[Ronfromthepond]

I am a 73 year old life long insomniac. The CBT1 therapy seems logical to me but I am wondering if it is less effective for older people. I am a month into the program and implementing some of the tools like a shorter sleep clock and getting out of bed when I am not sleeping but I don’t seem to be making any progress. I’m going to give it another month either way but I can’t help wondering if I am waisting my time because of my age.

[hiker]

Hello, fellow lifelong insomniac. I am 71, and started having trouble sleeping when I was 27. Lots of reasons, lots of issues to work through…..

For me, the biggest help getting the strength to get through the next moment has been prayer. And the biggest help for addressing the insomnia itself has been CBT. I haven’t taken Martin’s course, but it looks similar to techniques I used before I found this website. And I can tell you emphatically that you aren’t too old to do it.

What I discovered is how much our thoughts can run the show, and how much weight we can give them, when actually they are just any thoughts which happen to pop into our heads. For example, it sounds like you are feeling like you are too old to heal. I am not discounting your feeling this way; no doubt it is a strong feeling. But consider whether we tend to see feelings as the be-all and end-all: if this is the way I feel, it must be the way things are.

Instead, how about this: that feeling that “I am too old to heal” is not the same as an objective fact, such as gravity. If you drop something, it will fall to the ground, regardless how you feel about it.

“I’m having the thought that I am too old to heal” is vastly different from “I am too old to heal.” That you feel you are too old does not make it so, even though you feel strongly. And “I am too old to heal” does not rank up there with gravity as an objective fact.

Sorry if this sounds esoteric or whatever, again, I’m 71, and I got better. One last thing—and when I don’t sleep well now and then I have to try to remind myself—it is hard to think straight when you are really hammered from insomnia. For me, that’s when feelings seem all-powerful, where they must be true (even though they’re not).

Take care, and I hope you stick with this website and program.

[Ronfromthepond]

Thanks for your post. It’s good to know that the program can help me at my age. I didn’t mean to imply that I thought I was ” too old to heal “. I have heard many people, including Martin say that sleep changes as you age and older people generally get less sleep and also less deep sleep. I’m fairly active and exercise regularly and enjoying my retirement. I just didn’t want to waist time and effort into something that’s probably not going to work.
Thanks again for the feedback !

[Author]

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