[flight11]

I am a 68 year old male having completed 23 days of sleep restriction after taking Martin’s two week online course. My sleep window has been reduced to 6 hrs. at 15 min per week intervals. ( in bed at 11:30 pm/ out of bed at 5:30 am).Thus I have a sleep drive of 18 hours. According to Chee Huing Yong this should allow for 6-8 hrs of sleep and overcome any anxiety issues that may have previously interfered with sleep.
Although I fall asleep quickly at 11:30 pm, I awaken after only 3-4 hours of sleep. Upon awakening, I go into my usual sweating, tossing and turning for the rest of the night. At 5:30 am I get up to a day of tiredness and lack of focus. No way to live.
Can anyone suggest why this is happening.

[Chee2308]

Hello flight11!
Yes 18 hours of being awake *should* generate 6 hours of sleep WITH a caveat, assuming you don’t have anxiety or hyperarousal which can sustain the sleep disruption indefinitely.
The entire thing feeds off anxiety and thoughts. When the feeding stops, it dies. What do you do when you find yourself unable to sleep? Do you get out of bed? For you, it is crucial to reach a stage where you say “I don’t care anymore”. Before you did SR, what was your sleep like? Did you have trouble falling asleep, aka, sleep onset insomnia? Now that you are falling asleep pretty quickly, isn’t that an improvement already? Insomnia has two components to it, i.e., gas aka sleep drive and brakes aka hyperarousal, anxiety, thoughts etc. You should now work on your mindset on how you think about sleep which then determines your attitude and behaviour towards it. I found approaching sleep as just a process instead of a constant strive/struggle to achieve X hours of sleep will help a lot. Stop trying so hard anymore. Let whatever happen happens. Stop being too attached to the outcome, i.e., not caring how you sleep and completely giving up control. Stick to your current sleep plan and don’t give up just yet. The longer you do this, the easier it becomes to get unattached to the outcome. Once you’ve been through your worst and feels like everything is lost and you feel like giving up, that’s when you start giving up control and you come to the realisation that not sleeping can’t hurt you and isn’t a threat. Then as you loosen your grip, your sleep will improve. Just hang in there! Then when you are ready you can spend a longer time in bed as your confidence builds. Everyone goes through this process of ups and downs, 23 days isn’t that long and there’s more time and room to improve. What did you expect? That this will resolve overnight? A week? Two weeks? Stop setting yourself a deadline and give yourself all the time in the world. That takes the pressure off sleeping and that’s key. Stop pressuring yourself to sleep because it only makes it worse!

[flight11]

Hi Chee!
Thank you for your strong and consistent message about the importance of attitude towards sleep. First let me answer the questions you raised:
. Prior to SR I would wake up after a sleep onset of 10 – 15 minutes – go to the bathroom and return to bed. After this I rarely returned to sleep until getting up for the day. I would get flushed and sweaty, toss and turn. Most nights I would get 3-4 hours of sleep. Next day – tired, low energy and frustrated. As stated in my earlier email, now, even with a sleep pressure of 18 hours, I still repeat my old pattern of staying awake after an initial 3-4 hours.

. sometimes I will get up if my arousal gets too much , but I find
that to be too disruptive and not that helpful.

“Not caring” and giving up control is difficult for me as , what lead me to try and finally do something about my insomnia is the fact that I DID care about the my bad nights that would often lead to a persistent low quality of life during the day. This lead me to try Martin’s course on cbti with all its rules and protocols around sleeplogs and sleep efficiency calculations. But I now realize after your email that I should try to let go- maintain my 6 hour window and let what happens happen. I don,t think I could tolerate a smaller window at this point.
Wish me luck and thanks for your candid input.

[Chee2308]

Hello flight…
Why are you flushed and sweaty? Are you sleeping in a hot environment?

You need to keep your room cool, dark and quiet for the best sleeping experience.

[Chee2308]

Have you done a medical evaluation or seen a doctor? You may need that to rule out your cause of insomnia isn’t caused by an underlying health issue. Check your thyroid. How’s your heart health? Do you have other comorbidities like hypertension, diabetes or hyperlipidemia?

[flight11]

Hi Chee,
Yes, I have seen my GP recently. No problems with thyroid or heart. My GP advised me that my sweating is likely caused by anxiety about my insomnia issues.
I do keep my bedroom dark, cool and quiet at night in accordance to proper sleep hygiene.

[Chee2308]

Hello flight!
If that’s the case, then don’t expect a fast remedy. I have yet to meet anyone who’s journey to recovery took just couple of weeks. How long have you had sleeping problems? Because most people’s insomnia are chronic cases, they’ve most likely lived with this fear or doubting their ability to sleep for quite a long time and it *will* take time to resolve. I would recommend you to go to youtube and check out this series of videos called insomnia insight by daniel erichsen. Lots of info there about sleep, insomnia and how to get over it. Good luck!

[flight11]

Hi Chee,
My sleeping problems began 6 months ago so that now most nights I get only 3-4 hours sleep. Thanks for the tip re : insomnia insight. I will persist. Thanks for the support.

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