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I can’t handle staying in the bed for only 5.5 hours. I get so tired, and at least want to rest my body. Pairing that with the stimulus control makes it even harder, since it severely cuts into the total 5.5 hour time in bed and doesn’t make me sleepier.
I am finding it brutal. Anyone have some suggestions?
Hello Jilly. If you are allotting 5.5 hours for sleep, that suggests that you normally get 5 hours of sleep (or less) each night. Is that the case? If so, why do you think spending more time in bed will lead to more sleep?
I am guessing (but please correct me if I am wrong) that before you restricted your sleep time to 5.5 hours you were spending a lot more time in bed. Did spending more time in bed lead to more sleep?
—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 Clarity 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.
I find that if I stay in bed long enough I can get an hour here or there that I would not have had otherwise. Every little bit helps.
And it hurts physically to get out of bed when I am exhausted and looking at the next 19 hours of being awake. The idea of being conscious that long is very intimidating.
Here’s the thing, Jilly — yes, if you stay in bed for longer you might get an extra hour or so of broken sleep. How often does this happen, though?
Let’s say your average sleep duration is five hours. So, your sleep ‘capability’ is five hours. Let’s say you decide to spend seven hours in bed in a bid to get more sleep. For argument’s sake, let’s say that a third of the time you will get a bit more sleep, a third of the time you might get a bit of rest, and a third of the time you will be lying awake, worried and frustrated about being unable to sleep.
By staying in bed for this extra hour, you are trading in a 30% success rate with a 70% failure rate. Does this sound like a good bet?!
The more time you spend in bed awake (rather than asleep), the more you train your mind that the bed is a place for wakefulness rather than sleep. In addition, the more time you spend in bed awake, the more time you spend worrying about sleep — and this makes sleep more difficult.
Sleep restriction is very difficult to commit to, but it only works with commitment. It normally takes a couple of weeks of absolute consistency before sleep begins to improve, and sleep restriction is best paired with stimulus control for the best results.
Sleep restriction and stimulus control are very hard over the short-term — and that’s precisely why sleeping pills are so popular.
—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 Clarity 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.
I thought you said we were to spend 5.5 hours in bed for sleep restriction, including getting up and down every 1/2 hour with no sleep. This is correct, right?
Sleep restriction would involve allotting no more than 5.5 hours for sleep if you typically get 5 hours of sleep (or fewer) on an average night. Otherwise, simply add half an hour to your average nightly sleep duration.
Stimulus control involves getting out of bed for half an hour if unable to sleep after about half an hour.
—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 Clarity 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.
So, if I get six hours or more hours of broken sleep, how would the sleep allotment work? Conversely, what if I get 2 hours or sleep?
I am seeing a lot of improvement, but it’s still all over the place.
You should base the amount of time you allot for sleep on your nightly sleep duration averaged over the course of at least one week.
I’m glad to hear you are seeing a lot of improvement — you should be encouraged by your progress. Of course, it will take time for improvements to become more consistent. As long as you keep up the effort, that will happen.
—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 Clarity 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.
Wow, this whole thread is my thoughts exactly. I’m right there with you, just finished week 3. Have you resolved this?
One point it’s important to emphasize here is that reducing the amount of time allotted for sleep down to just 5.5 hours is only temporary and will be increased as sleep improves. Yes, it’s a really tough slog to get through but this will not be a permanent situation.
—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 Clarity 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.
No, it hasn’t resolved bc this is too much math for me to handle. I have math issues, a form of dyslexia. That is one reason I can’t do my sleep journal. It hurts my brain to process it. I can’t understand, Martin, what you are saying to do.
The only thing that helps without drugs is going to bed really early. Like 9pm-11pm instead of my previous 2am. And I MAKE myself get up between the 9am-10am window, even if it’s just the last free minute. But it’s slowly becoming a habit to make it closer to 9am than almost 10am.
If it’s later than 9pm, more like 10-11pm, I can get some sleep within a half hour, then I generally wake up between 1-3AM, and then read a book in bed to a light I can barley see by, and let it get to the point I am nodding off, then turn over and usually get back to sleep.
I seem to do best when I can get to bed closer to 9am than 11pm. On 9pm nights I sometimes get a full night’s rest (waking a lot, but going back to sleep relatively quickly).
On later nights when I have to work, I can usually get two or three hours, but then have to take sleeping pills.
BTW, when I mean work, I mean it’s a late night thing. I work between 7pm til sometimes 1-3AM. Usually once a week, sometimes a night or two more. That can’t be helped.
If you enroll as a client, I will help you create a sleep window and modify it as you progress (no calculations needed!). In the meantime, there are calculators you can use on the sleep restriction resource page.
—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 Clarity 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.
Ah, I see you were a client of my previous course that was available before it was relaunched as Insomnia Coach. I believe you had difficulty filling out the sleep diary because you don’t have Word installed on your computer. As a result, it looks as though you stopped following the course after Week 2.
As I mentioned, you do not need to use the template files to progress through the course — all you need to do is write down the information that I ask to be recorded. You can then manually type the information in through the client area (or simply take a photo of the information and upload it).
I want to get you back on track, so please contact me directly and we’ll get this figured out.
—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 Clarity 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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