[marissa.watson]

I’ve been trying Martin’s methods for a few weeks with the help of his resourceful and knowledgable emails as part of the 2-week trial. For a little over a week it the sleep restriction has been doing wonders and I am able to fall asleep almost instantly, which for the past few months was not the case. I could afford to be more ridge with my get out of bed time, as my morning schedule can look very different depending if I am going to work or my couch. The past two nights I have struggled a bit again in falling asleep. I noticed I was dozing off and decided to fall asleep and then almost instantly my heart rate began to speed up and it felt like butterflies were flying around my heart. It was so inconsistent with how my eyes and mind felt, my eyelids were so heavy and I couldn’t keep them open but when they were closed my heart sped up. I eventually did get out of bed when it was too much, and maybe I should have done that sooner but I was really sleepy/tired so I kept pushing it off. Not sure if I should have stayed in bed and tried to mediate or relax my heartbeat or gotten up sooner.

[Scott]

Hi Marissa,

Welcome to the forum and for posting. It’s very encouraging to hear that the CBT-I techniques you’ve been exploring during the last few weeks are benefiting you! You’ve proven to yourself that sleep isn’t lost and you’ve gained all these tools for when you experience a suspected reoccurrence of sleep disruption.

Those types of setbacks can be concerning but it’s not too uncommon to experience additional sleep disruption after you’ve been sleeping well for a few days/weeks. I encourage you to stay the course and continue using the techniques that have been so successful for you up to that restless night. Believe it or not, I still experience an occasional poor night’s sleep after resolving my insomnia issues over 2 years ago. The difference between these nights now versus when I had insomnia is my attitude/thoughts (or lack thereof) towards that poor night.

What was going through your mind when you got into bed that night? The rule of thumb for getting out of bed is remain in bed if you’re calm/relaxed but get out of bed when you become aroused and frustrated so a negative association between your bed and unpleasant wakefulness isn’t created.

Hope that helps,
Scott J

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[Chee2308]

Greetings!
Your experiences are a normal part of the recovery. You have by now gained greater confidence in sleeping on your own but still not 100% confidence, and perhaps still having that fear of regressing. All that is normal. Your goal is to reach absolute 110% sleep confidence where there is no shred of a doubt inside your mind that you can sleep unaided. When that happens, you know you are recovered and that’s how all normal sleepers sleep too. By then you realise all that empty talk inside your head trying to scare you with sleepless nights are completely rubbish. Keep going and you will get there.

[Author]

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