[Starry Night]

I have been a good sleeper all my life. I could sleep anywhere. I would sleep 8 or 9 hours every night. Last summer, in the middle of the pandemic, one night I went to bed as usual and just lay wide awake most of the night. It worried me, so I took a long nap the next afternoon. That night it took me hours to fall asleep. I thought it was something physical, so I cut out all caffeine. I would go to bed early so I could get a good night’s sleep, but I would get up & read multiple times a night. Some nights I had a good sleep, but I had more & more bad nights. I read a lot about insomnia and tried everything,but the more I tried the worse it got. It’s rare that I go to bed and fall asleep,without getting up at least once to read for awhile. Some nights I get up several times and only sleep a couple of hours.

[Scott]

Hi Starry Night,

Welcome to the forum!

Your description is a common scenario for those suffering chronic insomnia – one bad night of sleep leads to sleep worry the following day and behavioral changes (daytime naps, going to bed early, etc) to accommodate for poor sleep the previous night. Worrying about sleep usually makes sleep more difficult and this can then lead to more worry! Rinse and repeat every day after that initial night of sleep disruption.

Naps diminish our sleep drive so it’s no surprise to hear that it took you a long time to fall to sleep that night. Typically, the best way to react to a couple of nights of poor sleep is not to react since our reactions are often not beneficial. I would encourage you to avoid the temptation to change your behaviors in response to a bad night.

Sleep is one of those rare things in life that doesn’t reward hard work. The more effort you put into getting a good night’s sleep, the harder sleep becomes. Since you’ve been reading about insomnia and it sounds like you’re open to exploring solutions, have you considered implementing the techniques of CBT-I? CBT-I techniques can be really helpful because they tackle the thoughts and behaviors that perpetuate sleep disruption, which you describe.

You also might find Martin’s video on sleep restriction, a powerful CBT-I tool, helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fyd2x9-jmG0

Hope that helps,
Scott J

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