[Edgar]

OK, so I’m freaking done. Another night of early morning awakening and this time inability to fall back asleep.

Every single night this early wake-up thing happens, but I can usually fall back asleep with a little Valium. Today I felt anxious despite Valium and even though I don’t have to work till 10 , I woke up at 3:30 (went to sleep at 11 p.m.) and couldn’t fall back to sleep.

What the hell causes a young man such as myself to wake up so soon, even though I don’t nap so I don’t screw up my internal sleep/wake clock. Is it anxiety? Apnea?

I am finally ready to see my doctor, I know this now for sure. I just don’t know what to say.

Should I ask for a cortisol test to check my stress levels?

Should I check my thyroid levels again (although I did that recently and it came back fine, though I still sometimes feel a subtle discomfort in that area of my neck). Is there anything else I could do around the thyroid other than the CT and blood tests, maybe they missed something.

How do I get a sleep study done when I KNOW I won’t be able to fall asleep with all those machines hooked up to me.

Did doing some exercise really help any of you?

Will my general practitioner automaticaly refer me to a psychologist? I don’t want to go to a psychologist because in my small town everything gets found out pretty soon and people are a**holes. I will be pegged as insane for the rest of my life.

But I am willing to give all this a try anyway since it’s obvious , after almost three years of this, that ignoring my problem won’t make it go away. It did in the past, when insomnia was like a demon that fed and grew stronger on my attempts to make it go away, so finally ignoring it was what made it go away. But now, like I said, I will have to start activelly fighting it like you guys do. I just hope I don’t make a terrible situation even worse.

Sorry for the long post, if you could answer any of my questions I’d be realy grateful. My biggest fear is that, as for many of you, all my results will come back negative and there will be nothing left to try. I’m afraid of ending up like Heath Ledger or Michael Jackson somewhere down the line.

I’m crying , sitting here thinking of the exhausting day ahead of me. I’m a teacher who can barely focus on my children, and I know I don’t give them enough attention, interesting classes and motivation for learning, sitting there like a log and forgetting what we did last time and what we are supposed to do in the future.

• This topic was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by Edgar. Reason: Typo

[Edgar]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Also, how does one get officially diagnosed with insomnia? Is it enough to just tell the doctor your history or are there tests done to rule out other causes?</p>
God, I have so many questions now that I’ve made up my mind to grab this f***ing bull by the horns.

I still can’t tell if what I have is insomnia, anxiety or both. If it was just insomnia, I would feel that almost irresistable urge to doze off like most of you do, and have trouble getting to the night without napping. But not me, I’m tired, but I’m not sleepy. My brain is always on high alert, and there is no chance I would,for instance, fall asleep at the wheel. Then night comes, I pass out, and wake up with my eyes wide open. Does anybody else feel that way?

[Aiva]

Hi Edgar,

I’m so sorry you are feeling like this, it sure does suck energy from you.  I cannot imagine how you feel at school during the day.  I am the same, I get tired and wired, not sleepy.  How long have you been taking Valium?  It is not for long term use, so please be careful.  I was on it for 3 months, but weaned off it as I didn’t want to be on drugs for the rest of my life.

I am sure that Martin will reply to your post, have you read all the information on the site?

One thing that jumped out at me is that you have been here before AND WON!  So you can beat it.  I have to think the same, I have been able to sleep well before, it’s just that our minds are so powerful we can think that there’s something wrong when there isn’t.  I was convinced that there was something wrong with my brain, that I had a tumour or something.  I had a lot of headaches, now I think they were just due to lack of sleep.  My Dr ordered an MRI and guess what – they found nothing wrong!

Take some time to read the testimonials on the site, there are some stories there that give you a lot of hope.  And keep posting on here, we will all try to help each other!

[Aiva]

PS.  Martin is also available for private clients, something I’ve considered, see the site.  One area I feel let down by the sleep professionals I’ve seen over the past 3 years is that there is no ongoing support:  you make an appointment to see them weeks in advance, you see them, then if you want to see them again you need to wait weeks to get to see them again.  In the meantime, your sleep pattern deteriorates further or you develop bad habits which makes it all worse.

 

[Edgar]

Thanks, Aiva, fot your words of support. I really need them, I feel down.

I’ve been on Valium for way too long, but the problem is my early awakening started much before I decided to help myself with Valium. Then,after about 3-4 months I went ahead and tried it.

But yes, it’s certainly gone for the worse, I’ve gone from using it sporadically to using it every night. I don’t think it even has a function anymore, I think it’s just placebo at this point. So I will switch from that to something else, probably.

You are absolutely right about the mind being behind all this. So many people look for organic causes, hoping to find something that can be fixed, and now I will start looking for one, though I’m pretty sure there’s nothing organic behind it.

