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Welcome to the forum! Concern for your health is understandable (and probably human)! There is no evidence that sleep duration causes any health problem whatsoever — so hopefully that might be one less thing for you to worry about! Quite often the real struggle with sleep comes from all our attempts to make a certain amount (or type) of sleep happen, since sleep is out of our control.
—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, Lorraine! What would you be doing differently with your life if every night was a great night? What are you trying to avoid when you take the sleeping pill and experience all the side-effects you described? Is that proving to be helpful?
—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.
Waking is a normal part of sleep and it can happen at any time during the night 🙂
Problems are more likely to happen when we try to fight or avoid those awakenings or try to make sleep happen — since all that stuff is out of our control!
—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.
What happens when you try to teach your students, Judi?
—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.
If you feel comfortable with your current sleep schedule, there’s no need to change anything. If you feel that you might be setting yourself up for a lot of wakefulness with your current sleep schedule, perhaps it might be worth experimenting with a new approach and reducing the amount of time you allot for sleep so it is a bit more closely aligned to the amount of sleep you are currently generating?
A clock doesn’t know when we are sleepy — trying to make sleep happen before we are sleepy can create some struggle and difficulty. It’s great to hear that you have been experimenting with a different approach and seem to be finding it helpful!
—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.
Sooner or later, sleepiness always happens — our arousal system can do a good job at suppressing it, but it usually shows up once we’ve been awake without any sleep for a certain amount of time. Sleep cannot be suspended indefinitely!
If you know from experience that you usually fall asleep pretty quickly when you go to bed at a certain time, without sleepiness being present, then you might simply give yourself a set bedtime. If you know from experience that going to bed without a strong sense of sleepiness can set you up for a lot of struggle, it might be worth waiting until sleepiness happens — even if that means no (or very little) sleep in the short-term.
Ultimately, though, the sleep window isn’t intended to make sleep happen or to get rid of wakefulness. It’s one tool that can help move us away from chasing after sleep — it’s all our attempts to make sleep happen, to get rid of wakefulness, and to fight or avoid the difficult thoughts and feelings that often come with insomnia that are the true cause of our struggle.
—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.
Hello Shelf and welcome to the forum. It sounds as though you’re saying that medication hasn’t proven to be helpful over the past 33 years so perhaps that might be an area that doesn’t require any more ongoing research, attention, and effort!
Understandably, you also haven’t found sleep hygiene, keeping sleep diaries, relaxation techniques, or meditation useful either — and that makes sense since none of those things can make sleep happen (since sleep cannot be controlled).
What’s your current plan for a different approach?
—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.
What’s your goal with sleep restriction? If it is to make sleep happen or to get rid of wakefulness you might be getting tangled up in a bit of a struggle since sleep cannot be controlled. Really, the sleep window helps ensure good conditions for sleep and helps move us away from chasing after sleep (for example, by going to bed earlier in an attempt to make more sleep happen or staying in bed later in an attempt to make more sleep happen). That’s about it.
If you’ve had insomnia for over two years, it’s unlikely that the initial trigger is still the main issue — it’s perhaps more likely that your completely understandable response to the sleep disruption is what’s providing the insomnia with the oxygen it needs to survive.
Anxiety can definitely make things more difficult, but it’s still possible to sleep when anxiety is present. What can make sleep a lot more difficult is trying to fight or avoid anxiety — because that requires so much energy and attention. And, since we cannot control our minds, the struggle is endless.
Sometimes a more useful approach involves practicing making space for difficult thoughts and feelings such as anxiety — that way, you move away from struggle and free up some energy and attention for other things. And those other things might help you live the kind of life you want to live, independently of sleep.
I think it’s perfectly OK to stay in bed when awake during the night and to do anything you like in bed during the night — wakefulness isn’t the enemy here. All the effort and struggle is often the real problem.
—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.
Although we have started working together since you posted this, I just wanted to post my appreciation for you sharing how helpful you found it to have a clear plan in place!
A plan of action can help eliminate all the “mental gymnastics” that can take place when we need to brainstorm what to do each day/night. Entering “robot mode” can make things a lot simpler!
One final note on plans and goals — we probably want to ensure they are based on action (something we can control) rather than outcome (something we can work toward but cannot make happen)!
It can also be helpful to consider how workable our plan might be — are we trying to control what cannot be controlled (such as sleep, wakefulness, thoughts and feelings)? If so, we might be setting ourselves up for a struggle!
—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.
Welcome to the forum! Waking during the night is a normal part of sleep. When we pay more attention to sleep these awakenings often become a lot more noticeable and it can also be harder to fall back to sleep if we start trying to avoid them or start trying to make sleep happen.
If you are concerned about the number of times you wake at night and have been told that you snore really loudly or stop breathing during the night, wake during the night with a gasp, or wake in the morning with a dry mouth, you might want to get evaluated for sleep apnea.
If you didn’t wake so often during the night, what would you be doing differently with your life? In other words, what would you do if you didn’t wake at night that you are unable to do now?
—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.
Hello Sabrina and welcome to the forum! How are you getting on since you posted?
Did you find that working less and taking medication to control your mood solved the problems you described in your post?
—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.
Fear is really difficult, right? And yet no matter how scared we might be when in bed, we are actually completely safe, right?
So, what’s going on?
Perhaps your mind is recalling all the struggle that has taken place in bed in the past and so it fires up in preparation to protect you from what it considers to be the threat of nighttime wakefulness and even your bed itself. In other words, your mind is doing its job of looking out for you and trying to protect you — it’s just that it’s maybe trying a bit too hard!
Perhaps the ongoing avoidance of fear and anxiety makes the appearance of fear and anxiety feel completely intolerable — something that must always be avoided at all costs (even though those emotions cannot physically harm you).
So, perhaps a workable way forward might be to train your brain that the bed is actually a safe place. That it’s not a place for struggle. That fear and anxiety, although very unpleasant, isn’t a threat or a danger.
What are your thoughts on that, and how might you achieve this, do you think?
—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 can do both at the same time; you can have an earliest possible bedtime (and only go to bed when sleepy enough for sleep) and get out of bed at the same time each day — and you can do something more appealing whenever nighttime wakefulness feels really unpleasant.
—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.
Hello Najrul and welcome to the forum! What changes have you made since you found Insomnia Coach? Worrying about your work life and your future is something that many people will identify with — we can’t really control those kind of thoughts and feelings since they are human thoughts and feelings! Sometimes much of our struggle comes from trying to control what our mind does.
—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.
I would suggest discussing the results of your sleep study with your doctor. Nobody here is qualified to interpret the information you shared with us, unfortunately.
CBT-I doesn’t require ongoing sleep studies since CBT-I is intended to help with chronic insomnia, not sleep apnea.
—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.
