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I am tired before I go to bed, however my issue is I am waking up every 30-45 minutes and then taking a while to go back to sleep, and when I do it’s only for short period of time again. How do I do the sleep restriction with this?
Yes you can still do the sleep reorganization strategy. Just pick a regular six hour sleep window and stick to it regardless of how many times you wake up. The one thing you must understand doing this is that this will not generate more sleep drive than your body needs, it just helps to concentrate all your sleep drive into one regular timeframe, so that you get the best chance for the most restful sleep to happen. This really helps when your sleeping hours are irregular due to work, personal issues or simply have irrational fears about sleeping that is actually causing your insomnia. Doing this helps to regulate your sleep so you begin to understand that insomnia is really not about not sleeping but the fear of not sleeping. Good luck.
Thank you! Would I still get up and go into another room and read etc and try and go back to bed if I wake up within those 6 hours?
Hi Frankie!
The choice whether to get out of bed and do something when you can’t sleep is really up to you. A good guideline is what did you do, when you couldn’t sleep BEFORE you have insomnia? There must have been many instances you encountered sleepless bouts in the past. Just do now what you did then, your body’s ability to sleep hasn’t changed, it’s your thoughts and ideas about sleep that have.
Imagine another scenario like this: how did you learn to walk? As a baby, did you constantly obsess about it and was anxious about making progress? Certainly, no. You learnt without any intention or meeting deadlines or constantly proving to yourself you could walk, you slowly became better at it and before you knew it, you were already walking steadily and gracefully. Well sleep is exactly like that. Achievement without intention or effort. Ask yourself: what are you trying to prove to your body when you are getting out of bed when you can’t sleep? That you CAN sleep?? So then every night becomes a relentless endeavour to prove to your mind that you can sleep and this is why this is such a struggle! Because you can’t win every time and when you don’t, you get frustrated, sad and scared that something is wrong and you need to do something about it. The lesson here is: STOP PROVING TO YOURSELF YOU CAN SLEEP, BECAUSE SLEEP IS COMPLETELY NATURAL AND EFFORTLESS, JUST LIKE BREATHING OR WALKING. You don’t keep walking just to prove to yourself you can walk in the same way you don’t need to constantly get out of bed to prove your body can sleep. Good luck.
Thank you for your help/ only issue is what I used to do to fall back asleep no longer works. I used to just put on a sleep meditation and fall back asleep, where that doesn’t work anymore.
One of the best indicator of insomnia recovery, is knowing when to stop doing and stop asking questions or for help. For now, I recommend you just decide what you will do when you can’t sleep, stick to a sleep window and try not to sleep or nap outside that window and then having the discipline to put into practice what you have decided to do, and not wavering in spite of facing challenges or having setbacks, which you WILL encounter. If you are able to do this, you will do quite well. As a recovered insomniac, I will tell you that the real goal isn’t really sleeping well, it’s not letting not sleeping well bother you anymore. Don’t chase sleep, let it chase you! Hope that makes sense.
Resist also the temptation to constantly research sleep or go on forums like these to ask endless questions. Give it a break, implement the strategy for a few weeks and then maybe check in and tell us how everything is going. Good luck.
I find this very interesting! I have been utilizing stimulus control so,
As I understand it, my mind does not link the bed with awake stress.
In my 6 hour window, I am usually up 3 times at an hour each time.
No wonder I only get 1-2 hours of sleep a night!
This thread sounds like stimulus control may not be necessary at all??
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