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Steve, No, I’ve only done Zoloft for 2 nights. It was prescribed for me at night because it tends to cause drowsiness.
Deb-
It sounds as if I’m going through the same thing as you. My last post on January 7, I was doing great! I tried weaning myself off of my melatonin 2 weeks ago, and it was taking me longer to fall asleep so I reinstated it. But, downward spiral… I had my first Nil night two nights ago. Slept great the next night, because I was exhausted. Then couldn’t fall asleep for 3 hours last night. I did all the welcoming, accepting thoughts etc. but I felt myself struggling. I got up and read for a half hour and went back to sleep for 2 hours. Had to go to the bathroom and wasn’t able to go back to sleep. Zombie day. I honestly think I’m relaxed in bed , but sleep just doesn’t happen. I’m singing Happy birthday to anxiety, noticing my breath and meditating every day. But I’m a mess. I actually think I need to go back to CBTI for a bit, incorporating ACT while I’m in bed. My window was 10 to 6 and I slept 6-7 hours most nights. I just went on Zoloft yo help with anxiety. Praying it helps. Deb, how do I book an appointment with Dr. Kat? I sent an email. My best to all.Manfred-
Please don’t try to do this on your own. Sign up for the course if you can, it’s so worth it!
SC is tough, and I think 15 to 20 minutes is more like it. I would stay in bed longer if I felt Sleep was possible. It did work for me, and yes some nights I was up and down several times.Whitelori-
On Ten Percent Happier, start with the Basic Meditations. There are 15 total. The App is $99 a year I think, you can do a free trial for a week. I love them all. They have some for everything, stress, anxiety, dealing with difficult emotions. It’s such a beautiful compliment to the Sleep Book. I need a guided meditation. I can’t do it on my own as effectively. I have a set time every night when my husband takes a shower, after dinner. Around 7 pm, I look forward to this time every day! It has helped with ongoing daytime anxiety as well, because the meditations are all alike in that they help you to be in the present moment. I use the tools I’ve learned if I’m I’m ruminating on an anxious thought. Bring mindful is recognizing it, noting it and returning to my breath. It takes practice. I’ll say to myself, “Oh Hello Scary Thought! Welcome! Same thing as being Mindful at night. Hope this helps. There’s Science behind Mindfulness and anxiety, but you have to make time every day to practice it. It’s a skill. Blessings to all! Another cool thing, is I’ve never done the same meditation twice. The app also keeps track of your meditation hours and can schedule reminders.
Hi All-
I don’t post much but I wanted to share again what has been key for me to heal my insomnia. It’s a process for sure, my sleep isn’t perfect. I go to bed by 10 and am usually wide awake by 5:45 or 6. Anxiety is a problem for me as well, was on Lexapro for 30 years. Went off 2 years ago. If I have a health scare, argument with a child etc. my insomnia reappears. I have a problem with an overactive, anxious and ruminating mind. The key to ACT is mindfulness! Every day. Not at night, during the day. 15 to 20 minutes. I have been very consistent with this, and it has greatly helped my daytime anxiety as well. Sleep Book Chapter 2, p. 85 and on, talks about this being the key to Acceptance. Mindfulness is living in the present moment. If you don’t practice it in the daytime, you can’t reach a place of Acceptance at night. I have recommended before the TenPercent Happier App. They have new meditations every day. I have never done the same one twice. I have been doing this faithfully since May. Hundreds and hundreds of minutes. Mindfulness helps me realize that my thoughts are nothing, they can’t hurt me. As Dr. Guy says in his website meditations, they are like passing train cars. You are on the platform watching them go by. You don’t interact with them. It takes practice during the day, then it is easier at night! I’m sleeping with my husband now, being flexible with my sleep window. Going out at night. I have my life back! CBTI with Martin got me so far, and this helped me over the finish line. It has helped greatly with daytime anxiety as well. It hurts my heart to hear you all taking about acceptance if you’re not putting the time in to practice Mindfulness religiously during the day. Mindfulness changes the Amygdala of the brain, it works!
Praying for all of you on this journey.Mac-
When the early awakenings happen, do you get angry, sad , frustrated? These are the feelings you need to work on. Whatever feelings you deal with when you awaken early. Happy birthday Frustration? It must be hard not to focus on some of these feelings.Mac- please read Guy Meadows book! And reread it and reread it! Don’t buy trouble, don’t go to bed until you’re sleepy. Practice mindfulness meditation every day. Several times a day if you can. That makes it easier to practice at night. Meadows’ stuff work! I was singing Happy Birthday to my fiery ball of anxiety last night. It sounds silly, but these methods help to separate yourself from your anxiety.