Still, worth a look.

How is your sleep these days then? Do you use any medication?

[Edgar]

I’ve already written about my first bout of insomnia. I guess I beat it by my own kind of ACT, I learned not to fret too much about it and it went away.

This new problem is worse because, while I still follow the “don’t worry” approach and it still works to put me to sleep initially, my sleep doesn’t LAST long enough anymore. In the past all I needed was to make sure I fall asleep, after which staying asleep was never a problem. I can’t figure out why this happens. Waking uo too early is more common in the elderly population, for various reasons, but like I said I’m only 31. Why do I sleep like I’m 81…

[Deb]

Edgar – have you tried SR and SC? Maybe ACT worked for you before, but now you may need something different. Check out the post “Support group for people doing SR.” Mac has the same issue as you, of waking up too early. Now he is back on SR and doing much better and sleeping through most of the night.

Alva – I recommend you work with Martin. Unlike the other professionals you’ve seen, he is available all the time. So if you have any questions or struggles, you can email or text him and he will get back to you soon (at the longest – 24 hours.) I agree that with this problem you need ongoing support or it can spiral out of control. That happened to me when I tried to do ACT on my own. There was no support except a video conference once every three weeks or so (for $200). I just got worse over time without the support, so I went back to Martin.

[Martin Reed]

Sorry to read about your struggles, Edgar. We are all here for you, we are all urging you on, and we’ll give you all the encouragement you need to keep going. Don’t give up. You’ve got this!

When you wake early in the morning, what do you think is stopping you from falling back to sleep?

Before you had a problem with sleep, roughly when did you usually go to bed at night and when did you normally get up in the morning to start your day?

—

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.

[Edgar]

Hi, Martin, sorry for the late response, it was a busy week.

I don’t know what’s keeping me awake when I wake up early. Sometimes I feel a little anxious, bit most of the time I just don’t feel sleepy, I guess.

I’ve never been someone who drifts to sleep easily. That’s why I can’t nap even though I have the time. That’s why I don’t snooze in cars or trains, for instance. I remember travelling from Venice to Croatia one time by bus in High school,a 7 hour trip, everyone in my class was sleeping like crazy but I stayed up the whole trip. Same for when I flew from Croatia to the US on one occasion, a 15 hour trip and I didn’t sleep a wink.

My conditions for sleep are, for whatever reason, biologically dictated or perhaps conditioned somewhere early in my life. Unless I take pills, I can fall asleep exclusively in bed, at night,and it doesn’t seem to matter if I stared at screens before or doing anything generally considered harmful for sleep. I fall asleep very quickly, too, most of the time as soon as my head touches the pillow.

To answer your second question, before my night sleep began to suffer, I would sleep from around 23 to about 7 or 8. Now it’s from around 23 to 2 or 3, then I take a pill, then if the pill works I manage to sleep until 5 or 5:30.

Honestly I don’t think some special form of SR would help me since I have essentiallly been following SR my whole life.

I guess there is a touch of OCD in all this, I feel that if I actively got up and waited to feel sleepy, and then went to bed, my brain would say “nope, nice try but you can’t fool me.” I just have to keep doing what I’ve been doing, but find a way to get back to sleeping until at least 6, 6:30, hopefully seven.

As for CBT, I don’t know. Maybe, I have to explore it further. Bit I will have that chat with my doctor first.

 

[Martin Reed]

Do you tend to fall asleep quite easily at the start of the night? Do you every struggle to stay awake until the start of your regular bedtime? You may have a strong “morning lark” chronotype and need to advance your sleep window so it starts and ends earlier.

Do you get out of bed when you wake during the night and can’t fall back to sleep? Without a full history or seeing any sleep diaries, I cannot offer more specific suggestions, unfortunately.

If you have any other questions, please let me know.

—

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.

[Edgar]

I fall asleep immediately in the night. I wake up about 5 hours later. I don’t struggle to stay awake during the day, I’m tired as hell but not sleepy.

I think my biggest mistake is that no, I don’t get up immedjately after waking. I know I should, but I just can’t.  I keep my eyes closed or pop a pill until at least 6,6:30, even if I wake around 5.

Thanks for your advice. Perhaps I will try SR one of these days, I’m just not ready yet.

[Martin Reed]

If you fall asleep immediately but then wake five hours later and find it hard to fall back to sleep, you might benefit from advancing your sleep window so it starts and ends earlier.

Unfortunately, without consistent implementation, CBT-I techniques aren’t going to be very helpful. If you do decide to go all-in and commit to the techniques, you will likely find it helpful to observe a consistent sleep window, get out of bed when unable to sleep, always get out of bed by the same time every day, and not taking a sleeping pill contingently.

—

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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