[Megatron7]

Hello! I had this a few years ago, and I got thru it with Xanax and the melatonin. Weaned myself off that and uses acupuncture and magensium instead. I experience not quite the jerks just the adrenaline rush/heart pounding just as I’m drifting off. What is this? Why does it occur? It’s been three years and not looking forward to going thru this again

[smileboxforlyme]

I think this is what I get in my stomach. I got covid 6 months ago and experience rushes through my stomach and chest. It will be just as I’m finally relaxed and falling asleep. I have to
Take a Xanax too but it’s not been working. It’s awful. Not sure what to do as it’s keeping me up until 4-5 am.

[Martin Reed]

Those sensations are really difficult, aren’t they? If there’s no medical explanation for them, they could be a physical symptom of hyperarousal — your brain doing its job of looking out for you and trying to protect you. It’s just that it’s trying so hard, it’s getting in the way a bit — kind of like an over-enthusiastic friend who is always checking in on you and always wanting to hang out!

The thing with hyperarousal is, it comes from a good place — but it doesn’t feel good, so our normal response is to try to fight or avoid it.

Unfortunately, that strategy doesn’t usually help — if you saw a child about to cross the road as a truck was speeding toward them, you’d yell at that child to stop, right?

If they ignored you, what would you do? Stop yelling and let them cross the road and get mown down by that truck? You’d probably yell even louder and more frantically, right?

And that’s what our brain can end up doing if we try to fight or avoid hyperarousal — it’s looking out for us, thinking there’s a threat present and we are ignoring it. So, it’s going to yell louder and generate even more hyperarousal in response.

So, with all this in mind, perhaps it might be helpful to practice responding in a different way? Instead of trying to fight or avoid, you might try acknowledging the thoughts and feelings your brain is generating (even though they can feel really unpleasant). If you’re feeling really openminded, perhaps you might even thank your brain for looking out for you!

And, at the same time, perhaps it might be helpful to explore ways you might be able to train your brain that wakefulness isn’t a threat it needs to be so alert to protect you from at night? Perhaps you might consider ways of experiencing wakefulness with less struggle. If there’s not a nightly battle occurring when wakefulness shows up, perhaps your brain can learn that it’s not something it needs to be so alert to protect you from at night?

I hope there’s something useful here!

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The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.

[Megatron7]

This is really helpful. Thanks! Yes it only keeps me up I would say about 30-40 mins I’ve stopped going on my phone at all once I’m in bed and avoiding any caffeine after say 1pm. It happens maybe 6-10 times as I’m just about to drift off. Finally I just let it happen as much as it wants while trying my best to allow it and realize I will fall asleep. I am not taking any medications except a cortisol manager supplement and going to start magnesium
Again. I know xanax will work but don’t want to get dependent on that again!

[Chee2308]

It’s simply not realistic fearing something which you expect to do every night for the rest of your life. This is akin to becoming afraid of eating after a bout of food poisoning or scared to breathe again because you nearly drowned. It’s not rational! Ask yourself what are you really so afraid about. Most of the times it’s just a set of thoughts inside your head, you are essentially just afraid of thoughts and nothing else. And thoughts can’t do anything unless you decide to take them way more seriously than you should. Nobody goes from sleeping good for a few years or even for decades then all of a sudden, the ability to sleep gets “broken” and the person now requires a ton of aids, be it drugs, supplements or whatever for the rest of their lives. It doesn’t happen like that! Doing things for sleep and/or going out of your way to achieve it is what keeps your insomnia going. Because it trains your brain that insomnia or sleeplessness is WRONG, must be avoided at ALL costs and must be defeated. This is the wrong mindset because it comes from a position of weakness. That will keep reinforcing the idea that insomnia is a monster that must be wrestled under control every night and the mistaken idea that the “stuffs” you do to escape it might help in some way. When you should just let it be, train yourself to see through that FUD, and then slowly come to the realization that it was a hoax all along. You must learn to control the fear if you want to beat this! This means adopting a plan where the ultimate goal is to use no supplements, no aids, no drugs, no anything, to sleep and eventually developing enough sleep confidence to put all this behind you for good. It’s not an easy feat, I must say, and your sleep will get choppy, you might temporarily get worse, but each episode of bad night(s) will retrain your brain, hone your skills and develop the fortitude to handle future bad nights. This means it gets easier as you get along but you must do the right things, develop the right behaviours and get into the right mindset to succeed. Good luck to you.

[Author]

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