Mac, Steve-
I’ve been doing both CBTI and ACT, and they are not incompatible. The reason I have been successful with ACT is that I have a semi flexible sleep window. I go to bed almost every night at 10, and usually wake up around 6 am. I have a hard time sleeping longer than that. I would never go to bed before I had a reasonable chance of going to sleep. That would be counterproductive, and set me up for unnecessary anxiety. I don’t set the alarm, and if I sleep till 7am that’s ok.
I’d venture to say that Deb is practicing a version of SC when she gets up at night to journal for a few minutes. If, I could have gotten up for a few minutes on Thanksgiving night I would have. (House full of guests) if the anxiety is too unrelenting , getting up for a few minutes would perhaps break it up.
On a side note, I traveled to visit my mom last night and it took me 4 hours to fall asleep. Slept fitfully for 4 hours and felt pretty crummy today. Spent 4 hours practicing ACT and might have gotten some light sleep. The battle is real. My best to you all.Deb- Sorry about your off night! I had 2 off nights over Thanksgiving. Both had explanations. One was Thanksgiving night when I hosted 19 people for dinner! Went to bed annoyed with some family members and couldn’t turn off monkey mind. I’d been practicing mindfulness every day, and had been so successful with ACT for the last 4 months or so. That night I was trying too hard to welcome etc. and I realize now that I was working myself up into an anxious mess. I actually considered getting out of bed, and would have to have broken my thought train, but I had people sleeping all over the house! I sadly felt like a zombie the next day with visiting family. It took me a good week or so to finally get my confidence back. I reread parts of Guy’s book and realized that night I was truly not accepting, but fighting my insomnia again. I had gotten so used to good sleep that I was shocked and super annoyed that insomnia was back! Happy to say my good sleep has returned!
Thanks Deb for checking in on me!
I just returned from a 10 day pilgrimage to Italy. It was scheduled before the onset of my insomnia 11 months ago, and I have been very nervous about going on it. I have been averaging 6 to 7 hours a night for the last 3 months, with 6 bad nights. ( I know, I count. I’m OCD) Every bad night can be explained by things such as traveling, too much stimulation before bedtime, health scare etc. I was so worried about jet lag and having a relapse. The first 3 nights in Italy I slept poorly, maybe 2 hours a night. I started to panic. I was working on acceptance etc., but finally slept well the rest of the trip. I think my body was finally acclimating to my new time zone, (and I was exhausted!). On the plane coming home, I think I was the only one awake, save the pilot! ?. I was afraid of lowering my sleep drive, and relapsing again. So far so good though!
I’m starting to trust in my body’s ability to sleep, and taking this trip on the road has reassured me even more. I try to do mindfulness meditation every day for at least 15 minutes. I really attribute this to helping with my recovery and lowering my anxiety. This forum has been a lifeline for sure. I do try to never go to bed unless I’m sleepy, usually 10 pm. I do tend to wake up during the night every couple of hours, and I cannot sleep any later than 6 am for the most part. I’m relaxing other things, like watching tv in bed from time to time as well. Thank you all again for sharing your journeys with me.Deb- I really enjoyed your video! You’re terrific! I can totally understand why you had a hard time going to sleep after that big night!
I’m still so freaked out if I can’t go to bed close to my 10:30 pm sleep window. I try to go to bed every night close to 10 or so. I never set the alarm, but am up like clockwork by 6 am. I literally wake up every night around every 2 hours, then I have my a 3 hour stretch at the very end. I’ve been averaging around 7 hours a night. Praise God! I think the key to my success is mindfulness meditation every day. 20 minutes. I suffer with anxiety and this practice enables me to combat that during the day. Hubby and I are getting ready to go to Italy for 10 days, and I’m really concerned about jet lag and relapsing. The past 9 months of insomnia has impacted my life in so many ways. Friendships have suffered because I didn’t want to go out at night. I’m an artist, and it’s affected my ability to paint. The sleep I took for granted for so many years, became the focus of my life. I have made so much progress, and I thank you all for accompanying me on this journey.
Thanks Deb for asking!
