A tumble in progress

Your approach of lights being on is good. On the wrong day, the fan would irritate me and bring me out of trance even though I like sleeping with a fan on. Lying on the floor is probably (counterintuitively) contributing to putting you to sleep. I worry that you might be kind of accidentally engaging in resistance play with the distracting fan and the "oh I could neeeever get put to sleep on the floor" approach. It's like your hypnotist saying "try to resist dropping for a long as you can". I'm sorry but we all know where that ends!

We are all, in this modern 2026 world, aware that traditional authoritative styles are excellent for some people in some ways on some days but not really always the best for everyone. We're also aware that the limits of NLP are actually far less extreme than its most "become a businessman with borderline psychic powers" course-selling proponents will have you believe; it's more of a toolbox to draw from. Overall there's a shift away from old school "I command you to feel sleepy" and toward "hey have you noticed you feel kinda suggestible?" with most of us picking a point between these two extremes. That's what everyone I know seems to report is best option for most people. Some things really hang on from the old-school authoritative approaches and some more modern thinking is remarkably slow to catch on. I think they can point us to some great ways to do text trance.

There's still a drive, largely for kink reasons, to aim for "sleeeeeepyyyyy". And it's there in the name: hypnosis! We also love the moment of "sleep!" because goddamn it's so fun and sexy to see! It is an old-fashioned authoritative command to go from an on state to an off state. It endures because it is awesome in the original sense of the word and I don't advocate for its erasure.

However, I find "sleepy" is better than "sleep" for new subjects, subjects who haven't been under yet today and certain people who just happen to respond to it better. I also think it's better for people struggling with text trance. You're not enforcing the idea that someone must pass from one state to another at the moment you tell them to. You also avoid accidentally implying that trance work can only work when someone's in a trance. Erickson would have something to say about this. Experienced subs can go most of the way (or all the way) into trance just by discussing the suggestions you might give them while talking to them about how susceptible they'll soon be feeling and they'll often say they weren't "all the way" in a trance but...prove it!

Definitely relax people, let them feel as comfy as when they go to sleep, help them feel like that early-human evolutionary safety-seeking instinct is placated and they are safe to stop paying attention on that deep evolutionary level. When you're doing text-trances, you don't know how your subject feels and don't know what distractions might come their way. Subjects, if it helps you or your hypnotist, describe your situation a bit. Who else is home? Are there loud noises outside your window? Is your curtain close? Do you want your curtain closed?

Along these lines, encouraging the use of safe-words as an "I need to snap out of this" button instead of merely an "I'm not cool with this kink" button means that a subject can let go of ordinary waking alertness and still feel like no prehistoric predators will eat them on that evolutionary level. My favourite safeword is mashing a key near the edge of the keyboard near where my fingers hover. More seriously, telling a subject that you want them to come up if something is bothering them, gives them the implicit suggestion that it's okay to stay in trance if nothing is bothering them. and empowers them to know they're not ruining anything by safewording.

Relax the subject. Maybe even encourage them to feel relaxed in a way that is sleepy but then focus on focus. Sleepiness isn't necessary. Focus is. In text-trance this is doubly true. You can use the novelty of this approach to make it exciting, engaging and attention-grabbing. You can add narrative like making someone feel robotic and computer-like; blindly obeying the input from the digital screen. With consent and safewords, you can be sneaky and stealthy and make someone feel like they were wide awake and reading and there's no need to remember exactly where the conversation went and no need to scroll up. There are infinite ways to have fun here, just keep them focused. I recommend getting into a call-and response pattern. Throw questions in and get yes or no answers. Feel free to enjoy "yes miss/sir" and feel free to reward almost all responses with "good boy/girl/toy".

My trances might look like this: Suggestion, suggestion, suggestion, isn't that right? Yes miss Good toy! Suggestion, instruction, understand? Yes miss Good toy

(With someone who isn't into kinky stuff like that I'd hope for "yes" and "that's right" instead)

Hit enter a lot, keep the messages coming for the subject, no walls of text to consider and fall asleep over. Make it a quick and engaging chat where the hypnotist is doing most of it but the subject feels involved is saying yes or no.

Just to add to the point a little, there are studies of meditation that say it's a lot like trance. There are studies of flow state that say it's a lot like meditation. They are all still distinct things in my opinion and experience but we would be silly to ignore the crossover. But using hypnotherapy on athletes WHILE THEY ARE EXERCISING to practice and encourage flow state is a known thing. You can be hypnotised while puffing and panting! My point here is that aiming for a susceptible, suggestible flow state is better than aiming for the deepest sleep. Shoot for the moon of wakeful trance here and even if you miss, you'll land among the eepy-but-responsive stars.

Between the two extremes of traditional authoritative and modern unauthoritative (shush red line, I know it's not real word, I can't think of the real word) approaches lies what works for most people. I personally believe that between telling someone to sleep now and having them running on a treadmill while trancing them lies what works well for...a lot of people? Maybe not most? I don't know.

A friend recently pointed out that I use the word "focus" a lot more than other hypnotists which surprised me. I wonder if that's a coincidence or a result of my text-trance experience.

My best trances as a sub have felt sleepy and yet wide-awake at the same time. I felt like I was sleeping at the moment I was told to drop but when I wake up, I feel like I've been awake the whole time. Wide awake and active with my brain's RAM being used by my hypnotist. Even post-amnesia, I have a sense that I wasn't there when my hypnotist was using my brain but it was being used! I think the best I've got out of people has been when the lines between awake and hypnotised have been blurred through non-sleep-focused trance. Again, specific consent probably needed for that depending on your relationship.

If I'm hypnotising you, I might enjoy the words "sleep", "drop" and "sink" with you but I am much more interested in "focus", "follow" and "understand".

Ultimately, I recommend the subject sits upright at a desk with fingers poised over their keyboard ready to say "yes" or "no" or "safeword" or "red/amber/green" or whatever. I was delighted and amused to see mention of that in your second post because it was my first thought. Prepare to be wide awake and busy on your computer. Prepare to enter a flow state like you're gaming. So like gaming, be comfy but be ready. Be excited!