[mb]

i notice there is a person that wrote in that says he is surviving on 1-3 hours sleep for many years and has never had any health problems in all that time.

even the cbt for insomnia courses aim is to change our thinking so that we dont get anxious and worry about insomnia as much as we do.

i am wondering what evidence or information do you have that insomnia doesnt have serious health consequences in the long term??

thanks

[Martin Reed]

There is no evidence that insomnia causes any health problem. Pursuing a search for evidence is going to be fruitless and will only lead to more time thinking and worrying about sleep which isn’t helpful if you want to improve your sleep!

You might find my podcast episode with Dr. Jade Wu helpful since we actually cover this in some detail:

Busting sleep and insomnia myths with clinical psychologist and behavioral sleep medicine specialist Dr. Jade Wu (#13)

I hope this helps.

—

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.

[mb]

hi martin
thank you for your reply
yes i agree there is very limited information about chronic insomnia. either because it is a very rare disease or very difficult to measure and track peoples sleep patterns over the long term scientifically.

ofcourse we shouldnt be putting too much pressure on ourselves to live up to the recommended 8 hours sleep a night. but i think you would agree that if you are not sleeping at all at night , that there is something seroisly wrong. even if it doesnt seem to be having any obvious health consequences in the short term.

you touched on what is the cause of chronic insomnia in the video where you said that when we are “really anxious its like the bodies survival mechanism, it keeps us alert to protect us from this perceived threat, perceived danger”
and dr wu said that insomnia is a 24 hour hyper arousal disorder.
i agree on both counts. however i have a slightly different perspective.
the dr’s perspective is that insomnia is a biological disfunction due to lack of sleep drive or melatonin levels, that our bodies will restore eventually. or that we can behave our way to better sleep. and that the anxiety is over our concern for our health.

i would hazard to guess that insomnia is a spiritual disfunction, rather than a biological one.
i would say that there is a spiritual realm around us, and a spiritual level to us that interacts with the spiritual realm all the time. when all is well in this interaction, we sleep well.
when we experience insomnia it is our ‘bodies’ way of staying vigilant and alert in the presence of a spiritual realm that is now a threat.

but perhaps i am wrong and this only what happens to people who are.. beyond help.

thanks again for your prompt reply.

[Edgar]

Hi,

Just when I wanted to compliment you on your rationality and critical thinking, you go to some spiritual universe and whatnot. 🙂

Regardless, your question is on point. I’m also tired of hearing that lack of sleep has “no health consenquences”, as opposed to “no measurable health consequences”. Of course it does.
For one, lack of sleep (chronic) can lead to an increased risk of a heart attack, that much has been established. Also, it is one of the main triggers for epilepsy. So there are at least two conditions directly related to lack of sleep. Who knows how many others there are. I’m sure a stroke is somewhere among them as well.

It’s all a question of semantics, really. Once an insomniac gets, for instance, a heart attack, nowhere will it say on the chart that it was caused by “poor sleep”. Something more direct like a blockage will be listed as a cause, even though that blockage is the result of years of sleep deprivation.

Sleep deprivation hurts (I won’t say kills) veery slowly, so it goes under the radar.

Oh and that person claiming to sleep for only 1-3 hours? Doubt…

The silver lining is that you can curb some of the effects of poor sleep by being smart – eating right to keep your heart healthy for one.

[mb]

Hi edgar
thanks for your comments
yes i agree , i think that dr’s sometimes make correlations and give reasons for the conditions that people suffer that are incorrect so they end up treating the symptom rather than the much deeper causes.

i know that what i said sounds irrational. it is very difficult to explain without sounding so.

it is absolutely true that we are spiritual beings and that we are in interaction with a spiritual universe, even if we are not aware of it. the reason we sometimes come under threat is unknown to me. my guess is it has something to do with the spiritual path we have taken to date. Even this site asks people if there was a life event that triggered the insomnia, which leads me to think that there was probably something wrong in their lives , and the spiritual path they were on, that led to the event.

also its not a coincidence that people claim to have had a spiritual awakening. im sure this means different things to different people but i think that my explanations is worth considering.

its easy to doubt the persons who claims 1-3 hours sleep, but i know of others who survive on less. they dont get tired , they dont yawn , they dont sleep, they lie awake ALL night. its unbelievable because its basically not human! and yet its true.

anyway i hope that whatever is happening to you gets better and that you find some healing.

regards

[Martin Reed]

There is no evidence that insomnia causes an increased risk of heart attack and there is no evidence that insomnia causes an increased risk of epilepsy. There is also no evidence that insomnia causes an increased risk of stroke.

The fact of the matter is, worrying about this and endlessly researching for the consequences of insomnia isn’t helpful since it only leads to more sleep-related worry and this perpetuates insomnia.

It’s far more constructive to direct attention on improving sleep — and if you have chronic insomnia, the best way to do this is to implement evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques.

Probably the best research we have when it comes to the negative outcome of insomnia is a meta-analysis published in 2019 that included 36,938,981 individuals and found no difference in the odds of mortality for those individuals with symptoms of insomnia when compared to those without symptoms.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this study didn’t attract much media attention.

—

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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