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Jillyrunpee, sleep restriction is a bad name for it because it evokes a negative connotation right away. It is more like limit time in bed therapy. I was using my bed for TV watching, reading, and tossing and turning. It all starts by tracking your sleep on a sleep diary. After a week, you should have insight as to how much you are sleeping and how long you are in bed. You will probably find you spend a great deal of time in bed, but not all of it is sleep time. As I previously stated, sleep restriction is the hardest during the first three days. The biggest issue for me when I don’t sleep well is all the tension I get in my neck and shoulders. So it is somewhat painful during the first bit, but then you will fall asleep within minutes of hitting your bed.
As to your question on weed, it helps me a lot. I know Martin doesn’t advocate any crutches to help people sleep, but I find if I smoke 60 to 90 mins before bed, my tension and anxiety are significantly eased. I use indicas which are the best for helping you fall asleep. Of the research I’ve investigated, it seems weed will , initiate sleep faster, increase your deep sleep, but limit your REM (dream sleep). There is currently great debate as to the benefits of REM sleep, but most research and anecdotal commentary demonstrates that smoking weed totally inhibits dreaming. I’m probably limiting my recovery by smoking before bed, but I find it the easier route. Mind you, I rarely feel totally rested the next day, but it’s better than not sleeping. I am considering trying sleep restriction again without weed next time I have a week off.
Good luck.
I really dreaded the sleep restriction, but all the pills and weed I was using were just leaving me a wreck the next day, especially in the end when I was getting almost no sleep anyway. The formula worked for a long time then it did not. I knew i had been putting it off for years, but I had no choice but to try. The first night sucked because I got out of bed many times to disassociate my bed from sleeplessness. It isn’t easy, but it also wasn’t as bad as I thought. The worst part for me was the tension in my neck and back. I bought a small roller device which helped massage me. The worst day for me was day 3. I had to be at the rugby field all day and I was so tired and anxious. All I wanted to do was crawl into bed, but I toughed it out. By day 4, miracle of miracles, I slept 4.5 hours without pills for the first time in 10 years. I felt good. After a week I was sleeping 5 hours a night. My advice is to do it when you have some time off. It’s a lot easier to do the first week when you’re not having work pressure the next day. Set up somewhere comfy to lie when you’re not sleeping and go there if you don’t fall asleep within 30mins. Buy blublocking glasses or use an app which blocks out blue light. That way you can continue to use the TV to distract your anxiety without the awakening effects of blue light. I use a supplement called Kava which is an effective anxiety damper. Most importantly, don’t go to bed till your really tired. If you do, you’ll be frustrated and anxious. Read the Effortless Sleep Method by Sasha Stephens. It is so well written that it calms you down before you attempt any practice. The advice is eloquent common sense. Watch YouTube videos about sleep restriction. There are a lot of encouraging stories. If you’ve been suffering anyway, commit to the restriction. It frightened me so much that I wouldn’t even try for years. It slowly reprograms you to sleep better. I really didn’t think I could do it, but it’s yielded results. Just last night I had a bad 2 hour night, because J attended a wake and got loaded. But the two hours of unmedicated sleep I got wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I didn’t freak out. Also, don’t don’t don’t read negative insomnia posts. Most of them are about people in dire circumstances which you will identify with and give you anxiety. It’s so tempting, and I still continue to not follow my own advice, but you WILL get anxious. You have no idea what circumstances the posters are going through so don’t identify with them. This is a learned problem that takes effort and willpower to unlearn. Once you make some progress on that 3rd or 4th night, you’ll slowly gain confidence. That first week is the hardest. I sincerely hope you can do this. I hope I provided you with encouragement.
Cheers
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Read Sasha Stephens book The Effortless Sleep Method. Nearly all cases are learned behavior. The good news is you can unlearn them too. The body wants to sleep. Sleep restriction sounds awful, but it isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The first nights sucked, but I started to be so sleepy by the 4th night that I slept 4.5 hours without any medication for the first time in 10 years. I am now averaging 5.5 to 6 a night in the 4th week of the 8 week program. Don’t listen to the naysayers because you don’t know what they do every night. You’ll project their bad experiences on you and you will get anxiety from the belief that this will last forever. I now find my bed a comfortable place and look forward to getting into it. Read my post ” You Can Do It” for some encouragement.
Thanks for your response Jlee86. I’m on holidays now so I’m instituting new bedtime practices starting last night. I’m going to start a new thread and post my daily progress.
I had an equivalent of a nervous breakdown 10 years ago. Before that my sleep was okay, but I never stressed about it. During the stress breakdown, I first got insomnia. Coupled with the extreme anxiety I went through, sleep became a priority for me. Unfortunately it became too important to me and now I’m too rigid about the rules of my sleep that I ruined a lot of the spontaneity I used to have. I equated insomnia with the breakdown and sleep has become an obsession. I think a lot of my problem has been I’ve been too rigid about going to bed early. 10:30 may not sound like an early bedtime, but it is for me as I used to go to bed around 12:00. To get to sleep at 10:30, I force it by using a small dose of mirtazipine and a little cannabis. That worked very well for me until it didn’t work. Every three years or so I go through a bout of insomnia which stresses me out so much I can’t think straight. I obsess about sleep and am hyper vigilant about obtaining it. When things stop working it really messes me up . The idea of quitting the meds terrifies me. When I get insomnia, I don’t sleep at all (none) some days which frazzles me and lowers my resolve to sleep naturally. My biggest problem is that when I don’t sleep, I get manic instead of tired and I don’t know how to disassociate being really tired from the mania I get. I’m going into holidays so I’m going to take baby steps. These are some of the techniques I’m going to try: I submitted the post about the unusual living room with two beds. I’m going to start using only one bed for sleeping. I’m going to start going to bed later, which scares me because I’ve made my bedtime too early for 10 years now. I will get out of bed if I can’t sleep. I have no clocks in my room. The room is dark and usually cool.
Thank you very much for your reply. There is simply too much erroneous information out there and too many rules that contradict one-another to formulate a clear treatment option for years of sleep obsession and insomnia. Just by following up with me you’ve already provided me with some clarity.
