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Hi Martin,
I have not discussed it directly since it is a recent system that has developed in last 3 or 4 weeks but its fairly well chronicled online. I don’t specifically have a podiatrist but this symptom onset definitely happened after the prolonged period of dealing with insomnia so I have always connected it to blood pressure, anxiety, and sleep loss….
Hey all. I am new here and going through a similar struggle on week 1. Have done sleep restriction for two nights now first night i did ok (early awakenings but was able to fall back asleep two times and almost made it to my alarm) but that night i was upbeat about the program and trying something brand new that i feel will have a positive impact. After waking up I felt extremely tired just making myself feel awake and getting adjusted for the day even after a morning workout. Then since I was feeling tired and lethargic like I had somehow failed on my first night I had creeping thoughts of anxiety and restlessness at work all day that deteriorated my mood. My background has been that I’ve had no problems with sleep onset at all but have had major problems with early awakenings and inability to maintain sleep after those awakenings. Just finished the second night after my not so great day at work yesterday, and had an early awakening and just could not go back to sleep for the rest of my sleep window. Pretty defeating feeling after the first couple nights.
I know the first week is supposed to be a struggle and I need to keep a positive attitude combating any negative thoughts from the problem solving brain. Any techniques that anyone is using when they have an early awakening inside the sleep window but can’t remain calm enough to induce more sleep? Are we 100% supposed to be staying in bed during the first week when we have awoken for a period of time and can’t go back to sleep by laying there or are we supposed to stay in bed the first week?
Ed…I think the feeling of being defeated early in this is all normal.
My sleep last night was poor but i try to remind myself this is day 2 of the course even though this isnt day 2 of insomnia. It doesn’t totally help quell my negative thoughts about a bad night or feeling tired or off but it is true we are early in the course. Like Martin has said if this was easy to overcome, we wouldn’t be here. I too don’t want to feel like I’m failing something yet again. I’ve tried several things for insomnia outside of CBTI and it feels like I want to quit the second they don’t work right away. This course is 6 weeks and I think we have to trust the process and acknowledge many have said it gets worse before it gets better as you retrain your sleep schedule.I’m happy to be here with a community that is also feeling part of the struggle as we work on this together. I have gratitude for all of you and my hope is we can all be successful with this program if we battle through the difficult initial period.
