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Thank you so much for sharing — one year, wow! Time sure does fly!
—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 have a sleep window of 1:00 AM to 7:15 AM, then you are giving yourself the opportunity to get six hours and 15 minutes of sleep. Regardless of what happens at night, it can be helpful to ensure you are always out of bed by 7:15 AM — even if you have a night of no sleep whatsoever. This keeps sleep drive high, to help with sleep the following night.
If you go to bed and don’t fall asleep then conditions aren’t right for sleep to happen at that time. For people with chronic insomnia, that’s often because they aren’t sleepy enough for sleep, they are putting effort into sleep, they are putting pressure on themselves to sleep, and/or they are trying to fight/avoid all the difficult thoughts and feelings that usually like to come along for the ride!
—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 allow yourself to remain in bed when awake, for as long as that wakefulness feels comfortable. If wakefulness starts to feel really unpleasant, then you always have the opportunity to do something more pleasant until conditions feel better for 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.
It sounds as though your challenge might be your desire to eliminate uncomfortable feelings from your life — and that’s totally understandable! And yet, for as long as you are human, difficult feelings and thoughts will always be present.
So, what can be helpful is to acknowledge the presence of difficult feelings and thoughts when they occur and then to come back into your body and refocus your attention on the things that matter — the actions you can engage in that help you continue moving toward the kind of life you want to live and the person you want to be (even in the presence of difficult feelings and any unpleasant thoughts).
If we can practice refocusing attention onto what is in our control, we might start to put less effort into sleep, less pressure on ourselves to sleep, and sleep might start to have less of an influence over our lives. When all those things happen, we often start to sleep a lot better, too!
I hope there’s something helpful 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’re welcome! For more on the subject of making space for difficult thoughts and feelings (rather than battling with them), this discussion might be helpful, too.
—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! It’s not unusual to experience roller coaster results in the short-term!
Are you implementing that sleep window really consistently?
Are you going to bed as soon as your sleep window begins or are you thinking of the start of your sleep window as an “earliest possible” bedtime and only going to bed once you are finding it hard to stay awake?
Are you napping during the day?
Finally, when those difficult nights are happening, why do you think you’re finding sleep 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.
That’s not unusual at all — and, in my experience, it can be associated with our desire not to think certain thoughts or feel certain feelings/emotions.
If we can get to a place where we can make space for difficult thoughts and feelings to exist (rather than trying to fight or avoid them), they might start to have less of an influence over 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.
It sure can feel mysterious — and yet, there’s never any mystery when it comes to nighttime wakefulness!
If sleep isn’t happening, then conditions aren’t right for sleep to happen at that time. This could be because you aren’t sleepy enough for sleep or (perhaps more likely) you are putting effort into sleep, putting pressure on yourself to sleep, or trying to fight the thoughts and feelings that often come with nighttime wakefulness.
With sleep, the more we try, the more we get tangled up in 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.
If there’s no medical explanation for this, it’s probably not going to be too helpful to spend a whole lot of time troubleshooting — because that’s when we can get caught in a trap, trying to control sleep. Since sleep cannot be controlled, the more effort we put into it the more difficult it can become.
What’s most important is continuing to live the kind of life you want to live (and be the kind of person you want to be) even when those occasional difficult nights happen. In other words, if the difficult nights have less influence over us, they become less consequential and in turn they might become less noticeable and less frequent.
I hope there’s something helpful 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 and thank you for sharing your story.
Your experience is not unusual — there is a trigger for the sleep disruption but, once that trigger is no longer present/relevant, the insomnia seems to stick around.
The insomnia sticks around because of all the things we do (quite understandably, I might add!) to get our sleep back on track.
Common responses that end up giving insomnia the oxygen it needs to survive include going to bed earlier, staying in bed later, napping during the day, modifying our days in response to sleep, modifying our actions in a bid to “protect” our sleep, engaging in significant amounts of ongoing sleep-related research, experimenting with medication and supplements, putting effort into sleep, putting pressure on ourselves to sleep, and/or trying to fight or avoid all the difficult thoughts and feelings that like to come along for the ride.
If you’ve listened to any of the Insomnia Coach podcast episodes, I feel you might identify with many of the stories shared there. If that’s the case, perhaps that would suggest that your insomnia isn’t unusual and that there is a way through it!
I hope there’s something helpful 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.
I think that as long as the first thing you do with your thoughts and feelings is acknowledge them, your next step depends on whatever you find most helpful.
Do you simply allow them to hang out, to come and go like clouds in the sky? Some people find this helpful.
Or, do you look for inaccuracies (and perhaps evidence of these inaccuracies from your own experience) and look to change the thought itself? Some people find this helpful.
Conclusion: do whatever feels most helpful for you! And, by helpful, I mean whichever option results in you getting less distracted/consumed by your thoughts and helps you best redirect your attention onto the actions that help you live the kind of life you want to live and be the kind of person you want to be!
—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.
Just remember that our goal is never to make sleep happen (this is where stealthy sleep efforts can try to work their way in!) — the only goal is to make unpleasant wakefulness more pleasant!
—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.
Allow me to clarify my question! If you were getting the sleep you wanted to be getting and were free of all the thoughts and feelings you don’t want to be experiencing, what actions and behaviors would you be doing that you are not doing now? I’m talking about specific actions and behaviors here — things you would be *doing* (not how you would be feeling or things you would be 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.
A book is definitely in the works at some point! Acceptance can be such a powerful change in our mindset — and it frees up so much energy for more important, meaningful, and workable actions and behaviors!
—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 Amanda and welcome to the forum! What you are experiencing is not unusual at all — you definitely are not alone!
It’s great to hear that you are continuing to get your day started at the same time each day and you are continuing to engage in activities that keep you moving toward the kind of life you want to live, independently of sleep!
What’s your current cue for getting out of bed during the night, and what kind of things do you do when out of bed during your sleep window?
—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.
