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Been sleeping well since Friday night. Been consistent in going to bed in between 11 and 11:30pwhen the sleep drive comes in. And of course, waking up at just about the same time to ensure that the sleep pressure comes back around at the same time every night. I say just about because on weekends I tend to give myself an extra half an hour which for me is ok. For newbies with sky high anxiety (Steve?) I do not suggest any kind of soft SRT scenario like this!
I am glad I am sticking with my (light) window this time though, as opposed to my first go around in January where I kind of ended up moving away from it rather quickly. Within 3 weeks I think it was I was already going to bed when I wasn’t even completely exhausted. Now I am making sure to stick with this for much, much longer. Only time will tell however if I can heal completely long term. If a day can come where I can consistently get into bed around 10:30p again, just a tad sleepy, and still have a good night. Only time will tell.
Mac
Hi Mac,
Glad things have been going well since Friday. I had a 5-6 week stretch of what I would call pretty good. 5.5hrs – 7 hrs with good sleep efficiency. Then for the past week I’ve been all over the place with 1:30 to 4:30hrs with poor sleep efficiency. I have no clue what triggered it! Even during those past few good weeks I didn’t deviate much. I was going to bed roughly at the same time and getting up at the same time. Some mornings I would stay 30 minutes longer or so.
Right now my problem is I wake up around 3-4am and can’t get back to bed and get high anxiety when drifting off in a vicious loop. I’ve reinstated stronger SC and trying to get back on track. The longer this goes the more I worry of course.
Glad to hear your getting some good sleep Mac. Yes, stay with the window for a lot longer time than you did last time and you should be okay. Yes, I have the anxiety over the insomnia and I probably won’t start losing it until I can string some good days together. I think I am getting there as I do get some good days, just not strung together yet. I now know I can sleep on my own without pills even if the duration isn’t where I want it to be yet. And that’s important.
Great job so far Mac. Just a question about why you wouldn’t recommend your soft SRT to people with higher anxiety?
Thanks everyone, but I know more than anyone that we should hold the celebration off for probably a good few months, lol. If I had a dime for every relapse, small or large I’ve ever had I’d be a very wealthy man by now. I wouldn’t recommend anything but a strict window time for high anxiety sufferers because of the obvious. It probably won’t work. You need to be so strict at first to the point where you have to discipline your body into sleeping, and messing with the times (i.e. Going in bed a little early/sleeping in a tad later) just isn’t good. It might not be completely detrimental, but I can tell you it absolutely won’t help. It’s not easy, and its definitely rough, but if you’re freaking out over your sleep you need to pick a window and stick with it, no excuses.
@Mac
I do mini celebrations when I get good sleep but the bigger celebration is when you have a year or more of relatively good nights with some bad peppered in which is normal. I am still in relapse after 5-6 weeks of decent sleep. No idea what triggered it but when you have a bad night you dwell on it and then spirals down.
I think strict is good for most if they want to get back on track. Once things get better can start to make some modifications but in my experience it’s really hard to predict if the looseness was the reason or it was inevitable. I’ve heard some say wake up at the same time no exceptions, others say same time +- 30 minutes. Some say no napping, others say yes if necessary, Guy Meadows says sure take a 20 minute one if you can to relieve some anxiety and pressure.
Everyone is different and some things may work better than others. I was pretty much doing the same thing for weeks and got derailed and wonder if it’s because I slept in 30 minutes a few days earlier.
i am on my third night of SR. I am also on my third night of zero sleep. Is this a normal experience when starting SR. I feel like a zombie and can hardly function.
Slarus… It is not possible to go three full days without sleep so can you elaborate? Have you taken naps?
I went 2 days without sleep when I first started. Well, one day was zero sleep and the other maybe 1 or 2 hours, but it may as well have been no sleep because I was definitely a zombie after 2 nights.
It’s so difficult. I’m tired all the time but not sleepy. I also have sleep apnea which is well managed with CPAP. I basically have no apnea on CPAP therapy don’t get the full advantage of it with no sleep. I guess the positive way to look at it would be “no sleep, no apnea”.
Hi Deb,
How are you making out these days? It’s been over a week of 3-4 hours of sleep which is a little unusual for me. Problem these days is sleep maintenance and waking up at 3:30-4:00 am and can’t drift back off to sleep. The zombie feeling is there. I miss and enjoy the 6.5 hours that were predictable. I have no clue why I relapsed. Nothing was going on that was major. Actually weeks ago I had a major family issue and my sleep was not impacted. Strange how we work.
Hi Slarus. My sleep deteriorated the first week I was on SR as well. I was getting in the 2 to 2.5 hours a night range. It improved slightly in Week 2 and again in Week 3, so it does get better. I know it is very hard at first. I have almost nodded off at my desk at work on many occasions I am so tired. I suffer dizzyness and vertigo at times from the lack of sleep as well. But then I remember that I was really tired from insomnia before I started SR too. By the third week of SR, my sleep consolidated so that I hardly have to get up for SC anymore. What happens is that if I wake up after 3:00 in the morning, I can usually get back to sleep. And if I wake up within an hour or 45 minutes to the time my alarm goes off, I will try to sleep but if I can’t within 30 minutes, I just get up for the day. So while I am not sleeping through my SW yet, at least I don’t have to get up out of bed (in most cases) if I can’t fall back asleep.
So just remember that from what I’ve read, for most people, their average time asleep goes down the first week of SR but then starts to improve. (One woman I read about took 6 weeks to start getting the same amount of sleep she got before she started SR.) Hang in there and feel free to come back here for support.
I’m doing ok, Delv. Starting to get back on track. Had two decent nights in a row where I fell asleep right away. Woke a little too early though, but managed to get enough sleep to function well.
What is your SW now Deb? Are you through with the paid course yet? I am on the 6th night of my first week but I was doing about 2 weeks of SR before I signed up with Martin. I was doing it on the Sleepio site but decided I needed a little more coaching than what they were giving me. That course is pretty much a self help course, although the other students will give you some support. The other students just aren’t experts like Martin is.
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