[Chelle23]

I have had random bouts of insomnia for the past 7 years. I use cbti techniques to get myself back on track. I usually end up relapsing again once every year or two, and it settles in a couple weeks.

My current insomnia struggles were triggered by a bad night sleep and a trip i was anticipating at the end of the week. This completely unraveled me because I became obsessed with not ruining the trip by not sleeping or getting sick. Well the trip was great, but my sleep made things difficult. One thing it helped me with was even on little sleep I am capable of a good day.

In a hotel with someone else, it’s hard to use the techniques that help. A big one for me is getting out of bed or moving to another room to read if i can’t sleep. I also usually have big days ahead so I don’t want to ruin the trip for myself or others. It adds pressure. In the end, I had to take a pretty powerful sleeping pill to knock myself out to ensure I could drive home the next day. I had slept maybe 7 hours in 3 days. I don’t want to be reliant on that, but I suppose it would be good to have for time to time emergencies like a safety net or maybe that would make things worse. I don’t know.

Now I have a little more anxiety in the back of my mind about trips and travel. I’ve always had this because I don’t sleep well in new environments, but this last experience has heightened that a little.

Anyone have traveling tips. How do you sleep well in a new place or handle sleeplessness in a new place?

[Chee2308]

The real recovery is not caring how you sleep anymore, so to me, there is no such thing as “relapses”. You either sleep well or you don’t. And not letting how you slept on any day affects you is key. In instances that you are facing, it helps by reframing your thoughts around sleep. There are only four possible scenarios:
1. You cancel the trip and choose to stay at home instead. You sleep well, but there are no guarantees of getting that good sleep, of course.
2. You cancel the trip but you wind out not sleeping well regardless so the trip has been “wasted” because you might as well just have gone instead.
3. You go on the trip, and have a blast. You thoroughly enjoy yourself, and then you sleep poorly. But all is not lost, because you still had a good time despite the poor sleep.
4. You go on the trip, have a great time and still manage to sleep well. Of course, this is the best possible outcome.

So by comparison, you will almost definitely have more to gain by going on that trip than staying at home, trying to chase sleep! Don’t chase sleep, let it chase you! Good luck, please go on that trip and enjoy yourself. Sleep should be the last thing to worry about. There’s always time to catch up on it after the holiday anyways!

[Chelle23]

Thank you! One thing that is helping me is despite being very tired I had an amazing trip. I was able to do pretty much everything I needed and wanted to. I even hiked 4 miles. I’m trying to focus on that instead of a fear of it happening again.

[Chee2308]

Hello! One thing about insomnia is it always happens again, for whatever reasons, invariably. It is completely normal to have sleepless nights once in a while so instead of waiting nervously for it, and fearing it, you might as well just get on with your day, with your plans and try to get the most out of your life. There must have been many, many times in your past, especially when you were younger, when sleepless nights occurred that you didn’t seem to pay any attention to, then went on with your day, and your sleep just kinda settled back down. Such occasions might have been an exciting night out with friends, staying up late marathon watching tv, the night before an important exam or presentation, your pre-wedding night, and many more. So what makes any particular occasion any different? There is actually none, your sleep never changed, it’s your thoughts about it that have. Physiologically, sleep stays the same and will stay like that for the rest of your life. Sleep works like hunger, the more you are deprived of it, the more likely you are to engage in it in future, not less. How long can you persist not eating, before extreme hunger takes over? Not very long, one day maybe two days at most. Well sleep works exactly like that. That is why sleep always catches up with you in the end, no matter how worried or busy you are.

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