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It’s been 3 months since I completed the course, though I actually managed to kick the insomnia a bit before completing it.
This course changed how I view sleep. I don’t usually panic if I have a hard time falling asleep, now. If I have tired days because of travel, I know that eventually I will feel well-rested again. Sleep is no longer the end-all be-all, fearful measure of my well-being. It’s just part of my normal life again, not some big scary monster I do battle with nightly.
I don’t have to be super strict with myself, nor do I feel the need to anymore. I used to get kind of protective of my sleep routine, but now it’s okay when there are deviations and when my sleep schedule changes. I travel a lot currently, and the time zone shifts and the late nights up with friends aren’t a concern.
This course isn’t just about insomnia. It’s also about learning to let go of struggle in general. It’s changed my life. Thank you.
What an excellent share! Thank you and congratulations. This is what I always tell people who have sleep problems: make light of your insomnia and it will go away. Manage to forget about it and it ceases to exist. The best thing to do is plain nothing. Not cbti, no sleep restriction, no sleep diary, no stimulus controls, no rules basically. Really what everyone who doesn’t believe they have insomnia will do.
Congratulations Skyeisarose! I have also completed the course two weeks ago. I am sleeping relatively well now and with perhaps one difficult night every week or so. While I think this idea of letting go with the struggle is the essential backbone of this course, did you not use CBT-i at all at the initial stages? I don’t feel as free as you do at the moment yet, but I am curious as to when/what was your turning point, so you could be so free from these unreal “ catastrophic” sleep thoughts. Thanks and congrats again!
Thank you, Chee2308! Congratulations to you, as well!
I found the sleep restriction/window to be very helpful at first, but gradually I didn’t need it anymore.
I have found that not fixating on problems in general has helped a lot of them to ease in my life. I used to think that if I wasn’t worrying (generally excessively) about a problem, I’d never solve it. But relaxing about things, while initially very difficult, was the route that worked for me.
Congratulations, Lynnbet!
I definitely did use CBT-I and such in the initial stages. My iron grip on the techniques relaxed as the course progressed, and as I realized that an iron grip about anything sleep-related is exactly what needed to be avoided in general.
I don’t remember exactly when I stopped panicking about sleep, but I didn’t necessarily start sleeping better right away once that happened. It was a very gradual process for the first couple of months. It felt painfully gradual.
And then I had the luck of a big change in life circumstance that really helped me kick it. I moved for work. That job involved a lot more physical labor. I still had a few difficult nights the first week or so that I got there, but after that, I was pretty much sleeping through the night an amount that felt good to me regularly. Of course every once in awhile there’s still a difficult night, but it’s no longer every single night that’s difficult. It’s much more manageable this way.
I’d also felt very stuck in life due to a number of other life circumstances, and I think that emotional burden was contributing to the insomnia. But who knows? And I moved back after the season of that work was done back to my old bed and I still slept fine.
Learning to accept and also not take seriously panicky thoughts about sleep was important for me. Letting myself feel uncomfortable emotions instead of fearing them.
Good luck to you!
So much great stuff in here — thank you for sharing!
It sounds as though the key theme shared here (from both @skyeisarose and @lynnbet) is that as we build skill in moving away from trying to control things that experience suggests cannot be directly or permanently controlled (such as how we sleep, what we think, how we feel) the less we might struggle.
Without the struggle, conditions for sleep become a lot better — because the more we try to control sleep, the more difficult it can become.
And, as we move away from trying to control our thoughts and feelings, we can free up energy and attention to do more of what matters — to better live the kind of life we want to live, independently of what our minds might be saying or doing.
This usually requires ongoing practice — new skills take time to develop!
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
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