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Well, Chee, you were right. Last night I stayed up again until after midnight with a wakeup time of 7. Unlike the night before, I had trouble falling asleep, got out of bed for a while, and eventually fell asleep for 3-4 hours. This was after falling asleep twice on the couch in front of the tv. I try not to do that, but I just pass out and can’t control it. So, I slept about 1- 1/2 hours before bed, then 3 1/2 hours in bed until I woke again at 4:45, up again for an hour, then off and on for another two hours. I don’t feel particularly bad, so I guess my body is OK with the sleep I got. For me, as you noted, the trick is to just not care what happens and I have already shown myself that I will eventually get what sleep I need regardless of how it happens, right?
Hi Chee,
Well, things have started to turn around again for the better. I decided to narrow my time in bed window further and now get into bed at midnight, rather than 11, and have the same wakeup of 7 am. This seems to have helped as I am really sleepy by midnight. I used to get into bed at 10 pm.
So, I think I’m back on track to get to a more normal sleep pattern. Last night doing this, I slept straight through until 5:30 AM, was up for a little while, and then fell back to sleep again until 7 am. Overall pretty good and am optimistic that going forward, things will be better. Just getting rid of the anxiety about sleeping is a major plus. Thanks for your help and advice.DK
Thanks Chee. Last night I went to bed an hour later than I had been and while still not great, things seemed to have changed a bit. Got more sleep, albeit more broken, but after waking, I did fall back to sleep more quickly.
I appreciate your advice. Thanks,
DK
Thanks, Chee for your comments. IT was just so bizarre to go from falling asleep within minutes to go not falling asleep for 1-2 hours every night. WTH?? Anyway, I have been trying to adopt “acceptance” to what is, regardless of what happens and how much time I spend awake, or how early I wake up. I will just stay the course and try not to get upset when things happen that are not to my liking. Hopefully, my sleep drive will increase and things will get back to at least where they were. It certainly can be upsetting when sleep becomes so wacky.
Do you think that these sorts of extreme changes are common in this journey?
Many Thanks,
DK
Thank you Scott for your helpful reply. It all makes so much sense. I just decided after a month of trying this on my own that I could use more guidance, so I signed up for the 8-week program with Martin.
Thanks again.
DK
Hi Scott,
Thank you for your reply.
Last night I had another zero sleep experience, which has really set off my other issues of anxiety and breathing problems, in addition to feeling generally worse after no sleep.
Do you think that this program can still work if one has underlying anxiety, which seems to exacerbate some of the other issues like labored breathing (definitely anxiety-related, not functional), and aches and pains?
I can certainly see how thinking about sleep worsens the ability to sleep, but can the CBT-I help in the case when sleep has worsened since I began the program on my own? I am almost a month into doing the program, and while I may not be doing everything perfectly, after an initial week and a half of improvement, things turned south, and haven’t recovered. I’ve had 6 nights now of worse or no sleep with no positive feedback yet to get me out of the recent funk about it. Will just sticking to the program and perhaps shortening the sleep window still get me back on track? Forcing myself to stay up even later and wake up earlier is so tough when the sleep has not yet recovered.
Just wondering if you’ve encountered any others with this sort of issue and if their sleep still recovered?
Many thanks for your help and advice.
DK
Hi again, Chee.
This is truly a roller coaster. An occasional OK night followed by craziness. Can’t help but doze off in front of the TV before bed. Still hard to fall asleep in the bed, I get up and leave the bedroom for an hour, get back in bed, listen to an audiobook, and fall asleep, only to awaken after an hour, do it again for another hour., Then sleep for 3-4 hours, missing the early waking up time I used to set the alarm for. I guess that shortens the sleep-driving wakefulness time, but I guess I’d rather sleep more hours than to deliberately get up after I just fell asleep? My sleep efficiency last night was 67%, and prior nights were 80%, 50%, 91%, 52%, 76%, 85%, 82%. Did you use Martin as a coach or do it yourself? I’m beginning to think that I can’t do it myself. I truly appreciate your taking the time to help me. Appreciate any advice about any of my comments. Thanks, DKThanks again, Chee for taking the time to answer my questions and hold my hand. The night before last was really good, falling back to sleep twice after waking and getting over 8 hours.
Last night, however, was the exact opposite. I Couldn’t fall asleep, went out into another room twice, and maybe getting 3 hours total, after unsetting my alarm at 5:30 am. Around 5:30 I unset my alarm that was set for 6 AM, as I felt that if I did actually fall asleep, I didn’t want to get up at 6 am for no reason, other than to get more awake time. Would you agree that it’s OK to actually set an alarm each morning until this process becomes more habitual? Or should I just let whatever happens happen regarding a wake-up time? Do you think it was OK to cancel the alarm given that I really hadn’t slept but an hour by 5 AM, and thought that some sleep was better than that, even if I was being asleep more rather than awake more? I finally awoke at 7:30 AM.
Still, my mood was pretty calm as I truly believe that this is part of the process, so I accepted this and that things will improve over the longer term.
I’m still early in this and haven’t figured out things like do you set an alarm to wake up or not, do you change things if the night was not good and get up later, etc.
Thanks again for your insight.
DK
Hi Chee,
Thanks for your reply. So, I guess I will just get up if I’m awake within 1-2 hours of my wakeup time? Last night I got 2-3 hours of total sleep, waking up finally at 5:30 when my alarm was set for 6:30, so I just stayed in bed and listened to an audiobook, as that used to put me back to sleep, but not when I know I will be getting up very soon. Oddly, considering how little sleep I’ve had in the past week, I really don’t feel too awful. I guess it’s my own response to the issue rather than the lack of sleep affecting me. Initially, I had a couple of much better nights, but now it’s a roller coaster with sleep actually worse than before using these techniques. Do you think that this is par for the course?Thanks for your help.
DK
Thanks Chee. Now that I am one week into trying CBT-I, I better understand what you have said. What are you supposed to do if you wake up around 5:30 when your wake-up time is 7 AM? Getting up for a while and then getting back to sleep is not likely as you know that you will be getting up in a few minutes. Do you lengthen your wake-up time, or just get up for the day at 5:30-6 for the day? Thanks for your advice.
DK
Thanks, Dreamz for your input. I will certainly take a look. After getting emotionally uplifted listening to a few of these podcasts yesterday, I went to bed an hour later than usual, fell asleep in a reasonable time for the first time in a week, and slept for 5 straight hours, woke up, and fell back to sleep again after about a half-hour, for another three hours. So, just knowing that this issue can be resolved apparently was enough for me to get some reasonable sleep last night. I’m very optimistic!! Thanks for your advice.
I forgot to mention that I also have this weird breathing issue in which my nasopharynx feels totally dried out as if I was having ice cold air pushed into my nose, worse at night while laying down. Feels like a sore throat in my posterior nasopharynx. I use lozenges all night long to try to mask this feeling. This too make sleeping more difficult
