[Steve]

Just some thoughts on SR & SC after my fifth night of doing it. SR is one of the, if not THE most hardest thing I ever did. (If it wasn’t, there wouldn’t be any insomniacs in the world.) But the thing that makes it so hard for me is the SC part. Getting out of bed after settling in is difficult for me

I have stuck to the Sleep Window religiously since I started this. But it is more difficult on the weekend to do this. That’s because being home a lot during the day on a weekend, it is so easy to sit down in a chair and accidentally fall asleep. Even if it’s just a microsleep. And I don’t have the energy to keep doing something all day to stay out of the chair. I might have to switch to a wooden, uncomfortable chair.

After I go to bed at 11:45, if I can’t get to sleep, or I wake up before 2:00 and can’t get back to sleep, I get up and go into the living room and play solitaire (No Statler Brothers, I do not use a deck of 51) or read. But I have to find other things to do as I am getting bored with that. If it’s after 3:00 and I can’t get back to sleep, my eyes usually can’t focus enough to do anything so I will sit in the darkened living room. Sometimes I sit on the floor, which is hard, to prevent me from going back to sleep.

It seems I am sleepy a lot of places in the house EXCEPT for the bed. Shows me that I still have anxiety about sleep and the bed. In fact, I started stressing last night about sleep. First time those thoughts came up in a long time. Normally I like going to bed even if I can’t sleep.

Last night, I was up multiple times. I noticed when I sat in the living room, I had to fight off going back to sleep. So I went back to bed because I felt sleepy but when I did, I was wide awake, so I got up again. After sitting in the chair and getting sleepy again, I went and sat in the bed to see if I could fall asleep there sitting up. No such luck. I was awake again so just went into the living room to sit until the alarm went off.

For those of us doing SR, I came across this article on the Internet. It gives me hope that someday I can beat insomnia too. While it is from 2014, I think it’s relevant today. It talks about some of the same points Martin makes but I think sometimes, when those points come from more than one person, it makes a greater impact. I notice the woman in the article uses a 4 hour sleep window, although some of the patients use a 5.5 hour window. I think I am near the point of exhaustion that she was at before she had her first real sleep in years.  And her first real sleep appears to be for 2 hours. Here is the link: https://news.vcu.edu/article/Sleep_boot_camp_A_wakeup_call_for_chronic_insomnia_sufferers

I came into SR totally over-optimistic about how long it would take to get to an 85% SE in the 5.5 hour window. Not sure how long it will actually take me but I am going to continue at it.

[Martin Reed]

CBT-I techniques are hard, Steve. No way around that, unfortunately.

A couple of things I will add from reading your post:

1. Try to be active during the day, especially on weekends. When you are inactive (especially if you don’t leave the house), you will spend more time thinking and worrying about sleep and there is a greater risk of you napping. Inactivity makes it harder for you to build sleep drive, and it makes it harder for you to enjoy your life (especially if you are inactive specifically because of your insomnia).

2. When you get out of bed during the night, you shouldn’t be forcing yourself to stay awake. As soon as you feel sleepy, return to bed and repeat the process.

I hope this helps!

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