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Thanks for sharing! Yes, as a human being you’ll experience anxiety about all different things — including sleep! As you know, anxiety doesn’t feel good and so many of us respond by trying to fight or avoid it, and that’s what gets us tangled up in a struggle.
It sounds as though you learned a lot over the past year and that puts you in a stronger position, moving forward.
It takes time, practice, and commitment to build skill in moving away from trying to control what cannot be controlled and then getting jerked around by the ongoing struggle.
It sure sounds as though you are back and engaged in a more workable way of responding to 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.
Hello and welcome! Many people find it hard to get out of bed in the morning — so you aren’t alone! And, many of us are slow and unproductive in the morning — myself included (although it sounds as though you’re getting chores done which is definitely something)!
You might find it helpful to ask yourself whether staying in bed from 7:30 AM to 8:30 AM helps you live the kind of life you want to live. If it does, then it’s probably not a problem. If it doesn’t help you live the kind of life you want to live, perhaps a change might be useful?
I wonder if there are any activities you might be able to plan for yourself in the mornings that are aligned with your values and interests that might help you make the mornings more interesting/productive, if that’s something that’s important to you?
—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 anyone would like to connect privately with other members, please contact me and give me permission to privately share your email address and I will happily do so!
—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 like you have one of those very enthusiastic and eager minds that is working overtime trying to look out for you and protect you!
The fear you described, especially in connection to your awful and tragic experience, is understandable and it makes complete sense why your mind would generate such difficult thoughts and feelings. After all, its main job is to look out for you, right?
When your mind starts running like a film with special effects, how are you currently responding and how helpful/workable are you finding that response?
—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.
Glad you found it — I am guessing that you explored the Week 2 forum before you got to that section of this week’s course content; I admire your curiosity!
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the AWAKE exercise once you’ve got some practice in, if you’re willing to share!
—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.
Thank you so much for sharing — it sounds as though you are actively exploring a new approach and are doing so with a curious and open mind!
—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 Leslie!
It sounds as though you’ve found from experience that the medication merry-go-round might not be a workable approach for you — and you’ve already taken a big step toward a different approach by moving away from the mirtazapine after five years!
If you recognize the struggle with insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that can come with it as a bit part of the problem, I think you are very likely to find the course 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.
Welcome aboard! If you have any questions or just feel as though you might need a bit of support or extra guidance at any point, the client forum is always available to you. You are not alone!
—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.
Great questions — and they’ll be explored in a lot more detail in Week 2 of the course!
In the meantime, I don’t think there’s any need to do anything if you wake during your sleep window.
If you find yourself getting caught up in a struggle and it starts to feel really uncomfortable, you might do something more appealing instead (in bed or out of bed, your choice).
If you feel as though good conditions for sleep return during your sleep window, you can stop the activity and give sleep the opportunity to happen, repeating the process of allowing wakefulness to exist for as long as you feel comfortable.
Does this help?
—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.
CBT-I has been proven effective for chronic insomnia characterized by difficulty falling asleep and/or difficulty staying asleep/falling back to sleep.
Ultimately, chronic insomnia is pretty much the same thing from person to person — it’s sleep disruption that’s kept alive by all our understandable attempts to get rid of it.
CBT-I can help us move away from behaviors that we might be implementing in an effort to improve sleep/get rid of wakefulness/compensate for difficult nights that can end up supplying insomnia with the oxygen it needs to survive.
It’s important to note that CBT-I isn’t the only available approach. A newer approach — acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) — can also help since it can move us away from chasing after sleep (something that often makes things more difficult) and toward living the kind of life we want to live, even in the presence of difficulty.
My online course uses a blend of evidence-based approaches, based on the experience I have gained over the past 13+ years.
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.
It sounds like you’re making real progress and continuing to practice a new, more workable way of responding to all this stuff!
In what ways do you feel your mind is trying to sabotage you? What, specifically, do you notice it saying or doing? What kind of thoughts and feelings is it generating and how are you responding to them?
—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.
Do you think that acknowledging and observing all your thoughts and feelings rather than engaging in a struggle with them might be a helpful skill to develop, Grace? If so, perhaps practicing the AWAKE exercise might help with that?
Getting out of bed and staring into space doesn’t sound very pleasant — and it might be a form of avoidance which might not be helpful since even when we try really hard to fight or avoid difficult thoughts and feelings they always end up coming back anyway, right?
—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.
Alcohol can cause some sleep disruption (but one or two drinks are unlikely to influence things much).
With that said, there are probably as many triggers for sleep disruption as there are people in the world — it’s not really possible to eliminate them all!
What might be more important is doing things that are aligned with our values and that keep us moving toward the kind of life we want to live — even if that might involve some temporary sleep disruption.
After all, if we live our lives with the goal of protecting our sleep at all costs, we might end up not living much of a life at all, right?!
—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’d suggest doing what feels right — your goal isn’t to get rid of wakefulness or change what you’re thinking or feeling (none of that is in your control, unfortunately!). The goal is to practice experiencing wakefulness with less struggle and that can be done in bed or out of bed 🙂
—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.
Why did you get out of bed rather than staying in bed, Grace? When you moved to the sofa, what did you do when you were on the sofa?
Can you share a bit more about what you mean by “make peace” with the thoughts your mind is generating as it does its job of looking out for you? Are you perhaps trying to fight or avoid them (something that can often create struggle)?
Thoughts are 100% real and sometimes they’re really difficult, too. And, as you know from experience you cannot permanently fight or avoid them. They always come back, just as you described, right?
So, perhaps trying to fight or avoid them (or otherwise control them) might not be a workable approach? Perhaps those attempts might be the true cause of the struggle you described?
If that’s the case, what might a more workable response be, 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.
