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Hi susieangela – you are right, Martin does say its ok to stay in bed rather than getting out but only if you feel comfortable/not anxious. Whereas the audiobook recommends another approach of staying in bed with the anxious feelings and facing your fears. I completely agree, I think Martin’s advice is very helpful and he’s so generous sharing so much of it for free.
I am feeling much better about everything and touch wood it continues. I have been sleeping much much better and feeling human again (although way to soon to say my insomnia is behind me, just taking it one day at a time.)
Hi susieangela
Sorry for not replying sooner. I’m also really sorry to read you are still facing anxiety around your sleep. I listened to an audio book called the Sleep Book by Guy Meadows (I hope its ok to recommend this here) a couple of weeks back and it has really helped me. He talks a lot about how to be in the same space with your insomnia and your anxiety around it, how to face it and accept it (focuses more on ACT rather than CBTi which I think is what I was missing). I know Martin often talks about being comfortable in the same space as your negative thoughts on his podcast and on this forum but I guess my problem was I never knew how and this book really gives some good suggestions.
It also recommends you don’t get out of bed and rather stay in bed even if you are feeling anxious which really helped me because I think getting in and of out of bed was creating more anxiety for me (I know this goes against what Martin says). It also has a softer approach to the sleep window, which also helped me because I have a young daughter who wakes up during the night so I think having a restricted sleep window in place was exasperating my anxiety.
Hang in there! If you want to reach out to me directly, I am always up for a chat 🙂
Hi Susieangela
I actually came on here to write something similar and hoping someone can give advice. I did CBTi many years ago and saw results almost instantly. This time around I have been practising it for about 4 weeks and my sleep has gotten worse. I am not going to bed until my sleep window but my anxiety over sleep is so intense that it doesn’t matter how tired/sleepy I am, as soon as I get into bed I am wide awake. I get up and do something else but when I return to bed my anxiety kicks in again. I also end up staying up doing my activity for well over an hour to feel sleepy because I am so wired and wide awake that I just can’t go back to bed. I really thought that my sleep drive would be so strong by now that it would take over my anxiety but it hasn’t. I think I was getting around 5 – 5.5 hours of sleep when I started CBTi but I am probably averaging around 4.
