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I wanted to report back to you all after my post on January 14th. I will start by saying that I finished the program with Martin about a month and a half ago, and I have been sleeping pretty well (an average of 7 hours). Panic attacks receded about 2 months ago.
What I read in the original post on this thread truly changed my life. I cannot be grateful enough.
It took me a few days to figure out what my acceptance looked like. But I focused on it, in trying to understand how would that work for me and one day it happened.
I remember that night perfectly. It still gives me chills. I went to bed with something like a mantra in my mind: “I WON’T sleep, but at least I’m going to stay in bed and give some rest to my body”. After 20 mins or so in bed, the feelings of the panic attack started to show up. And I observed them. I didn’t struggle, I didn’t engage with any of them (the shaking, the chills, the numbness, etc). I just stayed in bed calmly, observing everything my body was going through. After 10 mins, they stopped. It seems my brain was not interested anymore sending all those signals to my body, as I was proving that there was no thread. I was calmed as a cucumber. I stayed in bed awake, but with no more panic attack feelings. And then I started to feel really comfortable in my bed. I started to enjoy the feeling of the duvet cover, the pillow under my head…I was just resting my eyes and enjoying being in bed. I remember continuing my mantra, and saying to myself, “I MAY not sleep tonight, but at least I’m going to enjoy being in bed and I’ll give my body some rest”. After some time, I fell asleep. That night I slept 4 or 5 hours.
The next morning I was immensely happy. I finally got it. It took me two or three days more of this routine, until the panic attacks completed receded, and after they did, two or three more days until I started to fell asleep after 5-10 mins of going to bed.
Acceptance for me was to accept that I wasn’t going to sleep. BUT, that at least I was going to take something good from it: rest for my body and being comfortable in bed.
Acceptance is probably different for everyone, but I firmly believe is the way through insomnia.
I have currently moved to a difference “acceptance”, that works best for me. I now accept that I MAY have isolated rough nights here and there during the rest of my life, BUT that it doesn’t mean I will re-live that awful experience again. And it’s working. I hope this helps!Hi, I recently completed the 6 weeks program + 1:1 coaching and it was life changing for me.
I heard of Martin through a friend who was doing the free course and I tried it myself. I had already done CBT-I, so most of what he shared was familiar to me.
The free course wasn’t enough for me, so I decided to enrol in the course + 1:1 coaching. I had already experienced the email exchanges, and I wanted something else.To your questions:
1) I was spending about an hour a day going through the course, then one week practicing the learnings.
2) This is a very personal choice, but if from a financial perspective this works for you, I’d recommend adding the 1:1 coaching.For me what made the difference, and the reason why today I am sleeping about 6.5 hours per day, was the 1:1 coaching sessions. I needed to unlock something that was rooted deep within me in my unconscious mind. It was all good to have all the knowledge and tools and practice, practice, practice…But I only started to sleep when one day I made a realisation in one of our 1:1 sessions. From that moment everything changed for me.
Every journey is different, and different tools will work for different people. But Martin can help you go deep into the root of the problem, into what is truly blocking you, and once you know that, once that’s on the table, then the tools, techniques and knowledge become secondary, because your body knows how to sleep and you now know what wasn’t allowing that.I wish you all the luck in your journey!
I forgot to ask if any of you had made progress on the arousal front. How are you currently managing it? Any pieces of advice for me? Thank you
I am currently going through exactly the same situation. I have now been barely sleeping for 2 weeks and I’m starting to feel quite desperate. I am taking medication for anxiety and every now and then I’m using sleeping pills to help me have some sleep. I am new to the program, starting today, so I am hoping I will get soon some ideas on how I can change what’s happening.
This post couldn’t have come to my life at a better time. I had my first encounter with insomnia over a year ago and it lasted about 7 months. Then I started to sleep and everything was sort of back to normal. 5 days ago I woke up in the middle of the night with what I now know was a panic attack. I couldn’t fall back to sleep that night. Then the next day I suffered more panic attacks during the day and wasn’t able to sleep at all that night. It has been like this ever since, and I’m seeing myself going down the rabbit hole. This post not only has given me hope, but also tips for me to try. Thank you so much for sharing!
