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Thanks for the update — how time flies!!!
Even though you’d been struggling for decades and had tried so many different things to fix your sleep, you didn’t give up. You found the stories of others in the podcast, took a leap of faith and invested in yourself again by taking my six-week course.
Your understanding of sleep has changed. Instead of trying to control sleep, you developed skill in experiencing wakefulness (and the thoughts and feelings that come with it) with less struggle. That shift has freed you from the insomnia struggle.
You’ve got your life back and that’s entirely down to your own actions and your own natural ability to sleep! I wish you all the best as you continue to move forward 🙂
—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 7 day sleep diary is more interested in what your sleep routine looks like rather than just the amount of sleep that’s happening.
If you feel your sleep schedule (ie the time you go to bed and the time you get out of bed) will be a lot different when on holiday, I’d suggest waiting until you get back to finish it. If you feel your sleep schedule will be the same then you might want to just keep going with it while away.
Either way, you won’t get “kicked off”! Safe travels! ✈️
—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, the cycle can be broken. The first step to doing that might be to identify what is keeping you stuck in the cycle.
When hyperarousal shows up, how do you usually respond and what have you been learning from 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.
Napping during the day means less sleep might be needed (and, therefore, generated) at night — whether or not that’s a problem is something only you can decide for yourself!
There’s no specific action you can take to guarantee that sleep will happen, other than being awake for long enough. Many people notice that the more they try to make sleep happen, the more of a struggle it becomes.
With that in mind, perhaps the intent behind your practice of NSDR might be the most important thing to consider 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.
Welcome to the forum @JenW!
Not taking medication is important to you. I am sorry that your doctor didn’t take that seriously and truly listen to what matters to you.
CBT-I cannot make a certain amount or type of sleep happen. It can address some of the common behaviors that perpetuate an ongoing struggle with sleep, though.
You can absolutely move forward and free yourself from an ongoing struggle with insomnia without strict rules and without medication — and there are many examples of this to be found in the Insomnia Coach podcast.
YOU are the expert on you. Only you know what the “best” way to move forward looks like for you. You clearly know what matters to you and that will stand you in good stead as you continue to move forward.
@PaulDykstra1970 — You are clearly taking action, even though that action is hard! Not checking the time during the night can be so helpful!It might also be worth reflecting on whether making medication use contingent on whether or not sleep happens on the first “attempt” might, in turn, create more pressure to make sleep happen — and where that kind of pressure gets 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.
Hello Liza and welcome to the forum. The last three months have been really difficult for you. Even when you take medication, you aren’t getting as much sleep as you want to get.
Whether or not it’s OK to continue taking meds is something only you have the answer to — and it might also be a discussion to have with your doctor.
What have you learned from your experience over the past three months?
—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.
After 15 years of sleeping pills, you went an entire week of no sleeping pills whatsoever! What did you learn from that experience?
More recently, sleep hasn’t been happening as you want it to. You notice adrenalin rushing through you when you want sleep to happen. You know the pills are available as an option but you don’t want to take them.
Why is getting away from sleeping pills important to you? When you consider how to respond when sleep doesn’t show up, what options do you have other than medication?
—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 what you’ve been learning and that your practice of what you’ve been learning has been helping you deal with anxiety, fatigue, and nighttime wakefulness in a more workable way.
Through your actions, you’ve been reminded that your body knows how to generate multiple hours of sleep on multiple nights in a row. You’ve also been reminded that sleep doesn’t always happen as you might want it to — and when it doesn’t, you might be more likely to notice difficult thoughts and feelings like anxiety.
You know those thoughts and feelings come from your brain doing its job of looking out for you. Therefore, they cannot be stopped!
What matters is how you choose to respond to those thoughts and feelings and those nights when sleep doesn’t happen as you might want.
You’ve been responding by doing things that reflect who you are and who you want to be. You’ve been continuing to move toward the life you want to live, independently of sleep.
That sounds like the opposite of defeat to me!
—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 reflecting on all the progress you’ve noticed. As you have put less effort into trying to make sleep happen, there has been less struggle — and your sleep has improved.
With that being said, you still experience nights when sleep doesn’t happen as you want it to. Nights when your body is choosing to generate less sleep than you want it to generate.
When you are awake you notice your brain doing what brains do — generating thoughts. You are observing them and you continue to feel comfortable. With this in mind, what is making these periods of wakefulness a problem for you?
As the expert on yourself, what else — if anything — do you feel you should be doing or need to do differently when sleep isn’t happening as you might want it to happen?
—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’ve been through a lot over the last couple of weeks. And, with that, you’ve also experienced some nights when sleep didn’t happen as you might have wanted it to happen.
A huge reflection of your progress is in how you now respond. You continue to do things that matter. You go to classes and socialize even after very little sleep. That’s not easy and you still do it. Because those things are important. They reflect who you are and who you want to be.
Through your commitment to action, you are reducing the power and influence sleep has over your life and you are continuing to move toward the life you want to live independently of sleep.
This, in turn, can also help train your brain that wakefulness isn’t a threat it needs to be alert to protect you from, reduce the pressure you might otherwise put on yourself to make sleep happen, and gives sleep the best opportunity to take care of itself.
Thank you, too, for sharing your recognition that having expectations rarely makes things better — their best outcome is neutral (because we expected them to happen, after all)!
—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 — it’s great to hear from you!
You are noticing change happening as you practice what you are learning. Although there hasn’t been much struggle of late, you know that if and when struggle shows up in the future, you have the opportunity to practice responding in a different way.
And, each time you practice you build and develop skill in experiencing being awake (and all the thoughts and feelings that might show up) with less struggle.
I wish you all the best as you continue to move forward!
—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 are continuing to move through the course and explore ideas for dealing with insomnia in a workable way. If you try the sleep window again, how will you know if/when it is helping?
What other actions are you practicing from the course, and what are you learning from 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.
Hello Andrew and welcome to the course 🙂
Following a rigid rule of being in bed by 10:00 PM and trying to avoid the feeling of anxiety is pulling you away from the life you want to live. And, your experience is not unique or unusual.
It sounds like there’s an opportunity for change here, if you feel that following this rule isn’t moving you closer to where you want to be.
If your goal is to learn that life doesn’t stop at 10:00 PM, what do you need to do to reach that goal?
—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.
As shared by @Kshorkey27, feeling sleepy before bed (when there’s no effort or pressure to make sleep happen) and then feeling wide awake when you go to bed (when your brain fires up to protect you from the upcoming battle it predicts is about to happen) is very common. It can also be very frustrating.
If that surge of alertness comes from your brain trying to protect you from the battle and the perceived threat of being awake when you’d rather be asleep, what specific actions might help train your brain that wakefulness isn’t a threat and that wakefulness doesn’t need to lead to a battle?
—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 🙂
The early days of a sleep window are often the most difficult — especially if your goal with the sleep window is to make a certain amount or type of sleep happen.
How have things been going since you posted? It sure can feel like it’s impossible to function after a night of no sleep — and you have evidence from your own experience that you can function and you can get through those days.
As you shared, the more pressure you put on yourself to make sleep happen, the more difficult it becomes. What’s the opportunity there?
—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.
