[Yves3030]

While travelling to Florida with my family from canada I underwent emergency gallbladder surgery. Paramedic came to get me at the airport 30 minutes before boarding our flight back to canada. Extremely stressful on me and my children which took the plane back home with their mother while I was rushed to hospital. Ever since the surgery I have had issues sleeping starting the first night after the surgery. For the first few month the occasional zopiclone and melatonin and I was able to get some decent sleep. It’s now been 8 months and now I require sleeping pills every night or I don’t sleep. I fall asleep but 2 hours later I’m up and can’t get get back to sleep. Melatonin does not help anymore. It seems to be getting worst and I’m now getting worried that this could become permanent. Has anyone experienced this ? Thank you

[Martin Reed]

It’s little wonder that your sleep was disrupted after such a dramatic experience. It is completely normal (and to be expected) that sleep would be disrupted after an experience like this. Normally, sleep recovers by itself once you have processed the events and are starting to feel better — however, sometimes it doesn’t and that’s because of our response to the initial sleep disruption.

When our sleep is disrupted, we can start to think and worry about sleep more than we ever did before. We might spend a lot of time researching sleep. We might also do things like spend more time in bed, go to bed earlier, stay in bed later, cancel plans, call in sick to work, try to conserve energy during the day, nap during the day, etc.

Unfortunately, all these things perpetuate the problem and make it very hard for our sleep to recover — and this is how short-term sleep disruption turns into a longer-term problem.

The good news is that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques help address all these perpetuating factors — and that’s why CBT-I is such an effective long-term solution for chronic insomnia.

So, I would encourage you to try CBT-I to get your sleep back on track. Nothing you have described is particularly unusual when it comes to the development of chronic insomnia, so I have no reason to think that you wouldn’t find CBT-I to be very helpful.

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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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