I am now returning home from a 10 day road trip. I’ve been blessed with for the most part, 7 -8 hours a night since I last posted. A good 8 week run. Hubby and I are driving home now from a 10 day road trip visiting family. I’ve slept 3 different places and have surprisingly slept really well, even watching tv in bed every night because we were in hotel rooms. It was a huge confidence boost for me. The night before we left and 2 nights ago, I struggled with 4 hour nights. The first time I was anxious and wound up
about getting on the road and couldn’t sleep. Two nights ago, I had a hard time dealing and shutting down racing thoughts after a family reunion. I honestly think it was because I went 2 days without meditating. Tried hard to accept and welcome the anxiety and racing heart, feel like I need to revisit my ACT toolbox. Sleep has been pretty effortless, so it kind of worried me. Last night however was a good night, my sleep drive was high.Just finished listening to Martin’s podcast with Nick. It was really worthwhile. They talk a lot about ACT. They refer to it as the graduate school of CBT-I. I totally agree with that. I don’t think I could have done ACT without the foundation I got from Martin. The best thing about ACT for me is the help it’s given me in dealing with the anxiety surrounding my insomnia. Practicing mindfulness meditation has been a game changer for me.
Thank you all for your sharing and encouragement.So glad everyone is checking in. I’m in my 8th week of 5- 8 hours of sleep with one bad night. I’m using a rough 8 hour sleep window. No SC. My poor night of 1 hour sleep was night before a biopsy. ( which turned out negative). Thankfully I was able to recover from that poor night. I welcomed anxiety the next few nights. After realizing that I was working too hard breathing and welcoming, I finally just tried to do what is described on page 167 in the book, what normal sleepers do. I was afraid to allow my brain to gently wander. If I started going down a rabbit hole on a thought, I would mindfully bring myself back. I was overdoing welcoming and breathing. ( I have a tendency to be a perfectionist!). When a 5 hour night comes up, I try to focus on the rest I am getting, and the realization that I’m probably getting light sleep. Getting ready for a 10 day road trip. Bringing my book with me, also planning on practicing mindfulness every day! God bless you all.
I follow a new guided meditation each day. Haven’t repeated one yet. There’s about a 4 minute video explanation first, and then the meditation. Focusing on the breath or another focal point, noting thoughts, sensations or emotions when they appear, then focusing back on breath. This has helped me at night so much! If during the day a thought comes in and I get anxious, I note it and go back to my breath. The practice during the day reinforces mindfulness at night. Sounds a lot like Guy’s book doesn’t it?
Hi All-
I’m almost afraid to put this in writing but I’ve had 5 straight weeks of between 6 – 8 hours of sleep. Up until then, after my completion of Martins course I was averaging 2 nights of insomnia a week. I was addicted to my sleep rituals, special glasses at night, rigid wind down, rigid SR, SC, lavender, melatonin, light therapy box etc. I attribute my ongoing healing, I will not say cure, to doing 15 + minutes of mindfulness meditation a day. I have done this pretty much daily since May. I try to use my mindfulness tools throughout the day as well. As I told you before, I need a crutch so I use the 10% mindfulness app. You are assigned to an online coach that you can ask questions etc. I have been diagnosed with generalized anxiety in past, and this has helped my daytime anxiety immensely!! Don’t they say it takes 8 weeks to shrink the amygdala? I consider my insomnia now to be a GIFT that has enabled me to defuse my anxiety during the day! I have shed all the rituals except the lavender, light therapy box and the melatonin. I do modified SR. I want to go to bed sleepy! I’m trying to be more flexible and play with it some. For example last night was the first time since January that I went to bed without reading for 20 or so minutes. Did I tell you I’m also OCD? : ). I went to bed after watching tv, (not in bed) and lo and behold I slept! It’s almost like taking a cast off a broken bone, I’m very cautious about my healing but feeling so very hopeful. I don’t set my alarm, and try not to clock watch, (sometimes I do). My window is about 10:30 to 6. I can’t seem to sleep past 6 am, and that’s another gift of my insomnia. I love the early mornings now! I’ve read Guy Meadows book twice, but really got more from his app, cause I’m a visual person. So as I told Martin, I think I’m doing a hybrid ACT with CBTI. Mild SR with Mindfulness has been the key. Although I don’t post much, I pray for you all and your recovery every day! I also pray in thanksgiving for Martin who set me on my path to healing.
