[Louis1007]

Hey! Here’s the problem I’m really suffering from:

What usually happens is I convince myself that if I’m aware of myself trying to fall asleep, then it’s impossible to fall asleep… “how can one drift into a state of unconsciousness if they’re aware of themselves… i.e. conscious” 

I’ll feel myself drifting off, my thoughts will slowly become more abstract as they do when you fall into a dream state and my brain will realise that that’s whats happening, i.e. “Look! You’re falling asleep” and that awareness that I’m falling asleep will wake me up again. 

Most nights, this will happen a couple times and then eventually that transition into dreaming will be successful. Sometimes I just have to persevere and know it will happen eventually. 

Recently, however, the problem has been really bad. As I feel myself drifting off, I become aware of myself falling asleep and wake up with a huge sense of anxiety. This anxiety comes directly after I become aware of myself falling asleep. When it’s bad, its like I get hit with adrenaline and I couldn’t be more awake. Last night I tried to persevere but it just kept happening and I was just lying in bed anxious with my head almost spinning. 

I’ve looked up a lot about insomnia and the advice seems to be more about habit; go to sleep at the same time every night… don’t eat right before bed… don’t drink alcohol… don’t go on electronics before bed etc. But I feel like my problem is a lot more psychological.

Any help would be really appreciated,

Thanks

[Martin Reed]

Welcome to the forum, @Louis1007! All that stuff you mentioned reading about at the end of your post is sleep hygiene stuff — and we know that doesn’t help people with chronic insomnia because it doesn’t address the thoughts and behaviors that perpetuate insomnia.

As you said, as soon as you find yourself trying to sleep, sleep becomes a lot more difficult. That’s completely normal. For sleep to happen, we need to abandon all effort to sleep.

It sounds as though you’re doing a lot of self-monitoring for sleep and this is common among people with chronic insomnia. Self-monitoring is a type of arousal, and arousal is a perpetuating factor behind chronic insomnia.

You might find it helpful to implement some cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques since they will help build sleep drive (which reduces wakefulness and helps with sleep onset), strengthen your body clock, and lower arousal.

I hope this helps!

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