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Hello and welcome to the forum!
Unfortunately, there is no right or wrong answer to your query. It all depends on you.
With that said, insomnia is strictly not a medical problem, it is more of a perception issue and more closely mimics a phobia problem. You simply just have an aversion of poor sleep. Phobias are not cured by taking anything external, it is an internal issue, because it’s all mental. Whatever you need to treat yourself, you already have it all inside you.
You also said it yourself, you want to sleep naturally, so you already believe the issue is internal not external. Would you continue to take medicine for a condition you never believed you have? If you don’t have flu, would you take anti-flu medication? Or if you don’t believe you have cancer, why would you start doing chemo and take all kinds of anti-cancer drugs, believing they all “work” in keeping cancer away?? The scenario doesn’t make any sense. If you never needed any medicine to sleep when you were born, why would you suddenly need them all now either? What actually made you sleep all these years including when you were a baby? All those drugs or your body itself?
Whatever you do to try to sleep automatically reinforces your insomnia. Because they keep you living in fear of poor sleep. That kind of stress is mentally stimulating enough to keep you awake. You must overcome these fears if you want to beat insomnia. Good luck and best wishes.
In my experience, the trick is tricking the brain into thinking insomnia is not a problem. Not sleeping well temporarily isn’t a problem. Everyone has insomnia. You too must have had insomnia countless times when you were young as a child. But you never thought there was a problem then. So how come has your mind suddenly thought there’s a problem now? So what changed? And what didn’t change? You have to find out the answers yourself. This is battle often fought alone. We can only provide some advice and guidance here but ultimately, it will be up to you how you approach the issue.
Trying to fix insomnia will never fix it, you only get stuck in a endless battle ending with perpetual dissatisfaction over it. You have to not fix it because trying to fix the problem actually becomes the problem itself. Leave insomnia alone until it leaves you alone. Essentially, what insomnia actually is losing some sleep over sleep. So how to stop this? Well, don’t worry about sleep. That’s when everything starts calming down and things start getting better.
Good luck.
Hello and welcome.
So what are you worried about? Isn’t falling asleep what you want?So why does an adrenaline rush happen when you’re trying to make that happen anyways? Does that make any sense?
I think you really need to engage more deeply with yourself on the matter. Find out what you are truly afraid of. What’s the worst that can happen if you can’t fall asleep anyways? Entertain that outcome. Don’t push it away or try to avoid it. Avoiding doesn’t help you overcome your fears. It just makes them worse.
Once the fear of not sleeping well and/or its consequences are taken care of, then perhaps sleep will happen more easily. Sleep is only more likely to happen in a calm and relaxed state of mind and body. Worry and fear won’t help in any way, but they only make it worse so it’s neither productive nor reasonable to live in a constant state of panic and fear all the time without addressing them proactively and adequately.
Best wishes to you and I hope you find your calm and peace soon.
Philosophically, what is the difference between an unfixable problem and not a problem? Take for example, everyone’s impending mortality. Yes, everyone doesn’t like it but what can they really do about it other getting on with their lives at the end of the day? Or should they become perpetually sad and miserable over something they have very little control over? It becomes a matter of perspective.
Stop being petty. Especially when it comes to sleep. You only get disappointed and perpetually dissatisfied in the end.
Hello and welcome to the forum.
I am sorry to hear you are struggling. If you think you have ptsd, perhaps you should consult a qualified professional for a more professional evaluation. Because nothing here constitute medical advice.
Unfortunately, the sleeping part is a normal biological and physiological process that your body usually takes care of by itself. The only advice to sleep better is actually very simple. Go to bed at regular hours. Keep your bedroom comfortable and conducive for sleeping. Learn to destress and try doing enjoyable and relaxing activities before bed. Then leave the rest to your body. Of course, keeping a positive and optimistic attitude helps. Good luck and I wish you well.
There is resistance because you still see there’s a problem. The problem exists because your mind defines it. Simply saying you are accepting it isn’t enough. Because being convinced that there’s actually no problem is another entirely different matter.
“I still wake up at x or y o’clock” – you automatically define it’s a problem waking at x or y, and you will continue to struggle indefinitely because you will keep waking up at whatever time, as this is a normal physiological component of sleeping.
