[LindaBates]

I know everyone is different but how long of a journey is this going to be for me
I’ve been suffering with insomnia for 4 years

[Chee2308]

Hello and welcome

That is a very subjective question. Recovery often has a personality factor involved, ie, your personality plays a role, how you view certain things. Do you always tend to be on negative side, ie, always taking the bad views or are you more of an optimistic person?

But basically, a typical journey is kinda like:
1. You become more and more convinced nothing is wrong with your sleep.
2. You start accepting whatever sleep you get. Any sleep, even zero sleep due to a disruption which is normal in life and often temporary, is normal sleep.
3. You begin normalizing every feeling, thought or sensation, no matter how unpleasant they seem. Those thoughts or feelings are still the same, but how you view them changes with time. You start becoming comfortable with discomfort and no longer try to fight or avoid it.

But at the end of the day, sleep is simple. There is nothing to figure out and nothing to fix. It often happens with a complete lack of effort (trying less). On the contrary, it does not respond to efforts (and therefore cannot be controlled consciously) but the only thing that tends to influence it is routine. Things like getting into and out of bed at regular times, eating at regular times, having appropriate light exposure at appropriate times etc. These things affect your circadian rhythm and sleep is a part of it.

I hope you find your way to peaceful rest soon.

[sleep]

I did the two week emails and have been sleeping ever since then. I feel very fortunate. I had so much fear I thought I would never sleep again or have to be on meds but I go to bed at 12 and sleep til 6 or 7 and basically that is it. In April it will be a year of good sleep. Occasionally I have woke up but I told myself to just relax and enjoy that and I would then drop off to sleep. Yes doing nothing, putting no effort into it works. You will sleep when you sleep drive builds up.

If I start to get fearful, I say I cant control my sleep, it will eventually come and that settled me down . I use to be one of those wired tired people and felt so hyper, it was an awful feeling. Martin Reed’s words really helped me.

[Author]

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