[Deb]

Nik – It sounds like you are on the road to recovery, having some nights where you’re sleeping through the night. Yay! Just wondering, are you still going to talk to Dr. Kat next week? If so, could you please ask her a couple of questions that people have asked here? Maybe if there are any other questions people have, they can add them here as well.

1. What does she think about combining SR with ACT?

2. Are muscle aches normal in the first week?

[burn]

Deb,

In fact I sleep quite well last week or so. And on average me sleep was very acceptable in the last two weeks. Thank you for support.

At some point I thought about cancelling/rescheduling, but I decided that’s it’s really to early to consider myself cured and it’s better to talk to the doctor. So, yeah, I will talk to her on the 29th. Questions for her are welcome.

[Pam1129]

I went to see my brother in law the awhile back (he’s a chiropractor and I went for an adjustment ) I was asking him, ‘don are you Ever sore or tired?’ He’s 60, in amazing shape and full of piss and vinegar ( as my
Mother in-law would say lol)
His response , although very simple, was profound …. and , I have to say it sort of snapped me out of this ‘insomnia fog’ that I’ve been in for so many years!
‘Yes I’m always sore, and everything Hurts , I only sleep 3-4 hours a night, BUT I ‘won’t let’ that stop me from living’ and dang … If he isn’t FULL of life!!!!
Just thought maybe it would help someone else as it has def helped to change my attitude .. that and my ACT book?

[Deb]

Yes, live your life and don’t let insomnia define you!

[gsdmom]

Nik – I really enjoyed reading what you wrote on 8/22 about the state of the brain, it made a whole lot of sense to me. I’m one of those people who really likes to understand the science, biology, physiology of things. When I met with a sleep doctor and he wanted me to practice SC, he wanted me to meditate within an hour of going to bed (probably with the intention that it might relax me enough to go to sleep). But if he would have told me that studies showed that 8 weeks of mindfulness meditation can change your brain I definitely would have made more of an effort to do so at any time of the day.

Pam – Your BIL has a great attitude, but I wonder if his aches and pains are due to little sleep. I was so achy the days I slept 4 hours or less.

[gsdmom]

Update with ACT – into my 4th week and sleep is still all over the place but at least there is sleep! I’m starting to love Guy Meadows. Every other night is good, probably 6.5 – to over 8 hours of sleep. The other nights (bad nights) used to be zero sleep but now are about 4 hours, enough to be competent during the day. Last night I was really tired, had no wind-down period, just decided to plop in bed a little after 9pm. Fell asleep just before 10pm, woke up about 3:30am-4am, stayed calm in bed, thought I might not go back to sleep. Tried to refocus on breathing, textures, accepting some bad thoughts, then realizing my heartbeat was slow, I really was calm and just repeated to myself that I was calm, comfortable and warm and about 5:30am fell back to sleep until 6:45am. It was great to wake up again so rested and peaceful.

[Pam1129]

Good to hear gsdmom!!
I’m beginning to fall in love with him myself!! Seriously I am still just blown away at How MANY years I have struggled with insomnia only to Now be told to ACCEPT it hahaha!! I almost didn’t even read that book after those ‘words’ crossed the page! But since I had tried countless other things, I am just glad I hung in there ,and now have started implementing the tools.
I slept for the first time in a VERY long time ..
7 hours Last night?
and only woke 3 times!!! I am BEYOND excited! I even went to amazon to write my first review about this very thing on Guys Sleep book’
I truly ,again have all of you to thank for this blog , the encouragement , the struggles, the successes and challenges have kept me going and believing that someday this would be in the past…
I realize there will be rough nights, but at least now instead of ‘fighting it’ I am learning to ‘accept it’ …: still blows me away!!’ This would have been great to have my Dr. prescribe THIS Instead of yet another sleeping pill !! To think sleep could have happened 19 years ago… But ….
I am very grateful ….Now!!

[Deb]

Wow, Pam, that’s awesome! I had sleep onset insomnia and I remember being amazed that I was falling asleep in a relatively short time within the first week. Yes, it’s too bad more people don’t know about ACT or even CBT-I. I remember taking out 4 library books when I was looking for answers, all written by sleep doctors. Only one of them mentioned CBT-I and it was only 5 pages long! The rest, of which some were very current, didn’t even mention it. Even less people have heard of ACT. I’m hearing more and more about people who’ve had insomnia for years and thought that they were just different and had to live with it. Such a waste!

