[Jk174526]

Hello,

I began having severe sleep issues around 3.5 months ago after a nervous breakdown. I was working with a psychiatrist who was completely inappropriate / irresponsible and wrote me prescriptions for ever sleep medication you can imagine, including benzos. I have been completely off all sleep medication for about a month and just started sleep restriction with a sleep psychologist. I have pretty significant sleep anxiety and will have multiple days in a row where I don’t sleep for more than an hour or so.

I am on day 5. My sleep window is 11pm-5am. I have trouble both falling and staying asleep. The first night I fell asleep quickly but woke after about 4 hours or so. I’m not looking at the clock, so not sure about actual sleep times.

The second night I only slept an hour
Third night and fourth night I slept most of the night, then last night I maybe slept for 45 minutes to an hour.

I am trying to stay positive, but this is such a lonely experience and I feel like my entire life is on hold.

I would love to get input from people who have been through sleep restriction. When did it get better / when did you start seeing results. Anyone else have nights where they are awake the entire night?

Is getting out of bed when you can’t sleep necessary? I have found that part extremely challenging and haven’t implemented that practice yet.

Any encouragement / advice would be so appreciated. Thank you

[Martin Reed]

You’ve been through a lot over the past few months. You’ve overcome a lot and you’ve learned a lot. You’ve demonstrated resilience.

It sounds as though you might be evaluating the effectiveness of sleep restriction based on the amount or type of sleep you are getting each night. Since your experience seems to tell you that you cannot make a certain amount or type of sleep happen through effort, that might set you up for some ongoing struggle.

Sleep restriction is really intended to help you move away from chasing after sleep — it stops you from doing things like going to bed earlier in an attempt to make sleep happen, it stops you from staying in bed later in the morning in an attempt to make sleep happen. And, it comes with the bonuses of strengthening your body clock (with the consistent out of bed time in the morning) and ensuring enough time to build sleep pressure to help create good conditions for sleep at night.

It might take more than a few nights of doing something new before you can draw any meaningful conclusions from what you’re doing — I’d suggest giving anything “new” at least two weeks of committed action before reflecting on whether or not it’s helping.

As for getting out of bed when you can’t sleep, personally I don’t think it’s necessary — but you are the expert on you! What I think can be helpful is ensuring that you aren’t struggling and battling away when awake in bed — because that’s not usually pleasant and it turns the bed into a battleground!

Is there anything useful here?

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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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