[Ksenija]

Hello,

I think I got to the point when I feel willing and ready to try implementing bedtime restriction therapy. I watched a lot of videos on this topic on youtube and it seams to me that generally speaking people choose a sleep window which is from 12am/1am – 6am. Is there any reason for it? Can my sleep window be 9pm-3am? or this would not work and I need to stay up till midnight for it to be effective?

I think in my circumstances earlier sleep window might work better because I have a little baby who generally sleeps better first part of the night. He starts being restless, tossing and turning, noisy and waking up for milk/dummy at around 3 am. He has an occasional night when he wakes up earlier than that, but generally speaking, if I wanted to get more or less uninterrupted sleep window (which I do), it needs to be earlier. Can I do that? Or it will be less effective?

Also, thinking a way ahead here, when my sleep improves, can I expand my sleep window from the morning side? For example, with time, turning 9pm-3am into 9pm-3:15am? And maybe eventually into 9pm-4am? Or it needs to be from the evening side?

I would appreciate your thoughts and especially experience. Has anybody tried this before?

Thanks a lot. This forum is very helpful.

[Chee2308]

Greetings!
The short answer is yes. You can be flexible with your sleep window to suit your lifestyle. Before I had insomnia, I was a night owl and only went to bed at 3-4 am, sleeping until 10-11 am. Then I selected an initial sleep window of 1-6 am, giving myself only 5 hours. As I got better, I went to bed progressively earlier in 15 mins intervals while still getting up at 6am no matter how much I slept. My bedtime is now 10-1030 pm to 6-645am. As long as you get out of bed at the same time everyday, it doesn’t really matter as you will find yourself getting sleepier earlier in the evening if you consistently get out of bed earlier. Be patient with yourself and the first few weeks may be tough as you may experience more sleepiness throughout the day. But stick to the plan and try not to sleep at other times, you should do well. Best wishes!

[Ksenija]

Hi Chee2308,

Thank you so much for finding time to write this, I find it very helpful and inspiring.
I’ve decided to start implementing my sleep window from Thursday. I love reading about positive experiences how other people overcame this problem. I need to see my situation in perspective, because sometimes my head tells me that my case is special, unique and different and nobody else suffered the way I did.

I still have a bit of doubt that sleep window can’t work in my ‘unique’ case, but I guess I will never find out if I don’t try it. My concern is that I will be woken up or disturbed during my sleep widow because there are some factors I can’t control. My baby might wake me up. My partner comes to bed around midnight and he wakes me up. He also has a severe sleep apnoea and he snores so loud! But I think nobody’s situation is perfect and other people also experience disturbances, it is part of life, I am struggling to accept that there won’t be perfect sleeping conditions for me and I need to learn to adapt.

[Chee2308]

Greetings!
Best wishes to you and I hope you do well. Try not to be obessesed about sleep and be patient and kind to yourself. Your situation is not unique; all parents suffer from some kind of sleep disruption and that’s okay! The human body is built to be super flexible about sleep to cater for different needs to ensure our survival such as parenting, foraging for food, hunting etc. Good luck.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Chee2308.

[Ksenija]

Hello,

Is it supposed to get worse at the start?
I have implemented my sleep window and stimulus control last night and I barely slept. I was in and out of bed and only started to feel sleepy two hours before my wake time, so slept only for around two hours. This is worse than my usual insomnia night. Usually I would get 3 hours on my worst night. This is worrying me and I wonder if sleep window will work for me, as it doesn’t work for everyone.

[Ksenija]

Hello,

There is not much point to this post apart from me needing to rant.
So far my sleep restriction is not going too well

Night one was disaster and I only got two hours of sleep
Night two I was so worried about not sleeping, I took some antihistamines and I slept for nine hours, but felt awful the next day, because antihistamines gave me a terrible hangover
Night three, I was worrying that after sleeping for nine hours I won’t have any sleep drive, so took half of the antihistamines, slept for 5 hours but my head is still foggy from taking tablets.

I feel so disappointed for not being able to do it. Feel like a massive failure.

I contacted my GP and asked if they could refer me to CBT-I, but because I am already under postnatal mental health team they can’t make another referral to another therapy until I finish my current one. They suggested talking to my current postnatal therapist, but she doesn’t know much about CBT-I. She suggested that I need to try and nap during the day, which as we know won’t really help me with sleep. I don’t have much money to go privately, so I feel frustrated and powerless in this situation.

I think I will attempt sleep restriction once again today, but I am worried it won’t work as it didn’t on my first night.

[Author]

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