Once Upon a Time... The Rise of Fairy Tales for Adults
Once upon a time... is probably one of the most hypnotic sentence openers you can have, just the utterance of those four words can make children and adults alike drift off into a reverie, suspend belief and become lost in thought, ready to visit a faraway land of wonder and make-believe.
Until a few years ago, it was uncommon for adults to listen to, or admit listening to, oral fairy tales, yet it is now almost commonplace, especially to aid sleep.
Sleep stories for grownups creator Dan Jones shares, "For over 13 years I've been creating fairy tale sleep stories for adults. It is only in the last few years that they have really become popular. Before that people used to comment that listening to my stories was a guilty pleasure they kept to themselves, now I am telling new sleep stories every week and have just created my 200th sleep story for grownups. Demand is only increasing".
Fairy tales began thousands of years ago as a way of sharing knowledge and wisdom through memorable and often fantastical tales. Through most of history, these tales were as much for adults as they were for children. In the 17th and 18th centuries aristocrats would share magical stories with each other, often incorporating themes of the day into stories the audience was familiar with. For example, Red Riding Hood has been told to reference the dangers of predatory males, to the empowerment of females and to the notion of the vulnerable female requiring rescuing by the brave male. The first of these versions, Red Riding Hood was eaten by the wolf, the second, she out-smarted the wolf and the third, she was rescued by the huntsman.
Often life lessons and wisdom are contained within fairy tales, which makes that lesson experiential rather than just intellectual and thus, more memorable.
There are many traditional fairy tales everyone is familiar with, but there are people creating new fairy tales, even today. Different people have different descriptions for what makes a fairy tale. The most common definition is that it is a magical short story, often with talking animals or mythical beings and usually involving a quest of some kind and other fantastical elements. Fairy tales usually aren't complex stories and often have few elements to them, which can make it easier to learn the story structure for retelling.
On Dan Jones' 'Dan Jones Hypnosis - Guided Sleep Meditations' YouTube channel, he creates sleep stories for grownups, with many of them being fairy tales. Dan has a unique way of creating his stories, he hold's a livestream 'sleep story creation session' every week where his viewers suggest random ideas for him to create a therapeutic sleep story from. Thirty minutes into the livestream, Dan then creates a 45-90 minute sleep story live-on-air with the viewers suggestions.
Dan adds, "It is nerve-wracking. Every livestream I wonder if I will be able to do it, but what I am doing is harking back to the way things were centuries ago where storytellers would create stories incorporating details and ideas from those listening and would tailor stories to convey knowledge and wisdom, in my case, to share knowledge and wisdom about how to manage stress, anxiety and worry, and how to drift off asleep. By creating stories this way, I am creating stories with my audience, for my audience rather than independent of my audience."
The Sleep Council recently found that 75% of people are experiencing sleep problems due to unease around the current global pandemic and 77% state that lack of sleep is interfering with their ability to function in the day. This has led to more people seeking out bedtime stories than ever before, especially fairy tales that transport people to somewhere magical and mystical in their mind, to take time out from the real-world, current events and worries.
"Your words took me to other realities and out of this one. I feel so much more peaceful and will use this often to calm down and enjoy. Thank you". commented one listener of Dan Jones sleep stories, K Goodridge.
Dan offers over 200 sleep stories for grownups on his Dan Jones Hypnosis – Guided Sleep Meditations YouTube Channel, adding new stories every week, these can be listened to for free. Over 150 of these stories are also available on streaming services like Spotify, Amazon Music, SoundCloud and Apple Music. The 15-90-minute-long sleep stories span a wide range of topics from fantasy, fairy-tale and science-fiction stories, to stories of love, travelling and adventure. There are even stories from the perspectives of cats, dogs and other animals and stories with and without background music and sound effects.
Notes to the Editor:
Dan Jones is an autistic UK hypnotherapist, author and YouTuber from Chichester, West Sussex
Person to contact: Dan Jones, dan@danjoneshypnosis.com
Dan Jones Hypnosis - Guided Sleep Meditations YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/danjoneshypnosis
Sample sleep story, fairy tale for grownups: Discovering the Tree of Life, https://youtu.be/h4O_fhtqrkE
Dan can supply any sleep story for grownups YouTube thumbnail images if required
The Sleep Council Survey Findings: https://sleepcouncil.org.uk/survey-reveals-covid-19-having-severe-impact-on-sleep/