[ekathryn]

Hi all,

I started having sleep issues after having a panic attack at work, and then a few months later trying to go back to work, and having intense fear at night thinking about going into work. This then caused severe insomnia and ever since I’ve been averaging 3 hours of sleep per night and on a good night I am still only getting 5 hours. I’ve been easing into CBT-I for five weeks, and implemented a more strict sleep window for the past two weeks, but am still struggling to see any results. I’ve also been more active during the day and not cancelling plans and have been improving my mindset. But, still no progress with getting more sleep. I guess I should say that I am better able to fall asleep more quickly (which before I was not), but I still wake up in the middle of the night, and can’t get back to sleep. So at the end of the day, even with sleep restriction I’m still getting the same amount of sleep I was getting before doing CBT-I. I’ve just been reading the forum and I don’t see very many examples of people with PTSD, and also I don’t see examples of people averaging 3 hours of sleep every night. It seems like most people are saying that they sleep 5-6 hours most nights and then just have one night of bad sleep. Whereas my situation is that I have the opposite- one or two nights of decent sleep per week, and the rest are poor. Just wanted to put this out there in case anyone can relate and give some encouragement. I know I’m not supposed to believe my situation is different from others but I’m struggling with that right now, especially since I had 2.5 hours of sleep only last night and the lack of sleep makes me so emotional and sad and hopeless.

Thanks.

[SBerry]

I’m right there with you. I have been averaging 2 hrs of sleep lately and one zero sleep night. This is my second time thru cbt-i as i had a poor night of sleep a while back and had difficulties recovering. Too attached to sleep, started to panic. So i really understand where you are coming from. There are many mornings where i feel very down or anxious. I’m working on accepting all my feelings no matter how hard they are. Not easy. Know that lack of sleep will generate more negative thoughts. You can’t make the thoughts stop or even go away sometimes, but we can acknowledge them. As far as results, some of us lucky ones will take a lot longer to see our sleep stabilize. This is a tough one for me too. So when you are having one of those days know that there is someone else in the same boat rowing with you.

[Martin Reed]

Welcome to the forum, @ekathryn — and thank you for your supportive contribution, @SBerry!

You know, we are all different — and the severity of insomnia often varies from person to person, too! I have worked with clients who reported an average of less sleep than you, and clients who reported an average of more sleep than you. Comparing ourselves to others isn’t always helpful!

Since you said you are better able to fall asleep more quickly, it sure sounds like you are making progress! It’s also great to hear that you are living the life you want to live, independently of sleep, by being active and not canceling plans!

If we wake during the night and find it hard to fall back to sleep that usually means that we aren’t sleepy enough for more sleep and/or arousal is too high for more sleep to happen (heightened arousal at that time can be caused by issues such as putting effort into falling back to sleep or putting pressure on ourselves to fall back to sleep).

It might be helpful to recognize, too, that waking during the night is a normal part of sleep — it doesn’t mean anything is wrong and it isn’t a guarantee that you won’t fall back to sleep.

What is the sleep window you’ve been implementing over the past couple of weeks, and what are you doing when you wake and find it hard to fall back to sleep? Do you stay in bed?

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