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Hi everyone,
I hope someone with more experience in CBT-i will be able to give me advice
I started sleep restriction about 10 days ago and so far I am pretty optimistic it’s going to help.
My goal bedtime is 1.00AM and get up time 7.00AM and it worked nicely for a week or so.However, last night and the night before that I was terribly sleepy at about 11.00PM. Not wanting to disrupt the schedule, I tried very (and I mean *very*) hard to stay awake until 1AM. However, by that time my sleepiness had gone away and both these nights it took me longer to finally fall asleep and my sleep was poor to say the least (very light sleep – almost as if I were awake).
The bottom line question: should I go to bed earlier, when I feel sleepy and then get up earlier?
Thank you!
Hi @anamarija
You can slowly bring forward your bedtime in 15-20 mins intervals until you achieve the desired amount of sleep. But if you go to bed earlier, you are also very likely to wake up earlier. The 2nd part of sleep after the first awakening can be a bit challenging for most people. Expect this to happen so there are no surprises. As long as you take it gently and don’t stress too much over it, you should be able to fall back asleep or the time to fall back asleep should get shorter. Being okay with waking up after sleeping several hours sleep is key. Stop the pondering, the questioning, or the endless seeking for answers is key to quieten down your mind so you can go back to sleep. Accept everything as it happens and that you have very little control aside from keeping to a regular bedtime schedule and enjoying your wakeful hours the best you can. Good luck!
Thank you! I went to bed 30 min earlier last night (felt very sleepy at that point and did not want to waste the opportunity) and had 6 hours of sleep! (after two quite terrible nights)
I guess there will be ups and downs, but all in all, it’s getting better. Knowing that what I’m going through (thanks to Martin’s podcast and this forum) isn’t unique helps a lot.
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