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"Boss, I'm sorry. I had a hard time sleeping last night." Quintavius was sitting at his computer trying to get some work done but was struggling. He had been fighting insomnia for the last few months and had no idea why. One day he just stopped being able to go to sleep so easily.
"I'm sorry to hear that Quin." His boss, Mr. Mejia told his subordinate. "I used to have a lot of trouble with insomnia as well. It was so bad, I ended up going to see a specialist to try to get it fixed." Mr. Mejia thought for a moment, then looked at Quintavius. "If you want, I can go see if I still have his contact information."
"I would appreciate that sir", Quintavius responded, his voice sounding tired, before he yawned. "I really don't know what is going on."
Mr. Mejia was able to find the information for Quintavius and gave it to him. Quintavius struggled through work and was thankful that it was Friday. He would probably not get much sleep over the weekend, but it did give him a chance to contact the specialist and get an appointment.
Quintavius was able to get in contact with the specialist, a Dr. Thornton. He scheduled the appointment for Monday and contacted Mr. Mejia and told him he was going to not be able to come in that day.
The next Monday, Quintavius went to Dr. Thornton's office. It was just off a major road and was in a nice area of town. He parked and looked at the sign up front. "Dr. Thornton", was all it said. Quintavius entered the building and found a cute black receptionist at the front desk.
"Hello, I have an appointment scheduled." Quintavius explained. The receptionist, who had on a nametag that said Harris Wise, smiled at him and went to look up the schedule on a computer that was at the desk.
"Ah yes, Mr. Kaye, Dr. Thornton is currently with another patient. He will be out shortly." Harris
"Thank you", Quintavius said, then yawned. He had not meant to, and he knew it was rude, so he looked down. "Sorry."
Harris laughed and looked knowingly. "Don't worry about it, insomnia is one of the things that Dr. Thornton is best as fixing."
"Is there more he does?" Quintavius asked back.
"Oh, tons", Harris then started to count on her fingers, "biting nails, smoking, drinking, gambling, he covers a lot of vices to go along with insomnia."
"Well, thanks." Quintavius said, then went to sit down. There were a few old magazines, and he grabbed an old National Geographic and started to read about the Hoover Dam.
A few minutes later, a man entered the room. Quintavius looked at him and took him in. The man was an old white guy. He had wrinkles on his forehead and seemed to have some freckles on his arms. He looked at Quintavius and smiled.
"Are you Mr. Kaye?" He asked, and Quintavius got up.
"Yes, that is me, Dr. Thornton I take it?" Quintavius answered back.
"Yep, that is me. If you follow me, I will take you to one of my examination rooms." Dr. Thornton led Quintavius into the back of the clinic and walked by a few closed doors.
"So", Dr. Thornton said while leading Quintavius into an empty examination room, "what is the problem?"
"Well, Dr. Thornton, I have trouble sleeping. Around three months ago, give or take, I started to have trouble sleeping. I went to my medical doctor, and he looked at me, but he found nothing wrong with me. He thought it was just mental. I have been trying all the things you read online to do, listen to music, sleep in a dark room, stop going online for a day, none of them have worked."
"Hmm", Dr. Thornton said, before nodding. "Did the person who suggested me tell you what I do?"
"No, he just told me you were a specialist." Quintavius replied.
Dr. Thornton nervously chuckled, and then went about explaining what he did. "I am a hypnotist. I help people with their problems with hypnosis. For example, I helped a woman yesterday quit drinking alcohol."
Quintavius then looked at Dr. Thornton like he was insane. "I really wish my boss had told me what you do, I would not have paid for this session." Quintavius then got up to leave but Dr. Thornton put up his hand to stop Quintavius.
"Please Mr. Kaye, give me a chance to help you. If I cannot help, you get your money back. If you look at the page where you signed up for your session, it says that on the page."
Quintavius paused, and then sat back down. "I guess I am willing to try anything to fix my issue." Quintavius yawned again.
"Thank you." Dr. Thornton responded. "I will now get ready. Just to be sure, you want to make it so I can give you a good sleep, correct?"
"Yes, a nice deep sleep is what I want, something that I have not had in a long time."
"Do you have anywhere to be for the rest of today?" Dr. Thornton asked.
"No, I am free till tomorrow morning when I need to get to work." Quintavius replied.
"That is fine, I shall put you under for eight hours now, and make it so that when you wake up you will be able to sleep better. Are you ready to begin?" Dr. Thornton asked.
"I guess", Quintavius said, "though I still do not believe this is going to work."
"That is fine, I have dealt with a lot of people who did not believe this would work, until I put them under. Now, they are loyal customers."
Dr. Thornton then grabbed a pocket watch on a chain out of his pocket and showed it to Quintavius. "Really?" Quintavius asked, before laughing. "A pocket-watch, that is really a cliche, isn't it?"
"Just listen to what I say, and you will see." Dr. Thornton ordered then started to swing the pocket watch back and forth.
"Just listen to the ticking of the watch and follow the swaying of the watch." The way Dr. Thornton spoke had a rhythm to it, that nearly matched the ticking of the watch that Quintavius could hear.
"Follow the watch with your eyes as it moves left, then right, left, then right." Quintavius did as he was told and followed the watch, slightly yawning as he did so.
"As you follow the watch and listen to the ticking, you will get tired. More tired than you have been in the last three months, until you are on the verge of falling asleep, but you will not fall asleep, you will instead listen. Do you understand?"
"Yes", Quintavius answered back, his head starting to drop, while his eyes, slowly closing, continued to follow the watch.
Dr. Thornton watched Quintavius and when he felt that Quintavius had hit the edge of sleep as he had ordered, he then continued. "Before you fall asleep, I want you to listen to what I am about to say.
When I let you sleep, you will fall into a deep sleep, the deepest you have felt in a long time. You will then sleep for the next eight hours. While sleeping your body and mind will remember what it is like to have a deep sleep. Your body and mind will no longer block you from getting that deep sleep."
Dr. Thornton then thought and wondered if there was anything else to say. "When you wake up you will speak to the receptionist and tell them if you had a good sleep or not, and what you think of my methods."
Dr. Thornton then grabbed Quintavius's hand with his own free hand. "I will now lead you to a bed, please come with me." Dr. Thornton led Quintavius to a bed in the corner of the room the pair were in and slowly led him to laying down. "When I count to three you will fall into a deep sleep and enjoy your rest. 1-2-3."