[Amy]

Looking for some advice on post natal insomnia.

I experienced this after the birth of my daughter. 5 nights of no sleep whatsoever. Everything mentioned on the podcast I had, sleep dread, anxiety, sleep-related worries. It consumed my life and it was a horrible experience. You are probably thinking (“well duh that’s what happens with a newborn” but no, she was sleeping 6 hours each night by 2 days old, 8 hours by 2 weeks, I was extremely blessed). Every night I was lying waiting for her to wake up. I started to panic about my mental health due to sleeplessness as I felt completely hopeless. I would think about it all day, as bed time approached I would panic and anxiety would fill my body.

I didn’t feel I could implement the CBT-i techniques that usually work as I had no idea when she would waken for feeds so couldn’t give myself an accurate sleep window.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated?

[Scott]

Hi Amy,

Thanks for taking the time to post and congratulations on your newborn girl! It’s no surprise that you’re experiencing some difficult nights of sleep as this occurs after having a baby but it usually returns to normal once she settles into a nightly routine and sleep schedule. Since she’s sleeping for 8 hours a night, do you think now is a good time for you to explore these evidence-based techniques?

Scott J

—

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.

[Amy]

Hi Scott

Thank you for getting back to me.

My daughter is actually 2 now I was actually looking for advice for the future. Would your advice be to keep the morning anchor even with a newborn baby? Would you suggest taking naps or not? I think I was very overstimulated and was awaiting her to wake up when she was really little but I have such bad anxiety about it getting so bad (5 nights) again. If I had better control next time I think I would feel much better

Amy

[Scott]

Amy,

Implementing CBT-I while raising a newborn who hasn’t settled into a regular sleep pattern is a bit more challenging but these techniques can certainly still be beneficial. If you’ve established a morning anchor to get out of bed to start your day, I encourage you to maintain that time. Oftentimes, we begin altering our behaviors to accommodate for sleep disruption by going to bed when the child goes to bed or going to bed before we’re actually sleepy and that’s something we should try to avoid also. Taking daytime naps can diminish our sleep pressure, which is important to overcome some bedtime arousal and encourages sleep, so daytime naps are generally not advised while trying to resolve insomnia issues.

Have you considered exploring the idea of changing your mindset towards your thoughts? What if you began having an anxious thought about your sleep and approached it with, “So what?! Thoughts are just thoughts.”. Although you can’t stop the “what if” thoughts from arising you can control your response to them. Do you think that would be helpful?

Hope that helps,
Scott J

—

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.

[Amy]

Hi Scott

Thanks so much for your advice I will definitely consider this if I ever face really bad bouts of insomnia in the future.

Yeah I am getting better at not allowing my anxious thoughts about sleep turn into full blown panic, but I will definitely keep working on this.

Generally speaking I am a great sleeper, I am a paediatric nurse so work nightshift and dayshift often in the same week so am constantly changing my sleep patterns to accommodate work shifts and I don’t usually have much problem. I think I am just very sensitive to change, and obviously having a baby was the biggest change I had ever experienced so I just became very overwhelmed with the whole situation and my sleep is the first thing to be affected. Now that I have found this course and listened to the podcast I can say I have much more confidence in my ability to rationalise my negative thoughts about sleep when they happen.

I guess my biggest worry when I’m in the thick of it is how much my mental health will decline and will I trigger some sort of psychosis or something due to lack of sleep? (catastrophising as this has never happened)

Amy

[Martin Reed]

The fact you recognize your mind is catastrophizing is very encouraging! As you pointed out, you have never experienced psychosis because of poor sleep and there is no evidence that chronic insomnia causes mental health problems. When we are awake for long enough, we will always sleep! If we create better conditions for sleep by building sleep drive, strengthening the body clock, and lowering arousal, we make sleep a lot easier!

It’s completely normal and expected for sleep to be disrupted at times of change — the less we react to that sleep disruption, the easier it is for our sleep to get right back on track all by itself. If it doesn’t, that’s almost always because of a change in our sleep-related thoughts and behaviors. If that happens, we can simply explore and modify our thinking and behaviors to — once again — create better conditions for sleep!

—

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.

[Author]

Posts