[kbgust]

HI- I’ve suffered from insomnia for over 20 years. I fall asleep fine but wake up way too early- usually around 3-4. I was going to be at 8 30/9 and falling asleep ok but i must have anxiety aobut waking up as my eyes pop open early and i can’t go back to sleep- im usually quite tired during the day. I used to do a yoga nidra to fall back asleep (sometimes successful) – Im recently trying sleep restriction therapy but am confused- its making me go to bed later and get out of bed when i wake up (around 3 30)- seems like my sleep is worse and making me more anxious about waking up before my scheduled wake up time. I can see how this helps falling asleep issues but what about waking up issues? Thanks!

[Chee2308]

Waking up during sleeping is really common. Everyone gets it, especially good sleepers! When you sleep well and deeply especially at the start of the sleep window, all that sleep drive gets exhausted after some time and you begin waking up again, of course! This is the natural order of things, and the misery starts when you begin to worry about it and continue to adopt a misconcepted idea about sleep. What isn’t normal is getting sleepier and sleepier the more you sleep!

[hiker]

Hi kbgust, regardless whether you are employing sleep restriction, sleep anxiety can kick in at the start of sleep, or when you wake up in the middle of the night, as you are experiencing.

It’s indeed not unusual to wake up during the night. Martin focuses quite a bit in his course on the issue of nighttime wakefulness—that it is not unusual, and also doesn’t have to translate into oh no, now I won’t be able to get back to sleep. Okay, sometimes you get back to sleep, and sometimes you don’t, even though you would prefer to.

I think a sign of progress is when you are not panicked or even particularly surprised that you wake up in the middle of the night. Even more progress when you can accept that sometimes you don’t get back to sleep, so maybe just get up and do something relaxing in the quiet early morning. This can be hard to see when you are tired and not thinking straight. Been there.

[TraciD]

That does sound typical with the sleep restriction. I’ve been reading to try not to think of the restriction as helping you sleep that particular night, but that over time it will improve your sleep drive and your sleep. I believe this also applies to the waking. Great advice above to accept the wakings as normal and learn not to stress about them (obviously easier said than done)!
Traci

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