[nozzzz]

Hello All,

Looking for others experiences. My severe insomnia started a couple years ago. Over the past 6 months have followed Martin’s videos, podcasts and emails and my sleep has improved some. I have gone from sleeping 2-4 hours a night to 5-6 hours per night but still have some bad periods. Still taking 1 mg of Lunesta at night (down from 2mg) and working to wean off of it. The problem is how I feel in the morning. Have explained to MD’s but no one seems to understand. I almost always have some level of significant brain fog until the early afternoon. If I have a day or two of limited sleep (3-4) hours, it is followed by a couple days of significant brain fog, general anxiety during the day, and thoughts and emotions that are all over the place. This generally goes away after a couple nights of sleeping better. The really strange thing is that when I have a rare night of really good sleep (7-8 hours without really waking up), I feel really bad the next day as well with brain fog, anxiety, strange thoughts and emotions. This is the thing that is keeping me from progressing past where I am. A bad night of sleep or a really good night of sleep has me feeling REALLY terrible for a couple days both mentally and physically. I could deal with just being tired but it is much more than that. Anyone else experience this?

[Martin Reed]

It sounds as though you’ve experienced a big improvement over the past six months, @nozzzz — so you know from experience that change is possible (and that change can happen even as you move away from medication)!

The brain fog you described is not unusual and experiencing difficult thoughts and feelings like anxiety is not unusual, either.

Of course, you’d rather not experience the brain fog and difficult, uncomfortable, and/or strange thoughts and feelings that show up. If there was a way to control those things, no doubt you’d be doing them and they wouldn’t feel like such a barrier to ongoing progress.

As your experience probably tells you, just as you cannot directly or permanently control sleep, you cannot directly or permanently control the presence of difficult or uncomfortable thoughts or feelings, either. They show up when they want, no matter what you do, right?

So, you have a choice when it comes to responding to them. You can (understandably!) try to do battle with them — try to fight or avoid them. Focus all your energy and attention on defeating them. And, where does that get you, according to your own experience?

Or, you can practice acknowledging their presence when they show up (even though you’d rather they weren’t present, there they are). You can practice being kind to yourself when they show up. You can practice refocusing your attention on where you are, what you are doing, what you want to be doing — even in their presence. And, where might that get you?

This isn’t about “sucking it up”. It’s about being aware of all the stuff we might add on to the difficult stuff that shows up, that can make it even more difficult.

If how you’re dealing with all this right now doesn’t seem to be getting you closer to where you want to be, might you be open to a different way of dealing with it? And based on what I’ve shared here, what might that different way look like?

—

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.

[Author]

Posts