If you can forget there’s a problem, your insomnia will disappear. That’s the weirdest thing about insomnia. When you don’t define or identify with it, it’s no longer there.
Hello and welcome to the forum.
Learning to let go is very important. Keep the focus, not on sleep, but on life. Sleep isn’t everything because it doesn’t define who you are or what you are truly capable of.
Good luck and best wishes to you.
I think for many, acceptance feels hard because of the trying. Or the focusing. That’s telling because you still want to avoid the discomfort of being “forced” to be up as your body just isn’t giving you the desired result, which is sleeping.
It should feel effortless. The focus should not be about trying to sleep but that activity that you are doing, which you said was reading. For example, sometimes when I’m finding it a bit harder to doze off, I would reach out to my phone, which I always keep by my bedside, and go on the internet to browse, shop, watch youtube, check my trading account, or whatever while in bed. Then when I’m done, which can be anywhere between 15 mins or hours later, I would put my phone back down and go back to sleep with a smile.
There is no rush to get back to sleep or try to escape the discomfort of not sleeping, but I am up because I am truly enjoying the activities. I don’t make enemies with insomnia, so I think therein lies the difference. Mindset is the key the everything and it will take time to develop but your inherent personality will play a significant role as well. I wish you the best.
In due course, the answers to any questions you have now will be defunct because the questions themselves have become irrelevant and obsolete.
I encourage you to experience insomnia as a complete set. Embrace the good and the bad. Reserve any questions and judgments until later. Because when reading your post, what I am sensing is this rush to find fast answers and a frenzy to find a quick cure and exit. Don’t do this. Be patient. Good luck and best wishes.
I don’t feel nervous now. In the past, a bit, yes. But since then that I’ve grown out of those fears. It’s like a child has outgrown his fear of monsters in the closet.
Maybe the following scenarios help explain myself better:
Scenario 1. People who sleep well because they have not experienced any problem and therefore they don’t think anything is wrong.
Scenario 2. People who sleep well now but have had problems in the past and are now aware of potential “problems” but they also know these are not real problems and therefore they do nothing and don’t worry about it.
Well, before 2020, I belong to 1. After my recovery, I am now 2. But the sleep is still exactly the same.
Hey,
Saying you are in acceptance is not the same as being convinced. I wish words alone can convince you but that’s not how it works. You only become convinced from more experience and not just reading stuff on forums like this. This usually means:
1. Having more insomnia to beat insomnia. Each episode only increases your resilience.
2. More insomnia = less sleep = more sleep drive = more sleep = less sleep drive = more insomnia and so on. The cycle repeats until you truly see the really picture. The experiences gained will come in handy to handle sleeplessness as it happens. Insomnia will only start getting less frequent and milder the less you fear it or try to make a huge fuss out of it everytime.Best wishes.
I’m sorry to hear you’re still struggling. I can’t really say much other than what I’ve always repeated. Leave insomnia alone if you want it to leave you alone. Unfortunately, I think you and many others are plainly just not convinced.
It won’t happen overnight, of course. It’s a gradual process. You are making progress everytime you manage to let bit by bit go. You will get somewhere eventually. Best wishes.
The short answer is yes absolutely! And most definitely. I graduated in 2020 and has been sleeping well since then. But yes, I (and I am pretty sure everyone does!) still think about sleep and do still get a couple of bad nights every year as a result of plenty of things in life but I now know full well to not let them get completely out of hand like before.
The most important thing about thinking about sleep is usually this, does it really still bother you? If you can confidently say no, then congratulations, you don’t really have a problem. Just let those thoughts and feelings slide, they usually are very fleeting and transitory in nature like many things in life.
The persons who try the hardest to sleep are usually the ones who find it the hardest to fall asleep. They will do all sorts of things like taking pills, do cbti, relaxations, or have a ton of sleep rituals before bed. They also have endless questions about sleep. In the end, they end up not sleeping well regardless.
Conversely, good sleepers hardly ever try. They are super relaxed and super lax about it. Sleep comes readily to those who actually don’t want or make a huge fuss about it.
Try to do less. Try to think less.Because all that is mentally stimulating enough to keep you awake. Don’t try to fix anything because fixing the problem actually becomes the problem in itself. Good luck.
