Habits & Addictions
Hypnosis for doomscrolling
Put it down without a fight.
Most people pick up the phone to check one thing and stay there for an hour.
This recording spends its time on the physical feeling in your hand and the moment the light goes off, rehearsing that specific gap without asking for willpower.
You can pick a version that looks at who you are without the feed.
You sit on the sofa with the phone in your hand, and the next hour is a long blur of headlines you did not mean to read. The screen light stays in your face while the room goes dark around you.
Putting the phone down is usually the part that fails, because the finger keeps finding its way back to the glass.
What’s in it
The phone going down on its own, and evenings that belong to you again.
Why do it
The pull is a loop the body learned, so the body is where it is unlearned, without willpower or a lock screen.
- Theme
- Habits & Addictions
- Delivery styles
- 3
- Lengths
- Quick ~26mStandard ~27mDeep ~29m
- Ends
- Calm and present
- Stages
- 4
- On this shelf
- 23 sessions
Perfect use-case: Doomscrolling — hypnosis session
The moment you reach for the phone out of habit, not need.
What you’ll hear in the Doomscrolling session
The recording pauses the habit by shifting focus to the physical weight and feel of the phone in your hand, making that sensation the central point of awareness.
You notice the familiar weight in your hand, the smooth glass and cool metal pressing against your palm and fingers
Your thumb rests near the edge, poised over the screen, a familiar position you have taken countless times before
This specific feeling becomes the center of your attention, the solid presence of the device right here, right now
You can feel its subtle texture, the way it settles so naturally into your grip, making itself a part of your hand, a fixed point in your awareness
The light from the screen is the next thing you become aware of, a constant, artificial glow bathing your face
It paints the room in shades of blue and white, washing out the natural shapes of the evening around you
You can sense the pull of that light, a silent invitation to keep your gaze fixed upon it, to let the world beyond its edges fade away completely
- the familiar weight in your handthe habit is approached through a physical sensation, not an abstract idea
- making itself a part of your handthe language merges object and body to reduce the distance to the feeling
- washing out the natural shapesthe script describes how the screen light removes your surroundings from focus
Timeline: Start to Finish
This run spends its time on the moments right after you put it down. It rehearsing the hand staying still and the screen going dark, so the habit changes in the body before you are back in the room.
3 of the 4 stages are named techniques with a published origin, credited under each.
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InductionStage 16 min
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
A classic head-to-toe relaxation. Tense and release, or simply soften, each muscle group in sequence.
After Edmund Jacobson PMR (1929); Dave Elman Hypnotherapy · what progressive muscle relaxation is
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DeepenerStage 23 min
Staircase Descent
Visualized stairs descending into a deeper level of trance. Each step takes you down.
After Ledochowski, Deep Trance Training Manual
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Suggestion ScriptStage 310 min
Doomscrolling — Balanced
This block directs attention to the physical feel of the phone and the sensation of the hand becoming still.
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AwakeningStage 42 min
Calm Alert Awakening
Awake and present, but calm rather than energized. Good for evening or pre-meeting use.
After Yapko, Trancework
Why this works — and what the research actually says
Group-level, not session-level: no study has tested this exact session, and we will not pretend otherwise. Every source below was opened and read on 2026-08-25 before it was quoted.
Why do it as hypnosis?
Stopping a loop is very hard to do with the same mind that is running it. The build works by giving your attention a single place to rest that is not the screen.
It rehearses the phone going down and the hand staying still, at a time when no new headline is arriving to pull you back in.
Quitting smoking: the honest answer is that nobody knows yet
Cochrane grades medical evidence for a living. It reviewed 14 trials of hypnotherapy for quitting smoking, covering 1,926 people followed for at least six months.
Its verdict was not that it works, and not that it fails — it was that there is not enough good evidence to tell. If there is a benefit, they say it is small at most.
- 14 randomised trials, 1,926 people, followed six months or more
- Verdict: insufficient evidence either way
- Only 1 of the 14 trials was judged at low risk of bias
Worth knowing: The review rates its own evidence as ranging "from low to very low certainty, as there was not enough information and many of the studies had issues with their designs".
One study was judged at low risk of bias overall, ten at high risk and three unclear. On safety, most studies did not report whether adverse events were even collected.
The exact wording and figures
A Cochrane review pooled 14 randomised controlled trials with 1,926 participants.
Its conclusion: "There is insufficient evidence to determine whether hypnotherapy is more effective for smoking cessation than other forms of behavioural support or unassisted quitting.
If a benefit is present, current evidence suggests the benefit is small at most."
We sell sessions for this. We are showing you the review that declines to endorse them, because you should know what the evidence says before you decide.
Barnes J, McRobbie H, Dong CY, Walker N, Hartmann-Boyce J (2019). Hypnotherapy for smoking cessation. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CD001008.
plain-language summary free to read
Three ways to say it
Choose the version that makes your own evenings feel more believable to you, whether that is a simple end to the scrolling or the start of something new.
Balanced
Put it down without a fight. The default.
A clear focus on the phone in your hand and the moment it can come to rest.
Future self
Picture the version of you who is free of the endless feed.
You rehearse the feeling of being the person whose hand stays still after the screen goes dark.
New identity
Step into being free of the endless feed, starting now.
You begin to experience yourself as someone for whom the evening is not tied to the screen.
Questions people ask about Doomscrolling
Will this work if I don't believe in hypnosis?
You don't need to believe in hypnosis for it to work. The session focuses on physical sensations and habits, not abstract concepts.
How long before I notice a difference?
Some people notice changes after a few sessions, but it varies. It depends on how often you listen and how deeply the habit is set.
What if I fall asleep during the session?
Dozing off is fine. The session is designed for relaxed listening. You can always replay it when you're more alert.
Is this different from just setting a screen time limit?
Yes. This session focuses on the physical act of putting the phone down and staying present, rather than relying on willpower or tech controls.
Can I use this alongside my current habits?
Yes. This session complements existing habits by focusing on the moment you choose to put the phone down.
Where it sits
The things you keep doing, and stopping doing them.
Before you press play
Hypnosis is not for everyone. If you have epilepsy, a psychotic illness, or you are under psychiatric care, talk to your clinician before using this — here or anywhere.
More in Habits & Addictions
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