[WhitneyB]

Hello! I am about 2-3 weeks into my sleep restriction schedule. It’s been very slow going and I can’t say that I’ve seen much significant progress at this time. I have an upcoming vacation next week to Mexico with my husband and I was just wondering if I should continue to follow my schedule or just let it go and enjoy my trip without worrying about following it to a T for that time. It’s a 5 day trip and I don’t want to be miserable but I also don’t want to derail or backtrack because I took a break for a few days. Any advice would be helpful! Thanks

[Chee2308]

Hi Whitney

If you are going on a vacation, then do exactly that! That means enjoying yourself first and leaving everything that is stressful to you behind. Isn’t that what vacations are supposed to be for? Try to approach the issue from as much of a normal human being as you can when you find yourself questioning what to do. Try to recall what you did under similar circumstances before you had insomnia. Then do exactly that! Because that is always your real personality before all this happened. You can always return to doing cbti after the trip. But right now, get your priorities in order and enjoy the vacation first. Don’t worry about setbacks, they will sort themselves out eventually.

As a recovered insomniac, I am telling obsessing with doing cbti to the T is not helpful. Cutting yourself some slacks here and there is okay, your progress will not be hampered by very much. Don’t treat cbti like a chore that must be diligently and religiously followed in order to sleep well. Because it’s not! Sleeping well comes from doing nothing and expecting nothing. Constant striving for perfection is what tires most people out and leaves them frustrated. Don’t fall into this trap! The real recovery is the realization that there’s nothing you can actually do for sleep, so you stop chasing the issue any further because it becomes pointless and meaningless. Sleep happens all on its own without any active intervention required from you. Good luck and I hope you have a great time!

[WhitneyB]

Thank you so much for this response! I have definitely found that I’ve fallen into the perfection trap of trying to do everything to the T only to see minimal benefits. I’ve been considering that I need to take a break from sleep tracking and obsessing about doing all the steps and following all the rules because it’s driving me mad and making me feel more miserable. I definitely have a tendency to get caught up in the dos and don’ts and therefore end up causing myself more anxiety when following the rules doesn’t appear to be working. I automatically slip into thinking that I’m not doing something right or I’m not doing it perfectly and that’s why it isn’t working. It’s a vicious cycle and a terrible trap to be in.

[Chee2308]

I can fully understand what you are going through as I’ve been through it myself. Perhaps a mindset reset is what you need. Avoidance isn’t going to get you very far, tolerance will. Be willing to tolerate some poor sleep and setbacks. Be okay with wakefulness of any sort and at anytime. It may also mean tolerating the consequences of any perceived poor sleep. It is being okay with ANY KIND of sleep. Sleep truly doesn’t define who you are or what you are capable of.

Being on this forum for ages, I can kinda tell how people will fare from their literature. People who eventually recover are often the ones who disappear away quietly. They stop asking questions, complaining and talking about their issues. On the contrary, those who keep coming back are the ones with the most issues. They keep sweating the small stuff, keep getting caught up in technicalities, keep asking what to do or how to do the perfect cbti, and just seem to can’t let it go. The real recovery is really the correct mindset and also to some extent, your personality. Good luck!

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