[memsiej]

A few years back, I had a year-long bout of anxiety insomnia. “What if I don’t sleep, I’ll never sleep again, etc”. It was so unbearable that I started to have some really scary thoughts. That’s when I started seeing a therapist and taking anxiety medication.
This week, however, I’ve had a few nights of that and can already feel myself spiraling. At the risk of not wanting to sound dramatic, I’m genuinely concerned I cannot survive another bout. I’m desperately exploring all options, which brought me here.
Any advice for specifically those first few days of fear and terror when starting to go down the rabbit hole again?

[Jaran]

Hello @memsiej. Glad you found your way here. This is a small and not real active board, but my (limited) experience here is that you’ll find people who can really relate to struggles with insomnia. We are at all different places in our journey toward better sleep, and anxieties and fears are a common theme for many of us.

There are also professional coaches that pop on sometimes who are incredibly knowledgeable and helpful! Plus there are a ton of resources and great podcasts. Go to the Resources menu at the top of this page, pull down and go to Podcasts. There are 3 pages worth, and you can pick what you’d like to see. Many are interviews with Martin and people who really have found help with CBTi. It’s so nice to know we are not alone and this does work!

When you said you’re looking at all options, are you familiar with CBTi? What other things are you looking at?

Wishing you the best.
Judy

[memsiej]

Thanks, Judy. Good to hear from you. I have not yet tried CBTi and am interested in it because I need to try everything to figure this out. I need help. Other things I’m looking into are meditation/mindfulness and hypnosis.

[Jaran]

I hear you. Most of us here got to the point where we said “I need help!” I know I definitely did (still do)! I believed I was somehow unique, my problem was far worse than most, I’d totally lost my ability to sleep naturally, and there really isn’t anything that “works” for me. I ruminated about sleep during the day and dreaded the nights. Come to find out, those are really common thoughts for people suffering from insomnia, and they cause a whole lot of anxiety around sleep.

If you’ve not already signed up, Martin has a great *free* 2 week email course. To sign up, go to the Resources menu on the top of this page. Pull down to “Free Insomnia Sleep Training”. This is a great way to start. Many people do decide to also get face-to-face help, but there’s absolutely no requirement.

Also under the Resources menu, there is a good overview of CBTi and more detail on two major components (Sleep Restriction and Stimulus Control).

There are countless videos online. It takes a while to sort through those that are helpful and those who are more into “pop science” or want to sell pillows, oils, tapes, etc… Martin definitely falls into the helpful category. The single video that clicked with me and got me started is a 90 minute youtube called “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia: The Deep Dive”. It is a round table discussion with Martin and two other legitimate sleep coaches. The conversational tone was pleasant and natural, and while each coach was different, they all agreed on the major aspects of how to help people with insomnia.

Finally, I wanted to say that CBTi is not exclusive from meditation, mindfulness, hypnosis, yoga, etc… In fact, it seems to me that most people combine the techniques. Learning to deal with the anxiety is a huge component of CBTi.

Wishing you well.
Judy

[Jacob]

What helped me a lot was after bad night or nights i still done the day activities i want in the first place. Then i start to see, that i can live normally and get the shit done anyway, so the fear of not being able to work, excercise, having sex, traveling etc, was gone.

From my experience its like 50 % of that physicall exhaustion is because of bad mental thougs related to insomnia. If you constantly saying yourself how much you are tired, in bad mood, damaged, depressed etc, then you really are.

Its hard to break, but getting shit done during a day is a good way how to break that negative thinking 🙂

[Author]

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