[Kiwi]

I’ve had insomnia on and off for past 5-6 months, finally I decided to implement the CBT-I technique strictly.

So I’ve implemented sleep restriction for the past 6 weeks, and at the end of the sixth week, my sleep seemed to get better, so I stopped implementing it.

On the seventh week, my sleep was really great, I got almost 7 hours+ of sleep for 6 nights in a row, however, it’s the seventh night that I can’t fall asleep. Since that night, in the following week, I’ve been in the rollercoaster of good nights and bad nights of sleep.

But I do notice myself that I worried less about sleep. For example, If I had a bad night of sleep, on the next day I wouldn’t worry much about it and wouldn’t worry about whether the next night is going to be the same. (I mean, I do feel frustrated thinking back to those bad nights, but I know that the previous nights have nothing to do with the following night, that facts reassured me a bit.)

Despite my less worrying about sleep, my sleep doesn’t seem to get back on track. On many nights, I felt so comfortable in bed and felt like falling asleep but then I found myself hours later that I was still awake. why is it? (I also feel myself not worrying about sleep, but some nights when I go to bed, my heart was racing, is it a hidden worry that I didn’t recognize ?)

Can I just ignore the bad nights and going on the day like I’ve done before? Is my sleep going to get back on track by itself? I, myself, don’t want to go back and implement the sleep restriction again because It was tough, moreover I’m living with my 3 roommates right now, so it’s more difficult to sleep late & wake up early. It interrupts them 😞

Do you have any tips on trusting the body’s ability to fall asleep? I know it’s the point.

If I don’t do anything and just ignore my insomnia. Am I going to get better from now?

I also notice that all the time I had insomnia were when I’m at home for a long period, for example, school break. If my university starts, do you think It would distract me to the more important thing in life and make my sleep better?

What’s your opinion on this, please share

Thank you so much 🙇‍♀️

[Lozelise]

Just remember bad nights are normal, sounds like you got your sleep back on track but you’re still anxious about the way things were. That’s normal. Your confidence will continue to build and eventually you’ll be back on track. Seems like you’re heading in the right direction though. Martin has said that it’s normal after the program to still have a rocky relationship with sleep at times. Bad nights are common and expected on the journey to recovery

[Chee2308]

The bad nights that happen after you think you have recovered is your “vaccine” to future insomnia episodes. They are a reminder that temporary sleep disruption can happen at any time and for no reason and that it is important to not over-react. Your insomnia is also a clue you are actually sleeping well! Because it invariably happens after a stretch of good nights, do keep that in mind, and bad nights are absolutely nothing to be concerned about.

[Kiwi]

Thank you Lozelise and Chee2308 ! This is very reassuring. I hope I’ll start building a confidence, and finally can accept that bad nights are normal !

[Chee2308]

@kiwi

Trust me, there WILL be nights you actually want to be up and sleeping starts feeling like a boring chore where you only want to do the bare minimum you can get away with. You ACTUALLY have other things in your mind other than just SLEEP.

[Author]

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