[Jopheus]

All my life I have had no problem with sleep and I have always been a avid endurance athlete, then all of a sudden 8 months ago I started to have insomnia that's been progressively worse despite all my efforts. I'm guessing it started with stress at work combined with having a new baby, and worrying about how much sleep I am getting. I am practicing good sleep hygiene, stimulus control, and sleep restriction. I even try to identify negative thoughts during the day and have mantras to combat them. I go to bed when I think I feel really sleepy and I feel relaxed and my mind is not racing but I just don't crash out. If I don't fall sleep within 20-30 minutes I get up and read for a bit and go back to bed but I always feel pretty sleepy at night. Right now my get in bed time is 11 and getting up time is at 5am. Many nights I struggle to make it to 11pm as I am nodding off as I watch TV with my wife. The last 30 minutes before bed I read a book. It seems like I will be able to sleep for 4 or 5 hours for a couple days then I go back to 1-2 hours a night for a few nights until I break down and take benadryl or something else to get at least a couple hours of sleep and that has been my pattern for months and months now. I'm feeling desperate and don't know what to do. I have stopped working now because I don't feel it is safe sometimes for me to be working severely sleep deprived. I try to do a light workout(bike or run) on the days I get 4-5 hrs but when I only get 1-2hrs of sleep I don't workout because it seems to make the insomnia worse. In the past when I started not sleeping I would workout more and that seemed to make my insomnia worse. Anyone have any suggestions, I'm starting to go a little crazy.

[rjsf]

Hi Jopheus. I assume based on your post title that what you are having is sleep onset insomnia, and from what you have described it seems pretty similar to my issue. I too had difficulty initiating sleep at my designated sleep time even though I was feeling very sleepy already. I also did SRT, SC and Sleep Hygiene but they did not seem to work initially. My record was about 2 weeks up with just a few hours of sleep. I suffered badly last year. I discovered through my own trial and error that even though I was addressing the physiological component of my sleep issue, I was not doing anything about the psychological part. My anxiety was through the roof and it kept feeding itself with every successive night of no sleep. The key to my breakthrough was realizing that I cannot force sleep and the only way I was going to get sleep was to relax and let go of any thoughts keeping me awake. But it was easier said than done. I had a tough time trying out different ways to quiet down the anxious thoughts. The first thing that worked on me was listening to a low volume on TV over a boring talk show. That seemed to help distract me and I'd eventually fall asleep, but the results were erratic, I was probably successful only 30% of the time. I later discovered podcasts that were effective for distraction as well, and even one that was targeted to help people sleep (google “Sleep with me podcast”). The Sleep with me podcast has a huge following and you may want to try it. They have an FB group where many people swear by it's effectiveness. SWM was even better than TV, most nights I would take only 15 mins to nod off. But some nights it still took longer to sleep and some nights it didn't work at all for me. I settled with it for a while, thinking I should be content with the improvement, but those 1-2 bad nights a week still bothered me so I kept on looking. The latest trick I'm using now is the mySleepbutton app. I stumbled upon it while researching many weeks ago. So far my success rate is 99%. Here is their website if you need more info: https://mysleepbutton.com/support/.

[nora777]

Jopheus, I know how you feel, suffering with my own insomnia. But you did mention one thing that is almost certain to recede as a cause of lost sleep: a new baby. So there is some hope! As far as what you can do to start sleeping more regularly, here are a few things I am trying or plan to try: lowering the bedroom temperature (it was 75 degrees, way too warm for sleeping), blocking the blue light from my computer with a background program that adjusts the “color temperature” of the screen, and I'm planning to get yellow-tinted glasses to reduce my evening electric-light exposure also. I have had some success so far with the first two, although it isn't consistent. That's why I have signed up for this Insomnia Land program.

[Martin Reed]

It sounds as though you know many of the techniques needed to get your sleep back on track, Jopheus. How are you getting on these days? It’s important to note that for sleep restriction and stimulus control to work, the techniques need to be followed repeatedly and consistently throughout the night, and every night until sleep improves. If followed correctly, positive results should start to become apparent after a couple of weeks.

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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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