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Thank you for the reply Martin. I stopped looking at the time when I wake up. Just off to the bathroom and back then right into bed.
The insomnia has changed again, now I wake up feeling jolted and anxious everyday around 5:30-6AM. If I lay in bed, my body feels like adrenaline is going through it continuously. Hard to want to get up when the mornings are so cold here but at least I’m not groggy until 10AM like before. Still decreasing sleep medication slowly. I feel tired all day but trying to deal with it.Hi Recovery, sorry you’re going through it too! It’s so hard to deal with.
My original sleep window was 1:00AM-6:30AM. Over a few weeks I progressed to 11:30PM-6:00AM. I switched the wakeup to 6 because my partner started waking up earlier.
Now that I am having trouble with early awakening I will try a window of 12:00AM-6:00AM. I hope pushing the bedtime back to midnight again will help me not wake up early at 5AM. If that doesn’t help after some time then I will restart SRT with a 1:00AM bedtime again, which sounds horrible to me but I’m sure I will be able to handle it.Thank you for the reply Chee Hiung Yong. You make some great points. To answer your questions:
I feel fatigued when I wake up at 5. It’s hard for me to get enough energy to start going until about 8AM, and I don’t really feel awake until about 10 or 11. I get out of bed about 5:30 when it’s clear I am not going to fall back asleep.
I don’t take naps, I don’t seem able to fall asleep during the day.
Exercise is something I try to do regularly, 4-5 days week for 30+ minutes. I can try to be more consistent.
I will try restarting SRT again, I can do reading for school or study to stay up late and then find a low-stimulation activity to do an hour before the start of sleep window to wind down. It is a good time in my life for that because I am not working and only have school one day a week. It will be hard to go through that initial exhaustion again!Thank you for the response Martin. You made a good point to keep moving forward and working towards stability. Sleep has evened out for me since my last update, and the physical hyperarousal is not really an issue anymore.
Sorry for the late update all, I started school and it’s kept me very occupied. I am still taking Seroquel for sleep but weaning down slowly. I had one night where dozed off before I took the Seroquel so that was very promising.
I am sleeping for about 5.5-6 hours a night, with maybe one awakening lasting 20 minutes or so. For a couple weeks sleep was easier to come by, it was a struggle to stay up until midnight (my previous bed time) and I slept solidly for 6 hours a night.
Unfortunately mental health issues have reared it’s ugly head again this past and I am back to racing thoughts that disrupt sleep. My mind races constantly, not about anything necessarily negative, just a constant narrative. I am waking up about an hour too early as well. So instead of 11:40-6, I’m sleeping about 11:40-5. It’s terrible as I don’t want to be up at 5AM, it’s dark and cold at that time, and I could use the extra hour.
Any advice on this issue? I could try to adjust the bedtime later again to see if that would help, it’s just that I am already dozing off before my 11:40 bed time as is.
Maybe adjust the bed time earlier to 10-something so at least I’ll still be getting 6 hours, even if I am up earlier than I want to be? Any feedback is welcome and please update me on how you all have been.Thank you cwalters24 for the encouragement and sharing your experience. It’s easy to feel alone in this especially when the whole family is asleep and I am still up waiting for my bedtime. I have never been more aware of my heartbeat in my life. I did feel sleepy last night for a minute but then I took a shower and the feeling went away.
Hi niccynicole, I didn’t know there was medication that can help with those symptoms. I really want to get off of seroquel for sleep, as I don’t think it’s healthy. I have just been trying to relax more out of bed. When I get in bed I try not to push for sleep too hard, since paradoxical intention is supposed to help in this case. Thanks for sharing what you are going through.Thanks for your feedback. I had a sleepless night last night so this was really encouraging to see. I am trying to accept it. I try to have the thought in my head that I am just laying down to rest, not to sleep.
I am just discouraged at my apparent lack of sleep drive. I miss that drowsy feeling.
The fact that the medication didn’t help me sleep at all last night shows me that I may as well get off them in the near future but I definitely have to talk to my doctor before doing so.
I think I need to learn more about the cognitive part of CBT-I from different sources so I can better change my mindset around bedtime. I have recently started a free online mindfulness to help with the emptying of the mind since my brain races automatically about random crap all night.Thanks for sharing Recovery. Props to you for making it so far in this journey.
Having a hard day today, last night the meds didn’t really work so it’s one of those “didn’t know whether I was awake or asleep” kind of nights.
It’s encouraging to hear the arousal has gone down for you. Is this a result of the cognitive techniques and stimulus control?
Sorry for all the questions. If you don’t get that sleepiness feeling, how do you know when to go to bed?
I am in a pattern of taking meds (Seroquel) and then getting into bed, and try to be mindful/calm my thoughts until the med kicks in. Sometimes I get solid sleep for 3 hours, wake up to use the bathroom then fall asleep for another 2-3 hours. But then I have nights like last night where I take the med, lay down, try mindfulness, and then end up in this state of light sleep where I don’t know if I’m sleeping, dreaming or just thinking a lot, for hours. If I get up on those nights for stimulus control, then I won’t get back to sleep, just be up till the end of my window.
