[Karinig]

It seems that the real key to overcoming insomnia is the very tricky mental feat of truly believing that you don’t care if you sleep or not. I find it almost impossible to imagine how this could be achieved when, of course, you desperately want sleep. I have tried distancing myself from my sleep worries and mindfully observing them as thoughts that come and go. But, it’s very, very challenging to truly not care about sleep. Does anyone have approaches that worked well for them?

[Chee2308]

When you’re first starting out, it’s pretty hard, everyone is the same. The key to recovery isn’t about not caring. Because everyone cares, that’s why we go to bed to sleep and and not in the kitchen or toilet. The real key to recovery is actually a 180° change in mindset. Important questions that need addressing are like: Why do you think your sleep is broken? Is it possible to sleep well for decades and then suddenly out of nowhere, completely forget how to do it? What is it really about sleep that I am worried about? Is the health consequences, not feeling refreshed, looking like crap, mental fog, etc? Then you need to establish the basis for these assumptions. Are they rooted in logic and fact or are they actually just hear-says? Be perfectly honest and open with yourself.

I found using metaphors worked for me. I equate sleep to eating. Is it possible to forget how to eat? No, that would be silly because you just put food in your mouth and you naturally just chew and swallow. So is it possible to forget when to eat also? NO as well. Everyone will eat when they get hungry enough. And how to get hungry enough? Simple. Just don’t eat for long enough. Would it be possible to refuse a feast of delicious food in front of you when you have been starving for a few days? Again NO. So when applied to sleep, will your body refuse to sleep if you have been so tired and deprived of it once you lay down on a comfy bed? NO! Your body will get what it wants, one way or another. There is just no way it can do it wrong. You came into this world with this innate ability and it will stick with you for the rest of your life regardless of how worried you get or what you do or believe. It wasn’t a skill that needed to be learnt or acquired in the first place so how can it be lost?? So it’s futile and even silly getting worried sick about it.

The real key to recovery is how you view your insomnia. Is it really a problem after all or just a conjured up hoax because you have been indoctrinated that somehow lack of sleep has devastating consequences? If insomnia was deadly, wouldn’t the morgues now be filled with corpses of people who somehow forgot how to sleep? On average, roughly 30% of the world’s population suffer from some kind of insomnia. So 30% of the 8 billion people is what? 2.4 billion?? So are there billions of corpses in the morgues now that died from lack of sleep or somehow lost that ability? NO, I hardly ever heard about ONE case let alone billions! So then the underlying notion must be false! The facts just don’t check out.

I know no amount of words is going to convince you overnight that your insomnia isn’t a problem. Please go through this journey with an open eye and heart and truly see what it’s all about. You might find you will laugh at yourself for acting like this, for believing and doing crazy stuff for sleep for what is essentially a very harmless and very normal situation. Good luck.

[Martin Reed]

You’ll probably always care about things that are important — we’re not trying to trick the mind here!

What we’re looking to do is to accept that there are some difficult things in life that we can’t directly or permanently control (like sleep, what we think, and how we feel).

With that in mind, perhaps all the struggle we might engage in to fight or avoid nighttime wakefulness (and the thoughts and feelings that can come with it) might be making things more difficult since that struggle gets us tangled up in an endless, exhausting, and futile battle?

What might things be like if we were able to build skill in moving away from that struggle? Perhaps we might have more energy? Perhaps this difficult stuff might be less influential and distracting? Perhaps we might be able to better live the kind of life we want to live?

So, we still care — but it’s no longer the focus of all our attention and it’s no longer the only thing we care about.

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If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.

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.

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