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Hello Mike and welcome to the forum! Those roller coaster nights are not unusual — you might find this video helpful: How to stop the sleep roller coaster and make sleep more consistent and more predictable.
—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.
We usually see chronic insomnia when there is effort trying to fight or avoid nighttime wakefulness. This might be through our behaviors (sleep efforts, rituals, attempts to make sleep happen) or by trying to fight or avoid the difficult thoughts and feelings that often come with (and after) nighttime wakefulness.
As a loose guideline, what may be useful is:
1. Only going to bed when sleepy enough for sleep (not tired, but sleepy — as in, finding it hard to stay awake).
2. Allowing wakefulness to exist for as long as it chooses, and doing something more pleasant if it feels unpleasant.
3. Maintaining a reasonably consistent out of bed time in the morning.
4. Doing things each day that keep you moving toward the kind of life you want to live (and the person you want to be) even after difficult nights and even in the presence of difficult thoughts and feelings.I hope there might be 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.
When you tried the sleep window, what time did it start and what time did it end? How long (and how consistently) did you implement it for, before deciding it wasn’t helpful?
In terms of getting out of bed at night, I don’t think there’s any need to get out of bed just because we are awake. What can be useful is allowing wakefulness to exist for as long as it chooses to do so and for as long is it feels comfortable.
If wakefulness feels unpleasant, it might be helpful to do something more pleasant instead — and that more pleasant activity might be done in bed or out of bed, until conditions feel better for sleep 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.
I think a sleep window can be useful regardless of whether we’re experiencing sleep onset or sleep maintenance insomnia since it helps ensure we aren’t chasing after sleep and perpetuating sleep disruption with an irregular morning out of bed time. With that being said, it’s only one tool available to 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.
Hello again, Marc!
If you have no anxiety about not falling asleep or waking up and not falling back asleep, why is sleep a concern for you at the current time?
If you didn’t take medication, do you think you would remain awake indefinitely? Perhaps even for 365 days straight, without even a minute of sleep?
I wonder if all the effort to sleep might be making sleep a bit more difficult?
—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! You mentioned that you have delayed sleep phase syndrome — have you been medically diagnosed? If so were you given any treatment suggestions?
—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 start with my free insomnia sleep training course, Lee!
—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 find this video helpful if you haven’t seen it yet: How to stop the sleep roller coaster and make sleep more consistent and more predictable.
In terms of what to do or remind yourself when you wake during the night, it might be helpful to move away from “trying” to make sleep happen and it might be useful to remind yourself that waking during the night is a normal part of sleep.
—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 human body will always generate sleep once we’ve been awake for long enough. So, if sleep hasn’t happened for a long enough period of time, it might end up happening during the day.
Have you talked to your doctor about what you are experiencing?
—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.
Have you discussed a tapering-off plan with your doctor? During that week when you went without it, were you implementing any of the CBT-I techniques we talk about on this site?
—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 mentioned that you are going to bed at 11:00 PM — what time do you usually get out of bed in the morning to start your day?
Based on your post is sounds as though you average around three hours of sleep each night — does that sound right? Are there any occasional nights of more than three hours of sleep?
—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 helpful you found it to move away from trying to fight or avoid nighttime wakefulness and to do something more pleasant during periods of nighttime wakefulness! Often that helps create better conditions for sleep because we are no longer “trying” to sleep!
—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.
We don’t usually talk much about sleep hygiene here since that’s more preventative in nature and can easily trap us into a whole list of sleep efforts and rituals that can end up making sleep more difficult.
Since you can’t control how much sleep you get each night (you can only control the amount of time you allot for sleep), having a set aim there probably isn’t helpful.
In terms of setting up the conditions to fall asleep well, all we really need to do is go to bed when we feel sleepy and move away from sleep efforts and rituals — because with sleep, the more we try the more likely we are to struggle.
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.
Hello Erica and thanks for the great question! Are you truly sleepy enough for sleep when you go to bed? If not, you might be going to bed before you are ready for sleep to happen.
What time do you usually get out of bed to start your day in the morning? How many hours of sleep would you say you get on an average night?
—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. What you are experiencing is not unique or unusual and it really comes down to the entire reason why chronic insomnia exists — a strong desire to avoid nighttime wakefulness and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that often come with it.
Unfortunately, since we cannot control sleep and we cannot control what goes on in our minds, the more we try to avoid wakefulness and the more we try to fight or avoid difficult thoughts and feelings, the more likely we are to get tangled up in an endless, exhausting, and distracting struggle.
Sometimes, a more helpful approach can be allowing wakefulness to happen (even though you don’t want it to happen) and acknowledging and even making space for the difficult thoughts and feelings your mind generates as it goes about its job of looking after you.
This way we immediately free up all that energy that would have otherwise been spent engaged in a struggle and we might also free up some attention that we can redirect toward doing things that help keep us moving toward the kind of life we want to live and the person we want to be (even in the presence of all the difficult stuff that we cannot control).
I hope there might be 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.
