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That does sound really difficult. How do you respond to the arrival of those physical sensations at night and how do you respond to the difficult sensations you described that occur during the day?
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
Increased cortisol is a normal part of the body’s stress response — and the stress response might come from the struggle we engage in to make sleep happen or to otherwise fight or avoid wakefulness and the difficult thoughts and feelings that can come with it.
Although nighttime wakefulness can be very unpleasant (especially when we are trying really hard to fight or avoid it) it’s not the same kind of threat as a hungry grizzly bear waiting under the bedsheets for us — and yet, our brain might not know the difference. Sometimes it requires training. It needs to learn that wakefulness isn’t such a threat. That it’s not going to eat us, like that grizzly bear might!
We can work on training the brain by doing things that help us move away from a nightly battle and the ongoing struggle. The more we allow wakefulness to exist without struggle, the more we might train the brain that it doesn’t need to activate the stress response.
I hope there’s something useful here!
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
It is, of course, important not to make any changes to your medication without talking to your doctor first.
If you want to give yourself the opportunity to sleep without medication — to train your brain that it can sleep without medication — what do you feel is the only way that might be achieved?
I wonder if the medication is making sleep happen, or if it’s the resulting elimination of effort that seems to make sleep more likely to happen. Once we take something we might delegate all the effort we’d otherwise engage in to make sleep happen, to get rid of wakefulness, onto whatever we’ve taken. When we are no longer involved in the natural process of sleep, when we are no longer “trying”, it often occurs a lot easier!
Perhaps there might be a useful insight here 🙂
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
You’ll probably always care about things that are important — we’re not trying to trick the mind here!
What we’re looking to do is to accept that there are some difficult things in life that we can’t directly or permanently control (like sleep, what we think, and how we feel).
With that in mind, perhaps all the struggle we might engage in to fight or avoid nighttime wakefulness (and the thoughts and feelings that can come with it) might be making things more difficult since that struggle gets us tangled up in an endless, exhausting, and futile battle?
What might things be like if we were able to build skill in moving away from that struggle? Perhaps we might have more energy? Perhaps this difficult stuff might be less influential and distracting? Perhaps we might be able to better live the kind of life we want to live?
So, we still care — but it’s no longer the focus of all our attention and it’s no longer the only thing we care about.
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
All your concerns are completely understandable and completely valid!
CBT-I can help us move away from behaviors and thought processes that keep insomnia alive. If you feel your current approach isn’t working, experimenting with a new approach might be useful!
Going one step further, ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy) techniques can help us move away from struggling with all this difficult stuff so we can better do the things that matter (such as taking care of our kids and anything else that is aligned with our values and that keeps us moving toward the life we want to live).
My six-week online course covers both approaches (and more).
I hope this helps!
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
This page should help, Pauline: Sleep restriction for insomnia.
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
Yes, things can get better — nobody is ever broken, it’s just that we can get stuck from time to time 🙂
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
My course includes both CBT and ACT coaching techniques (more of the latter). There’s no need to get out of bed during your sleep window if you don’t want to!
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
Acknowledging that some days are harder than others can be so helpful — it can also be a useful way to practice being kind to yourself when things feel difficult. Good on you for getting out there and moving toward the life you want to live, even though you feel tired Judy!
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
Thanks for the update! Yes, putting the alarm on the other side of the room might be a bit easier to do, compared to an an early morning workout (especially for someone like me)! Glad to know that’s proving helpful for you!
If I had someone relying on me to turn up to a morning workout (a training partner for example, or a coach or trainer I had an appointment with) then I’d be more motivated to attend (albeit begrudgingly)! I’ve no doubt that your experience as a personal trainer will be a big asset as you work through the course.
PS: Can you tell that I’m not really a morning person?! 🙂
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
Thanks for sharing!
Sometimes I wake up and remember a dream and sometimes I wake up and I don’t remember a dream. Then, I get out of bed and try to do things that keep me moving toward the kind of life I want to live — because, whether I want to remember my dream or not, I know that’s something I can’t control!
How do you currently respond to dream recall or being aware of what’s going on in your mind (something that might actually be quite handy)?
Are you getting tangled up in a struggle with it, trying to fight or avoid it? Or, are you acknowledging it and refocusing your attention on things you can control?
In terms of waking up feeling fresher, as you might guess that’s something that can’t really be controlled, either — and many people don’t feel at their best when they first wake, even if they are great sleepers (thanks to sleep inertia).
What might help shake off sleep inertia is any form of activity. A walk around the block, some stretching, perhaps a cool shower. How we feel often changes as the day progresses and how we feel first thing in the morning can be the low point of the day for many of us.
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
Thanks for sharing! How are you getting on with your goal of getting out of bed around the same time each day?
Are you down in the gym pumping some cardio, walking to the other side of the room to turn off your alarm, or something else?
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
It sounds as though you might have learned to associate your bed with a lot of struggle — one way to undo that might be to practice moving away from struggle when in bed.
Unfortunately, we can’t really control what goes on in our minds. There’s no way to permanently delete fear and anxiety out to make ourselves feel relaxed and rested on command. The more we try to control our thoughts and feelings, the more we get tangled up in a struggle and that can make things more difficult, just as you described.
If you don’t want to read in bed or get out of bed, what’s a more workable option?
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
You might want to consider my six-week online coaching course (you can read more about it on the Insomnia Coach homepage). I can’t say how long it will take for you to address the issues you face; that’s something out of your control. We can only control our actions — so we can practice and commit to more workable approaches if we feel our current approach isn’t proving to be helping! And, every time we practice, we make progress.
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
The good news is, we don’t need sleep confidence for sleep to happen — just as we don’t need breathing confidence for breathing to happen 🙂
If you feel that your current approach to wakefulness and the difficult thoughts and feelings that often come with it isn’t workable, you might find it helpful to explore a different approach.
That might involve implementing CBT-I techniques, ACT techniques, or anything else that might help you move away from struggling with all this difficult stuff.
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
