[maricelo]

Hello everyone!

I just recently discovered this website and youtube channel. I must say that it has already helped me a lot!

I will share a short version of my insomnia story. The main cause of insomnia in my case was health anxiety and it happened about 5 months ago. Prior to this event, I couldn’t even imagine that I’d have sleep issues at some point in my life as I was sleeping extremely well.
My insomnia started with a 48 hour period with zero sleep and a high level of stress and anxiety. Since that day I started to struggle with sleep. By that, I mean problems with falling asleep, regular wakeups during the night and overall bad feeling after the night. I was using meds to sleep and was getting 7-8 hours of sleep on average at that time. But these meds had side effects and one of the most annoying one was restless leg syndrome. Eventually, my sleep was affected by it and I couldn’t sleep more than 3 hours because my legs were killing me. So I had to drop them.
About 2 months ago I started doing CBT-I. The effect was almost immediate and I was sleeping for 7 hours for about 2 weeks. But then out of nowhere sleep-related anxiety turned up. I had about 2-4 days of not so good sleep and the sleep-related anxiety disappeared. This cycle is happening to me twice a month. The sleep-related anxiety just turns up and I’m not sure what is causing it. After some time it just goes away. And the cycle repeats itself after 1.5 -2 weeks. The only thing that I imagine is that perhaps it is the part of the process and eventually it will calm down and disappear?
I did a full check regarding other potential causes of my sleep issues like sleep apnea test – nothing wrong apart from a bit fragmented sleep, head MRI scan – all good, no issues there, heart check – everything good there as well, etc. So I totally understand and believe that insomnia in my case (and in many other cases) is purely psychological. Although this sleep-related anxiety that pops up randomly (at least I haven’t understood the reason behind it) after 1.5 – 2 weeks of good sleep is confusing me. Maybe someone had a similar experience and could give me some advice on this.

[Martin Reed]

Anxiety doesn’t usually feel good — so it makes sense that we don’t want to experience it! However, for as long as we are human beings we will always experience the full range of human emotions. Some will feel good. Some won’t.

What can be helpful is dropping the struggle with trying to fight or avoid difficult and uncomfortable thoughts and feelings such as anxiety — simply allowing them to exist can really reduce their influence over our lives.

I hope there’s something helpful here.

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If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.

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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