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@dragon. Yes easier said than done. When I am not bothered by it things are better. It’s just hard not to relapse when things are going well and then you get a bad night sleep and then get derailed.
Sorry to hear Deb. We are still here cheering you on. My patterns are extreme as well. Ill get days or weeks of satisfactory sleep and then a wave of really bad nights. The past few nights were rough. Last night I decided to try Calm Sleep which includes melatonin, GABA and L-Theanine. My sleep was better and although I woke up in the middle of the night I refused to look at the time and just go back to bed. I ended up falling asleep and waking up like hundreds of times so it seems. Lots of dreaming. Overall I did sleep more than previous nights. The only issue I’ve found with this product is it makes me quite groggy in the morning.
I think we are in the same boat with worry. Once the worry starts to kick in, it’s almost like game over until we get back into the swing again. I think we are in high risk for relapse.
Martin Reed, the one who hosts this site and forums would be the one to talk to. You could also check out other posts since I am sure what you are thinking and feeling has been addressed to some degree already. Best thing to do is start with some basic CBT-I stuff under the resources tab on this site.
Hi John,
Welcome. You aren’t the only one that has anxious thoughts that prevent sleep. There are a lot of people here that can help and provide some suggestions and tips. Good luck.
I am not one to really have depression but I can say that the lack of sleep is taking a toll on how I feel mood wise and just feel glum and hopeless at times. I do find the nights I don’t care and just go to bed and if I wake up and don’t care I sleep the best. It’s just hard that one or many days Ill feel that way and then boom, I go on a streak of anxiety and over thinking.
I really wish I knew what is going on 🙁 The past few nights I’ve been only able to sleep for 2 hours. From midnight to 2am-2:30 and then from then on, I try to relax and just can’t seem to turn my brain off. There were times a few weeks ago when that was possible but right now I am in this crap zone.
I think at times I need more than CBT-I and may need antidepressants or something I don’t know. I just feel awful today and although I am at work, being at home would be more depressing since I can’t even nap. I can’t lay down and even catch a snooze. I just start getting anxiety.
Hi Deb,
Things have been patchy. It’s like Ill get 1-2 weeks of 80-95% sleep efficiency and then things just fall apart and take time to get back on track. The therapist I am working with is one of the very few that is board certified in Canada in behavioural sleep. I wouldn’t be able to find anyone else that is as knowledgeable as him in the local area.
I do feel down when I have a few bad nights sleep and feel just exhausted, low, down during the day. I need some positive support! 🙂
Hi Deb,
Glad things are pretty good for you. The past few days have been rough. Last night I went to bed at midnight and was up at 2:30. Thankfully I fell back asleep until 5am but from 5 to 7am I was tossing and turning. Today I just feel so foggy and high anxiety. Today I just have little motivation and want to nap but if I do Ill feel the anxiety creeping in. It sucks.
Hi Dragon,
Reducing your sleep window will give you less time to worry about not sleeping. 11-7:15 is a bit too much I would say. The best way is to set the rise time to the time you need to get up usually So it could be 7:15 as it is but then your to bed time needs to be adjusted to say 12:30 or maybe even later.
It will suck but after a few days the sleep debt will accumulate and your sleep drive will help push you to sleep. What you want to achieve is consistency and sleep efficiency of 85% or higher.
Deb, glad to hear you are generally doing better. The past 6 days I’ve been sick with the flu and recovering. There isn’t much they say about how one should sleep. I tried to rest/sleep when I feel like I needed to and some nights were horrible, others I slept in because I felt really tired and my body was allowing me to sleep a bit longer.
Now I have to readjust myself back to my original sleep window. I feel run down today. I went to bed 30 minutes earlier than I should and woke up at 4AM and couldn’t fall back asleep.
Thank you. It helps knowing I am not the only one dealing with this and we can do this.
Support for me has been very helpful. My wife is with me in bed and out of bed to talk to when I feel like I am going crazy. Without her it would be much more difficult to cope.
Last night was rough. Went to bed at midnight and I have no clue when I fell asleep and when I did it must have been for 30 minutes to an hour and then more tossing and turning until the morning. I did some SC after laying in bed for 45-60 minutes. Just went to another dark room and sat down for 15 minutes to compose myself and try again. The crappy thing is even though I feel like taking the day off work, it will just make time at home slow and screw up my sleep/wake schedule that I’ve been working on.
I know we all sleep but I hate how my brain and body is so stubborn.
I have the same issue. I often wake up around 4-5:30am. My wife usually goes to bed around that time so I may be programmed to wake up at that time even if she decides to stay on the couch a bit longer until I wake up at 7.
For me I do both but I do hate SC. For me it depends on the time I wake up. If I wake up at 3 AM and know I can’t sleep then I go out of bed and wait and try again. If it’s 5:30 and have to be up at 7:00, I just figure Ill just stay in bed and hope I sleep again. Sometimes I do. It’s light sleep but I dream in and out but it is sleep. Other times I just lay and relax and not sleep.
I wish there was some consistency. I was on a decent sleep streak the past week or so and last night was a little crappy. I got a 4.5 hour block in so it wasn’t awful but by no means good. One sleep at a time.
