[Carissa]

Hello all! I have been following sleep restriction and cbt-i for almost 2 months now. I was doing well for a few weeks and then reached a setback when my dog kept on barking through the night. I was falling asleep fine for a while but now my arousal system is high at night because of anticipating my dog barking. Even though last night she didn’t bark, just watching out for her to bark made it harder to fall asleep.

Anyone have any advice or stories of not being able to fall/stay asleep because of ongoing noise distractions that are beyond your control? What do you think I should do if the dog doesn’t stop making noises? (I can’t get rid of my dog).

Any feedback is much appreciated!

Thank you,
Carissa

[Scott]

Hi Carissa!

I’m glad to hear you began to see positive results with CBT-I! I know that can be frustrating – I have a dog that’s also barks at everything! Have you made any adjustments to your sleep window since your dog began keeping you up? Are you still implementing the stimulus control techniques you learned if your dog wakes you in the night and you become anxious or frustrated? And finally, what if you took the approach of, “so what if she barks?” attitude when you begin to have these anxious thoughts about her barking?

I’m not a dog whisperer but I try to walk my dog an hour or so before bed and he now sleeps in the farthest bedroom from mine – both seem to help me when I was experiencing insomnia.

Hope that helps,
Scott J

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[Edgar]

I am also sometimes at the mercy of a dog, not mine, but my neighbours. I am very sensitive to noise and go to absurd lengths to try to eliminate it, but sadly there is nothing that completely blocks outside sounds. I use ear plugs, cover my head with two pillows on top of that, and close my windows and blinds, yet this night the dog woke me up. It’s just so loud!
Luckily, it rarely barks, though I often wake up anyway, but that’s a different story.
Anyway, no advice about the dog, sadly, I don’t know what to do about it myself, just letting you know you’re not alone in this.
Maybe she stops barking and sleeps through the night instead!

• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Edgar.

[Chee2308]

Hello Carissa,
It’s great to hear you are making some progress in your sleep after following CBT-i techniques. During this stage, it is very common and very human to want to protect your progress so far and you will find yourself going all out in making attempts to protect future sleep. My advice to you is please DON’T. I caution you against taking these steps, because you are starting to obsess over sleep and are falling back into the hole of insomnia by giving it more attention. Remember insomnia feeds on attention and obessesion. Before you had sleeping problems, did you already have your pet? Yet you still slept fine, didn’t you? So your pet isn’t the problem, your obessesion over sleep is. It is when you have given up ALL efforts and truly not caring how you sleep anymore that you start making further progress. When you reach this stage, you begin to realise that night time sleeplessness isn’t a problem anymore, being more open to and willing to experience sleeplessness. Then you start sleeping really well! That’s when you know you are truly recovered. Good luck!

[Author]

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