[DonW]

Of course my main goal is to break my insomnia and start sleeping soundly for enough time to insure that I feel good and am mentally alert during the following day.

I am an 88 year old male and have stuffed with insomnia for many years. Here in the last 4 months my insomnia has gotten much worse. I am now getting a range of 2 to 5 hours of sleep a night. The average is probably around 4 hours which was what I got last night. I have been relatively socially active, but my lack of good sleep is starting to wear on me.
I have been listening to your pod cast and fine them very helpful. I do follow my version of CBT-I. But perhaps I am not keeping records.

I have started to bet to bed a couple of hours later than usual (12:00pm vs 10L00pm).I am up 3 or 4 times during the night. I am trying to limit naps to couple of 15 minted naps. Or, no naps at all. I have little stress, in relatively good health and have a dark quite room.
I get sleepy between 5 and 7pm and then get more and more awake as the eving goes on. After that I get tired, but not sleepy. I do yawn, but that is not a sleepy yawn. I just can’t geet sleepy. Perhaps I have a circadian rhythm problem.

I would like to get your opinion about sleep tracers. I am currently using my Apple watch and Auto Sleep. I am not sure they are elpful. I am an engineer and like numbers and analysis.

I am considering your 6 week course
What immediate fix for my insomnia can you give me?

[Martin Reed]

Your situation sounds difficult and not unique or unusual — it bears all the common hallmarks associated with the insomnia struggle.

Feeling more awake as the night progresses is something many people with insomnia experience.

This is an important survival mechanism to prevent things like getting eaten by a sabertooth tiger that we might have seen but still fell asleep because it was bedtime. The brain can respond to a threat by keeping us awake and alert.

The brain is very cautious because its number one job is to keep us safe. So, if there is ever a doubt and if there is even only a slight threat (even if that threat is imagined rather than real) then we can end up staying awake and feeling alert at a time when we might otherwise be feeling sleepy or falling asleep.

When we put a lot of effort into trying to make sleep happen, put pressure on ourselves to sleep, spend a lot of time and energy trying to fight or avoid any difficult thoughts and feelings that can come with insomnia, we can train the brain that nighttime wakefulness itself is a threat — that it’s no different to a sabertooth tiger sniffing around, waiting for us to fall asleep so it can eat us!

So, we might feel sleepy when we know it’s not time to go to bed. And, as bedtime approaches the brain can then kick into gear to protect us and keep us awake. And this can, in turn, make things more difficult (especially since we are probably inclined to fight that survival mechanism when we want to sleep and that struggle then consumes more energy and attention and makes things more difficult).

We cannot control what our brain does but we can control our actions. So, we can work on training the brain that wakefulness isn’t a threat. This can involve doing things that help us move away from *trying* to make sleep happen, from trying to get rid of wakefulness, from trying to fight or avoid difficult thoughts and feelings, from modifying our days in response to whatever happens at night. All these issues are explored in a lot of detail in my six-week online course.

As for the sleep trackers, they aren’t usually helpful if the goal is to move away from focusing on sleep — and there’s not much we can do with the information, anyway! Studies also suggest that sleep trackers can struggle when it comes to measuring sleep in people with insomnia.

I hope there’s something helpful here, Don!

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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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