[Daf]

Martin has published my story of success, which included using a mix of CBTI and ACT / Mindfulness at the podcast. It’s my story – now I have gone five months of only one nil-sleep night in that time.
I used to have 8 or 9 nights a month where I had nil sleep.
So I’m doing well.
It’s my story! I hope it helps all of you.

How David overcame three years of insomnia by addressing his obsession with sleep using CBT-I and mindfulness techniques (#8)

[Deb]

That’s great, Daf! I’ll check it out. I can see that you are a successful businessman as well. Now you can add conquering insomnia to your list of accomplishments!

[Daf]

Thanks Deb. And I must make some time to check out your musical accompishments…. One of the points I made in the podcast video was that people who were successful / driven and who like to be control are often sufferers from insomnia, it seems

[Deb]

Yes, I think that’s true, Daf. I also noticed that people here tend to describe in detail their nights. We’re all a little obsessive in that way.

[Dazzio]

Thank you so much for telling your story, i needed to hear a success story like this so badly

[amca071]

Daf, how did you find the sleep restriction side of things? Was having a controlling personality not an issue? I would consider myself to be very controlling and slightly OCD. When i try the sleep restriction it gives me a lot of anxiety and i end up sleeping none to very little. Is this something you encountered? I feel as if i must sleep within this time frame and that the insomnia has control over me.

[Daf]

Hi Amca,

No, not really. Sleep restriction very much is in line with having a controlling personality I think.
SRT really just helps to make you tired the following nights, not necessarily the night to come.

The thing is to look at it as TIME IN BED not TIME YOU MUST BE ASLEEP.
I think if you adopt the attitude of I MUST SLEEP DURING THESE TIMES, then that is the wrong attitude and will make you anxious.
The better idea I think is to adopt is this: If you sleep fine, and if you don’t that’s fine too, just try to be as restful as possible instead, keeping in mind that rest is almost as good as sleep anyway and if you don’t sleep much or at all tonight, then you will really raise the chances of sleeping the following night.

My view of SRT is not let it interfere too much with your daily life because folks may want to go out for a late evening with pals and /or get up late or early for work/other reasons.
So, the way I did it was to just try to restrict it to about 5 hours time in bed and build from that – so allowing myself lots of leeway on actual get up times, so I could still have a normal life.
These days, after 5 months of being OK, I tend to pay less attention to time in bed. Last night, for example, I got about 7 and a quarter hours sleep – about an hour and half over my average.
So I fully expect to not be too tired tonight, so will probably stay up till about 2am I guess and still get up about 630am . But if I feel tired before then, I will recognise it and go for sleep earlier. (As you get better and use SRT more, you learn to recognise when you are sleepy. As you use ACT more, you learn to let go of the worry and be more accepting. Both are complimentary in my view).

Hope this helps.

[Dazzio]

Hey Daf, are you still on this- i need you help!!!

[Daf]

On holiday but can spare time to help if I can.

[Dazzio]

Thanks Daf, is it possible to private message on this forum do you know?

[Daf]

Not that I know of.

[Daf]

Dazzio,
If you go to the link that has the interview Martin did with me, you will see a link to my website and on there you will find my personal email address.

[Ele]

Hi Daf.

Great story ! Thank you for all insights. Hope we all take your example.

[Ele]

Great story ..

Question for you : what is ACT/Mindfulness ?

I am currently starting with accupuncture mixed with NET techniques. Hope it helps

[Daf]

ACT stands for Acceptance Commitment Therapy. As applied to insomnia, get the book by “Guy Meadows”, a proponent of using ACT to deal with sleep problems.

Mindfulness is a key part of ACT and ACT uses a lot of mindfulness techniques.
There is lots of info on the internet about both.

[Author]

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