[Chirppy]

Hi all.im a recovering insomniac who was sleeping alternate nights last year..slowly I am managing to sleep every night.since January I have had no o hr sleeps but find myself at least once a week only sleeping 2/3hrs .the other nights 5/6/7/8 if I’m lucky…on the night I only sleep two I often find myself worrying about going back to how I was last year I had health anxiety which led to the insomnia then the fear of sleep..I think this has become a habit this one night a week thing like I’m waiting for it to happen…any advice please..

Many thanks

[Aiva]

Hi Chirppy,

I hear you on the worry you have about returning to how you were last year. I too had a health scare in 2018 which spun me into acute anxiety and of course wrecked my sleep.  I even had to miss an overseas holiday with my family, I just could NOT get on that plane and be stuck in it for 12 hours.

But I have to say 5 – 8 hours a night is awesome!  Of course 2 hrs is not ideal, and I’m struggling a little today b/c that’s all I got last night.  However I just wanted to say that stay away from ideals of “I need x hours to function” and treat it as a progressive thing:  you WILL steadily gain confidence in yourself and your sleep will improve as a result.  I’ve let go of thinking I ‘need’ 8 hours, and it’s been quite liberating.  Now I’m just concentrating on staying relaxed and trying to stay positive.  And if I don’t get sleep one night, then I say ‘tonight is another night’.

Martin had this to say in a recent email on the myth of how much sleep we need:

“So many of us believe that we need eight hours of sleep. It has become the ‘holy grail’ — something we are told we should all strive for. This has led to many of us thinking that if we don’t get eight hours of sleep, something is wrong.

This leads to sleep-related worry, activates the arousal system, and makes sleep more difficult.

The most frustrating thing about this is the fact that very few of us actually need eight hours of sleep.

The truth of the matter is, we all require varying amounts of sleep. The amount of sleep you need to feel refreshed and at your best is likely very different to the amount of sleep I need.”

[Chirppy]

Thank you for the reassurance…slept great the last couple of nights..I suffer from PTSD anyway related to deaths of two of my children..I always seem to get bouts of insomnia and have always had anxiety..I’m not surprised really…hate the 2hrs maybe I will say to myself I like them and fool my brain..it’s real hard sometimes..last year was scary..I hear you when you mention going away…I’m the same I still go though..hate sleeping in different places anyway at first then I’m ok …x

[Martin Reed]

Hello Chirppy — it sounds as though you are experiencing some “holdout” nights. These are actually quite common. The key to getting through them is to try not to worry or become concerned with them. Instead, focus your attention on all the good nights.

Are you implementing techniques such as sleep restriction and stimulus control? If so, continue to be consistent with them and your sleep will become more consistent and those holdout nights will occur less frequently.

Here’s a short video about this exact issue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlfO0nm-WHY

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