Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
So nice to see the support here! Overcoming insomnia is hard, but it is not impossible. Change your perspective, live your life regardless of your sleep situation and literally make no effort to fall asleep and you will see some improvement.
Hello Rubylight!
First, ask yourself why are you so scared of not sleeping? In my experience, my anxiety started to develop because I was so aware of the benefits of sleep and since I was not sleeping, I thought my health was going to be really affected by this. This kind of thinking was building my anxiety day by day. I wanted so desperately to sleep to avoid all the bad consequences regarding insomnia and sleep deprivation, but ironically, by chasing sleep, sleep was running away from me! Once I decided to not care so much, my anxiety started to decrease and my sleep was returning to me without any effort from my side. That is why my advice to you is to reflect about your fear of not sleeping and start practicing an attitude of “I don’t give a damn”. This might sound like it is nothing, but trust me, it does help! This also follows what Martin is saying above.
I still found myself having anxious thoughts, I am not going to lie to you. What I try to do is just stop for a bit and reflect about what I’m thinking. Sometimes my mind fears that I am not going to be able to sleep that night. And I think to myself “there were several nights that you were scared and you still slept”; also, I think “so what if I don’t sleep at all? I don’t care, I will be just fine”. By doing this, my minds gets calm and I start to relax. With relaxation, sleep comes along.
I really hope this helps you! I know it is not easy going through this, but engaging in a different perspective can help.
Hey Lynnbet! I know exactly what you mean! Even though my insomnia has gotten a lot better, I still struggle with some anxiety at night! I guess it is normal because this is a process and we can’t expect things to change drastically, we need to be patient! Also, we need to make sure that we understand that a bad night of sleep can eventually happen (no one has a fantastic night of sleep every single day for their entire lives!), and that’s ok, it doesn’t mean that our insomnia is getting worse, it is just one night ,and again, this a process that is not linear!
I know that my anxiety is still here and I still need to work on that, its an everyday battle with our minds, but we can do this! Things look so much better now than they did 1/2 months ago, so I’m staying optimistic! Good luck for you 😉
