[Katja]

I started implementing CBT-I about 1 1/2 weeks ago and my sleep has continually gotten worse. Last night for the first time in my life I slept 0 hours and I have never had this much anxiety at night. My heart was pounding basically the entire night. And the day before I slept about 2.5 hours. And the nights before also not much more (3-4h). Before I started CBT I slept about 5-6 hours. I am exhausted and in pain and debating on quitting. I have had so much confidence in this method but now after not sleeping at all I’m not sure if this is the right path. What is your experience? Is this normal?
I did try to accept the feelings and thoughts and tried to let go and think of other things but that did not work.
And trying to live life normally after no sleep at all is easier said than done. Being so extremely tired makes it impossible to exercise or do other chores.

[Chee2308]

Hello and welcome to this forum! Sorry to hear about your recent struggle.

Some points I wanna highlight here:
1. It is not uncommon to have ups and downs during cbti. So having a sleepless night here and there is not surprising.
2. When you try something new like cbti, it’s very natural to immediately start monitoring for results or expect instant success. This monitoring can be a bit stimulating to the mind and make sleep difficult. Your expectation is also unrealistic. Most people need few weeks to sometimes months to see improvement. But you can usually start seeing results the longer you familiarize yourself with cbti. Try to be very patient with yourself and manage your expectations.
3. Try not to focus too much on the end result, which is sleep. Yes, it is important but try to understand that nobody controls sleep, it just happens when the conditions are right. You need to have enough sleep drive from being awake long enough *plus* you are calm and relaxed. It is often not helpful to monitor if you have fallen asleep. Try to relax and let sleep happen naturally by itself.
4. The real recovery for insomnia is not good sleep but how you respond to bad nights and how you think about them. Really, it’s your mindset. No matter how good sleeper you are or how well you’ve recovered, you will still always get some bad nights occasionally. Being able to handle bad nights and seeing them as actually harmless is really important. Ultimately, you have to really think why you fear or hate poor sleep so much that it interferes with your life and cause so much fear and misery. When you no longer fear poor sleep and when you become more accepting of them, then it has no more control over you. Good luck!

[Martin Reed]

Welcome to the forum, Katja! As mentioned by Chee, it’s not unusual to experience more sleep disruption when making some changes — your brain wants to remain a bit more alert to evaluate/monitor for the effect of the changes you are making!

You mentioned that you tried to accept the difficult feelings and thoughts that turned up but that did not work. Can you tell us a bit more about what you mean by that? If it had worked, what would have happened?

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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.

[cat_ncsu]

I have a similar thing. It’s a total roller coaster for me during the night. I will calm down via breathing or a body scan, or sometimes getting up to read. Then I will suddenly think “oh shit” or “I can’t do this” or “I feel horrible, I can’t do this anymore” and the anxiety is back and my body and mind are on alert again. I really feel on the edge of madness sometimes. Sometimes I am able to calm down again, but sometimes not. And often, I calm down but then the anxiety rears its head again. It is just more challenging than I can explain to accept anxiety when I am exhausted, not thinking clearly, and have headaches. And yes, I do get out of bed when this happens.

[Martin Reed]

Trying to make yourself feel calm sounds like it might be a bit of a struggle — when we try to control what we think or how we feel, we are engaged in a battle with our mind. How likely are we to sleep if we are engaged in a battle, I wonder?

—

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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