perhaps having the client lie down on a magnetic sleep pad?

His answer caught me off guard, as it wasn’t even on my radar. “TMS in the dark,” he wrote.

My first thought, honestly, was: “What is ‘TMS?’”

Turns out, TMS stands for transcranial magnetic stimulation. It’s a “type of brain stimulation therapy,” according to a Jan. 2021 Healthline article by Kirsten Nunez.

“It’s a noninvasive treatment that uses electromagnetic pulses to stimulate nerve cells, which may improve symptoms of neurological or mental health disorders,” mainly used to treat depression, the article continues.

A TMS device looks like a dental chair. It’s a bulky piece of medical equipment that ranges upwards of $40,000. With that type of price tag, getting one of these devices to test out for my practice wasn’t in the cards.

“That’s not going to work,” I thought. “What else can I use?”

Searching for another method, I stumbled upon a cheaper alternative – tDCS.

“Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive neuromodulation technique involving administration of well-tolerated electrical current to the brain through scalp electrodes,” says Nature.com in a Feb. 2023 article. “TDCS may improve symptoms in neuropsychiatric disorders, but mixed results from recent clinical trials underscore the need to demonstrate that tDCS can modulate clinically relevant brain systems over time in patients.”  

The gears in my mind continued to turn. “Perhaps that’ll be a good, cheaper substitute,” I pondered.

tDCS uses a small electrical current, usually a nine-volt (9V) battery, as opposed to the electromagnetic pulses used in TMS. But is it safe?

“Yep,” Dr. Kruse wrote succinctly. He went on to mention the Vagus nerve, and shared an X (formerly Twitter) post: “The best way to help hypnotherapy? Today’s biophysics lesson stimulates the Vagus nerve to reduce inflammation: http://tinyurl.com/2c6udpr5.”

“Fascinating,” I thought. “I have a lot to learn.” I plan to write more about Vagus nerve stimulation in subsequent blog posts. But, for now, let’s focus on tDCS.

It turns out some research is already underway to test the effectiveness of tDCS on hypnosis. Italian researchers Rinaldo Perri and Gloria Di Filippo published a scientific report in July 2023 called “Transcranial electrical stimulation of the prefrontal cortex to boost the hypnosis experience: who benefits most?”

“Many attempts have been made to enhance hypnotizability. The most recent studies adopted the non-invasive brain stimulation to deactivate the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during hypnosis, indicating this as a promising approach. However, it is still [not] clear whether individual factors can predict the effects of stimulation on hypnotizability,” the report reads.   

It continues: “The aim was to investigate the possible role of the hypnotic susceptibility on the efficacy of a validated approach of hypnosis enhancement through cathodal transcranial electrical stimulation (tDCS) of the left DLPFC. Results indicated that the lower hypnoidal state at baseline predicted the greater enhancement after the active tDCS. These findings suggest the subjects with lower hypnotic responsiveness as the best candidates for the tDCS interventions of hypnosis enhancement, at least for the montage targeting the left DLPFC.” 

“In conclusion, [the] present study confirms the potential efficacy of the transcranial electrical stimulation as a hypnotizability enhancement procedure, although studies in this field are still in their infancy. Also, the predictor role of HSS prompts future investigations to consider baseline hypnotizability when testing any intervention of hypnosis alteration.”

I purchased the ActivaDose tDCS device from Caputron to test it out. So far, I’ve experimented with various montages, or placements of the electrodes – anode (red) and cathode (black).

I’m using the tDCS device, along with self-hypnosis, to research its effects further. My research will be the topic of future blog posts, as I document my experiences. Much more on this to come… stay tuned.