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I’m at my wits end. Have been experiencing insomnia for 10plus years. Tried- getting out of bed every hour, doing mundane tasks, hypnotherapy, acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, counselling, cbt, meditation, chillow pillow, all sleep hygiene conditions, going to bed late, no napping in day, magnesium supplements, oil and bath, lavender oil, diffuser, lush sleep products, sleep apps, amytriptaline, zopliclone, no sugar, no eating after 6, less carbs, more carbs….and still no sleep. Please. Help me.
Hi. Have you ever taken Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia? If so, did you take it online or with a professional sleep therapist? It is a lot of work but it is the only thing that will help chronic insomnia.
Hi Mr. Artichoke. I was a total mess a little over three weeks ago having high anxiety, depression and panic attacks. I’ve had my insomnia since October. I had to go to the emergency room in March because I was completely falling apart feeling so crazy from the sleep deprivation and super depressed because I felt like the insomnia was taking my life away from me. I was almost suicidal.
I hired Martin 3 weeks ago and it’s amazing the difference. I’m sleeping 6 to 6.5 hours per night on average and the anxiety has gone way, way down. Of course for some people, the improvement doesn’t come as fast, but CBT-I definitely works. Martin has helped people like you who have had insomnia for many years. It’s too bad that there isn’t more awareness of CBT-I. Even a lot of sleep doctors don’t know about it. So people like you (and us on the forum) suffer because we didn’t know where to turn for answers and felt hopeless. But it’s not hopeless. CBT-I works, but it’s not easy so its best to hire a coach like Martin to get you through this.
One other thing. You may want to talk to Mac, who is on the “Support Group for those doing SR” thread. Like you, he tried many different things, but CBT-I is the only thing that has worked for him. Also, check out Sasha Stephen’s book, The Effortless Sleep Method. She had insomnia for 10 years like you (or was it 15), trying all different things but eventually beating it with a similar behavioral approach.
Thank you SO much for your responses, I’ve tried cbt but I am definitely up to try anything again. I can really relate to the emergency room as a similar thing happened to me when I’d been awake for 3 days, I felt I was going to have a break down. Will get the book for sure and have a think about a therapist, I’m just 6 weeks out of a major operation which has made sleep worse than ever again but also wiped me out completely financially!!
If you can’t afford the paid course yet, I strongly urge you to sign up for the free course. I went through that and it’s a good course. The only thing is that it doesn’t have a coach like the paid course does. But if you have the perseverance, you can do it.
One thing about Sasha Stephens – she’s against sleep restriction (SR) but it’s worked miracles for me. She must have been contacted by people who had bad experiences with it, maybe restricting their sleep too much to just a few hours. Martin recommends to restrict it to no less than 5.5 hours. My sleep was all over the place before, but once I started SR my sleep just fell into place within the sleep window and it has been very good, concentrated sleep. The body seems to love structure, just like kids need it.
Welcome to the forum The Mighty Artichoke (love the name, by the way!). Can you tell us a bit more about the CBT you tried? What kind of techniques were you implementing, and how long did you stick with them before deciding they weren’t working for you?
Deb makes a good point — in her book, Sasha Stephens talks about how much she is against sleep restriction but then she devotes a chapter of the book to talking about how important it is to spend less time in bed — which is exactly what sleep restriction is all about!
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
Hello, thank you so much!
So I tried cbt for a full year with a cbt therapist ( but not a sleep cbt therapist) we did a lot of charts that were thoughts/beliefs/actions/ behaviours ( I think!) So for example if I was going to bed thinking I wouldn’t sleep I would try and challenge that, or change my behaviour- like experimenting with bed times, then experimenting with getting out of bed if I couldn’t sleep for an hour, then 30 minutes, then trying different activities like ironing, or reading, then trying reading boring things like manuals, we tried different temperatures,then different temperature switches ( hot to cold) we also tried setting it up so I would sleep from like 2am to 7am or 1am to 6am thinking I would be desperate for sleep,then we tried changing my fears around not sleeping, eg I would be ok, I always am. Then we looked at beliefs of ‘trying’ to sleep and changing that to resting. We also looked at how I think of the bedroom, then I changed my bedroom around an my bedding etc…there might have been more things, every week I would write a journal and outcomes. I hope that makes sense…sorry for babbling.
Currently I’m up all night for some nights, or sometimes I sleep from about 6 to 9. It’s hard ( as everyone here knows I’m sure!)
Hi Mr. Artichoke,
I can see that you’ve been trying really, really hard. But unfortunately, your CBT therapist didn’t know what she/he was doing! Chronic insomnia requires a behavior solution, not a thinking solution. He/she really got you off track unfortunately and wasted a lot of your time and money and possibly even made things worse by having you try so many different things.
CBT-I is very simple and once you understand it you will see that not much thinking is involved. But practicing it essential. Although it is simple, it is not easy to do, so it’s best to hire a coach like Martin to encourage you during the rough times. But if you can’t afford that right now then do the free course and come here to the forum with your questions and challenges. In particular, go to the thread “Support group for people doing SR” and you will get support and see how others are doing implementing this.
I agree with Deb, Artichoke. Your therapist had you try all these different things but one thing CBT-i demands is consistency in two areas: Sleep Restriction (SR) and Stimulus Control (SC). It sounds like she had you do a lot of Sleep Hygiene stuff which as we all know here from listening to Martin that Sleep Hygiene doesn’t really help against chronic insomnia. So, you need to either sign up with Martin for his paid course or do the free course. But I have to warn you that neither course is easy. Also, it isn’t a quick fix but rather an ongoing process so just because you finish the course doesn’t mean you will be “cured”. And yes, make your way over to that thread when you start doing SR so you can be encouraged by those who have went through the process.
I also encourage you to read everything on this website and watch Martin’s videos (click on the YouTube icon below.) This will give you a much better understanding of what CBT-I is and how different it is from regular CBT. Also, Martin clearly explains what SR and SC are on the webpages specifically devoted to those.
How are you getting on, Artichoke?
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
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