Gdsmom – it sounds like you’re getting better, day by day (and night by night). Keep up the good work!

[Steve]

Glad to hear everyone is doing well. I had a decent weekend myself. I expected to sleep good Friday night as I usually do since I am tired from the long work week. I ended up sleeping about 5.5 to 6 hours and the alarm actually got me up. It wasn’t a straight 6 hours as I slept through the first 3 or 4 hours but then had a a couple of wake-ups in there. But it was enough so that Saturday I was able to take my motorcycle out for a long ride. Saturday night was almost as good as Friday night. I woke up about 5 minutes before my alarm went off and it was the same 3 to 4 hours straight sleep and then a couple hours of broken sleep. Last night was a little rougher as I expected it to be as getting ready for a Monday and the first day of the work week is a little rough for me. It always has been. I slept for about 5 hours with two wake-ups in there and then woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. I was really calm though when I woke up and wasn’t tossing and turning at all. I did use my tools but realized I didn’t really need them. So I just lay peacefully for about 2 hours until it was time to get up. I just have to keep remember to practice my tools during the day this week and hopefully things will get better. On the positive side, I am starting to go right to sleep again.; Also, even though I do wake up about an hour after I first go to sleep and have other wake-ups during the night, I usually can get back to sleep pretty quick. Hope this coming week is good for all of us!

[Deb]

Sounds like you’re doing good, Steve. I’m into my fourth week of recovery. Last night I was hyped up after going to a jazz jam and singing a couple of songs there. I couldn’t get the music and rhythm out of my mind. Finally I got up for awhile and went back to bed around 1:30. All the time I was up, however, I had no worries about sleep. Just had to calm the music in my mind. Fell asleep right away after hitting the sack and slept till 7:30. The worries about any reoccurrence seemed to have disappeared.

[Bluesky]

What SR? And ACT?

Done CBT but didn’t really help.

My main issue is actually getting to sleep and when I finally get out of bed finding ways of me not getting more anxious resulting at times 2 hours kip…..
Life is a struggle at moment with no sleep so any help be great fully appreciated.

[burn]

After initial progress with ACT with 2.5 weeks of not a bad sleep on average, I am getting some roadblocks. Last 4 nights I only slept well only every other night, and today anxiety hit me in the night unexpectedly. Acknowledged it, but did not sleep well any way. Definitely something to ask the sleep doctor, why I got such a wave of anxiety, despite having accepting attitude toward being awake.

[gsdmom]

burn – don’t panic! I’m into my 4th week of ACT and am finding that like you ever other night is bad. Deb had mentioned she had nights of no sleep and since I started I had 3 nights of zero sleep, and I did cheat for 3 nights taking an Ambien. However on my every other good night, I find myself sleeping longer and deeper. This week I’m slowly adding some sleep time to my bad nights. I really have to focus on making sure I take time out for the meditation, especially during the day. Yesterday I really wanted to get out of the house in the morning with my dog, when I drove to the hiking trail, I realized I forgot the morning mindfulness breath exercise so I sat in my car for 4 minutes to practice it. Deb mentioned she does journaling, so I tried this too when there is an emotional issue that just won’t pass. Hopefully this might help with your anxiety.

[burn]

Thank you gsdmom. Yep, I should not forget my breathing exercises. I didn’t appreciate them until recently. I think they help to slow down my train of thoughts.

[Steve]

Deb – Glad to hear you are continuing with sleeping well. It must feel great. While I think I am getting better, I still do need more sleep. The 5 to 6 hours I am getting is better than my last couple of weeks using SR and SC alone but I am still getting lightheadnesses and having trouble concentrating when I only get that much sleep. Hopefully, I can continue toward that 7 hour mark.

Hi burn – Sorry to hear about your roadblocks you have been having. I think we are prone to regression every now and then after having some good weeks. We all want to steadily progress towards being “cured” but it is really not a straight line. We will have some setbacks. But it sounds like you are still on the right path so stick with it. Once you reach a certain point, you will probably “break out” for good like Deb did. When you talk to that sleep doctor and ask if you can do ACT with SR, please ask specifically if it’s okay to do a Sleep Window with ACT, such as a 5.5 or 6.0 hour Sleep Window. That is what featherly and I are wondering about. Thanks for asking this question for us. And hang in there. You will continue to get better like you were doing. Sometimes stress just happens on any given night.

[Author]

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