[plandory]

Today I started brain light therapy! I was very distressed when I got to the clinic. I was feeling extreme pain both physical and emotional.

The Doctor's assistant got me set up in a reclining message chair and put headphones over my ears and glasses over my eyes.

I was told to keep my eyes shut while the glasses strobed light at varying frquencies through my eyelids.

Simultaneously the headphones fed both affirmative statements and subliminal messages to my brain.

While all this was going on, the chair moved in synchronized movements, cradling me and applying a deep and at times almost uncomfortaby firm massage.

The end result of all this however, was that I quickly started to relax and the pain dissipated. By the time I got out of the chair 40 minutes later I was totally pain free.

The drive home through rush hour traffic of course re-asserted some of my stress but even after that I feel much more relaxed. I am still pain free and this was only my first session. I am looking forward to seeing how I sleep tonight.

My second session is tomorrow and I am looking forward to seeing if there is a pattern of continuing improvement.

[Martin Reed]

Thank you so much for sharing with us – please keep us all updated with your progress.

From your description this sounds similar to biofeedback but without the need to try to control what you're seeing.

Do you know if this is recommended for insomnia caused by specific underlying conditions such as stress/anxiety/depression/pain etc?

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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.

[plandory]

I had my second Brain Light session today.

Whereas the assistant had set me up yesterday, today I was left to my own devices to do my own set-up. Yes, Martin, there is a long list of program selections dealing with anxiety, stress, depression, general mood and balance, pain relief etc.

The patient ahead of me cancelled and being there early I got a chance to try out multiple tracks to see what worked best for me. I am not sure which I will prefer in the end but the results are pretty amazing.

I had mentioned in the earlier post that I was pain-free and relaxed after my first session.

I managed to mess this up after I got home by engaging in a very stressful conversation before bed, which brought back all my usual negative inner dialogue.

As a direct result of this, I got zero sleep last night ( despite taking both my usual benzodiazepine and anti-depressent) and got up this morning wondering how I was going to get through the day.

Normally when I have a particularly bad night, I feel extreme discomfort and often weakness and severe pain increasing in intensity through the day.

In short, I am basically a vegetable who drifts through the day in a fog just waiting anxiously for it to end so I can try to sleep again!

To my surprise, although I didn't feel great, neither was I incapacitated. I went to my session and tried two different tracks each 40 minutes long. I did the anxiety one first and the one they call Balance afterwards.

It is now almost 9 PM where I live and I would usually be totally wilted and dying to go to bed by now after the previous night's experience.

Instead, while genuinely tired, I feel only a modicum of tension in my muscles and the negative narratives that normally haunt me, playing over and over in my mind are (though still present) at a minimum. They have quietened in intensity and I am finding it easier to dispell them, if only temporarily.

I haven't decided yet which of the tracks is the ideal one for me and I intend to try more of them but they are definitely making a significant difference.

I also don't know whether it is the strobing light, the affirmations or the subliminal messages that are making the impact. I guess it doesn't really matter, it is the results that count and they seem to be designed to work together;

I am trying to keep my mind as still as possible and hoping to crash and actually sleep tonight. I might have a decent Sunday tomorrow. There are not a lot of days recently that I am really mobile and productive. It is hard to look forward to life when each day is simply measured in lesser or greater misery and fatigue.

It is also too soon to tell if the Brain Light is doing all this good or some of it is a placebo affect. Whichever though, for now I am grateful and looking forward to more sessions.

And yes Martin, in some ways it is, as you pointed out very similar to bio-feedback. Having looked online though, “Brain Light” is in fact a patented system from Germany with a number of available components depending on it's intended use.

I will continue to update as things progress.

My game plan is (assuming that it continues to calm me and free me from the insomnia symptoms/or underlying causes, depending on how you look at things) to let myself settle into perhaps a month or two of more stable and consistent sleep.

At that point, if and when I get there, I will start trying a very gradual tapering off of the Benzo..I just switched from the shorter acting Clonazepam to the longer acting Clorazepate as a prelude to set myself up for this future tapering process. After that I will have to do the same with the Remeron I take but that should definitely be the easier one.

The saga will continue!

[Martin Reed]

Thanks for the update – please keep them coming. I'm going to highlight this in the next Insomniac Bulletin.

—

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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