[Dalton]

Hello,
Sorry for my english … I’m french;).
I would like to talk to you because I have been trying to set up sleep restriction therapy for several weeks. My sleeping window is 1 am-7am. I am having some difficulties and would like some advice:
– it happens regularly that I wake up before 7am (around 5am) … and I don’t know what to do at that time, I stay in bed, I think about it, I stress … I can’t get out of the bed and going to the living room to read, or listen to a podcast, I’m afraid of getting my body used to waking up at night … in short, stimulus control is the most complicated part of the therapy for me … but this ‘is certainly very effective, I am a little lost. What advice could you give me? I don’t sleep alone and can’t read in bed … by the way, I think it’s not a good idea.
– I started meditation and cardiac coherence. It’sgood during the day, to relieve stress, to breathe a little … maybe I should practice meditation and cardiac coherence during the night when I wake up, in my chair?
Thank you very much in advance for your advice.
Good luck everyone

[Chee2308]

Hi Dalton!
Stimulus control of getting out of bed is supposed to make you be more welcoming to wakefulness and not struggle with it. Therefore, it doesn’t matter where you go, out of bed or not, as long as you stop seeing waking up as stressful, and try to be friends with wakefulness because waking up during the night is very normal and happens to everyone.

Try not to do too many things to sleep, because this only reinforces there is something horribly wrong and you need to deal with it urgently, but unfortunately, nobody can do anything about sleep. Your body determines when and how much sleep you get so trying to force yourself to sleep is not going to work but leaves you more frustrated which makes your insomnia worse. Build your good working relationship with poor sleep, ask yourself why you fear it so much and if that fear is real. Most people still function very well on little sleep. Once you are okay with getting some poor sleep plus stop trying to avoid or fix it, and keeping to a regular bedtime, you will do very well. Be patient and stop trying to rush things, your body will recover at its own pace, the ultimate aim is to be at peace within yourself. Good luck!

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