[ButterflyHMW]

Last night was night 5. So the previous 2 nights were great, I saw improvement, when I had my first awakening (around 3am) I was so exhausted I could roll over and go back to sleep without any thought which I haven’t been able to do. I struggle with a second awakening too, which is usually around 5-530am. Then I’m in and out til my wake time of 730am without really knowing if I’m falling back to sleep fully or not.

Then last night I had the first awakening at around 4am instead of 3am. Something panicked me, I think I was wondering if it was 3am or 5am. If bypassing the first awakening really stuck after 2 nights of not having it. Almost like a “too good to be true” feeling.

Next thing I know I had layed there for the next 3 hours or so until wake-up time. I don’t think I managed to fall back to sleep at all.

Is it normal to go a little backwards at first? I assumed once I was past the first awakening that it would stick and be a thing of the past, I guess I was wrong.

[Chee2308]

Hello there,

I am a graduate of Martin’s course and I sleep great now! What you are experiencing is very normal and I went through them as well. The idea of CBT-I is to get your sleep schedule back on track because most people with sleep problems got into very erratic sleep patterns by falling asleep at different times as a result of taking meds and/or their anxieties. Over time as you progress, you will start adopting a much more relaxed approach towards sleep where you go to bed only if sleepy. Getting up at a fixed time is key. I discovered nothing generates sleepiness more than staying awake long enough. By sleeping and waking at certain times ensures you only go to bed after being awake for at least 17-18 hours. Basically what is sleep? It is just a core biological process that happens after a person has stayed awake enough, for normal people that’s usually 17-18 hours, then that person naturally feels sleepy and goes to sleep for about 6-7 hours. Think of it like breathing, which is another core biological process. The body takes care of it all by itself and there’s no intervention required at all. Sleep, just like breathing, is effortless. Do nothing except sleeping and waking at fixed times as well as adopting an open and accepting attitude is all that is required to sleeping great again. If you can’t get to sleep at a certain time due to various reasons, such as staying up for work or other reasons such as having guests over, which is normal for all human beings anyway, then try to wake at a fixed time if you want to keep your sleep intact. Try not to compensate for lost sleep by sleeping in too often. I now go to bed after being awake for at least 16-18 hours, I fall asleep EVERY single time this way. I have absolute confidence in my ability to sleep and I even take short afternoon naps occasionally and I still sleep great at night!

[Chee2308]

Another thing is waking up during the night is normal. I still wake up several times during the night and usually fall back asleep again. Not being afraid of night time awakenings will ensure you fall back asleep.

[ButterflyHMW]

Thank you for your kindness!

[Martin Reed]

As suggested by Chee, waking during the night is a normal part of sleep! As the night progresses, we might naturally find it takes a bit longer to fall back to sleep when we wake since so much of our sleep pressure has been relieved by the sleep we got up to that point. If we worry about the awakening that can make falling back to sleep really difficult!

It sounds like you are on the right track and just need to continue to progress through the ups and downs you are going to face on your journey toward a life of better sleep!

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