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Thanks for the update! All the improvements you are enjoying are down to your own natural ability 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.
It sounds as though you are/were struggling with a lot of the stuff that’s out of your control: sleep itself, anxiety, etc.
I wonder how much energy you might free up to do all the things you want to do with your life if you are able to drop that struggle and allow difficult thoughts and feelings to exist instead? To acknowledge their presence, allow them to come and go as they please, and do things that are important to you regardless of whether they’re currently hanging out or not?
—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 I think can be really helpful is recognizing what we can control and what we cannot control.
Things we can’t control include sleep, our thoughts, our feelings, and our emotions. The more we try to control what we cannot control, the more we will struggle (and that struggle can be exhausting!).
Fortunately, we can always control our actions — and if we can shift attention here, all the difficult stuff that exists as part of being a human being might start to have less of an influence over us.
So, for example, it can be helpful to acknowledge difficult thoughts, feelings, and emotions (such as fatigue and irritability) rather than trying to eliminate them. Then, while making space for that difficult stuff to exist, we might engage in activities that are aligned with our values and help us move toward the kind of life we want to live.
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 wonder if the “missing piece” might be the struggle with anxiety? For as long as we try to fight or avoid anxiety, we’ll continue to get tangled up in an endless (and exhausting!) battle with it.
The more we try to sleep, the more we try to avoid wakefulness, the more we try to control our thoughts and feelings, the more challenging all these things become — because we cannot control them!
I wonder if making space for anxiety to exist, to acknowledge its presence and allow it to hang out for as long as it likes, might be a huge weight off your shoulders?
—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 would you be doing differently in your life if you woke to your alarm each day rather than waking an hour or so before it went off?
—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 you are experiencing is not unusual at all! First of all, you might want to make the hour before your sleep window begins the last time you check the time at night and allow yourself to go to bed whenever you feel sleepy enough for sleep.
It’s also OK to be awake at night — everyone spends time awake. It’s a normal part of sleep! So, if you are awake in bed, that’s OK! I would suggest simply allowing that wakefulness to exist for as long as you feel comfortable.
If that wakefulness starts to feel unpleasant, you might want to do something that helps make being awake a bit more pleasant instead, until you feel sleepy again.
As human beings, we experience a lot of thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Some feel good and some do not. We just cannot control this part of being a human being. What we can control are our actions — and that’s important because it’s our actions that decide whether we move toward the kind of life we want to live, or away from the kind of life we want to live.
If we can continue to do things during the day — no matter how small — that help us move toward the kind of life we want to live, even after difficult nights and even in the presence of difficult thoughts, feelings, and emotions, the struggles we face in life might start to have less of an influence over us.
When we free ourselves from the struggle, we might start to sleep better, 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.
As Chee mentioned, if you don’t feel comfortable with a sleep window, you don’t have to commit yourself to one!
You might simply give yourself a consistent out of bed time in the morning (if you feel comfortable with that) and then only go to bed when truly sleepy enough for sleep at night (sleepy as in you are finding it hard to stay awake).
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.
@Helen B — moving past insomnia is very rarely easy and often involves a lot of challenge, setback, difficulty, and struggle. That is why it’s so important that we be kind to ourselves while on this journey!
Fortunately, even though there’s a lot of confusing messaging out there, there’s actually no evidence that chronic insomnia *causes* any health condition whatsoever.
—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, Codycode — thanks for sharing that you’re finding the YouTube channel 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.
Nothing unusual here — it all comes down to the reason why insomnia exists; a strong desire to avoid nighttime wakefulness that can, in turn, train the brain to think that wakefulness is a danger/threat it needs to be alert to protect you from.
Ultimately, we need to train the brain that it’s OK to be awake. We can do this in a few different ways, such as:
1. Not chasing sleep (a sleep window helps here)
2. Making unpleasant nighttime wakefulness more pleasant
3. Doing things during the day that help us move toward the kind of life we want to live, independently of sleepI 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.
Hello Grangers and welcome to the forum!
When we are sleepy, we will generally fall asleep pretty quickly. That’s all sleepiness means. Cues for sleepiness vary from person to person but often involve difficulty keeping our eyes open. Yawning isn’t always a sign of sleepiness since many of us yawn as soon as we see someone else yawning — even if we just woke up!
The best time to go to bed also varies from person to person. If you find yourself struggling with sleep, it might be useful to only go to bed when you are finding it hard to stay awake!
Worrying about sleep is normal and natural and, in itself, doesn’t disrupt sleep. However, trying to fight or avoid that worry can make sleep more difficult since you are then battling with your mind. When we are engaged in a battle, the mind isn’t going to let sleep come easy!
When it comes to checking your eyes in the morning, that’s understandable, too. Yet, at the same time, I wonder how helpful this is — since you cannot control sleep and you cannot control how your eyes look.
What you can control — always — are your actions. So, even after difficult nights (and even when there are bags under your eyes) you can still engage in activities that help make life worth living. If you can do that, all these difficult things you have no control over might start to have less of an influence over you.
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.
There is no evidence that chronic insomnia causes Alzheimer’s — so hopefully that’s one less thing for you to worry about! In addition, the active ingredient in Benadryl (the antihistamine diphenhydramine) is ignored by the body after about three days of consecutive use. So, this means that all the sleep you got over the 10 years of taking that drug was generated by your body’s own natural ability 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.
I wonder if acknowledging that fear might be more helpful to trying to get rid of it? Fear is generated by the brain in an attempt to protect us and look out for us — if we try to fight it, the brain might think we’re ignoring it. So, it generates even more intense fear in an attempt to get us to listen!
It’s OK to spend time awake in bed — you might want to let yourself stay in bed at night for as long as you feel comfortable in bed! Who knows, sleep might happen!
If that wakefulness starts to feel really unpleasant, then you can simply give yourself the opportunity to do something that will help make being awake a bit more pleasant. This might not even involve getting out of bed!
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, Gail! If you have any questions, please let us know!
—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, Dan. What you are going through isn’t unusual. It sounds as though you’re experiencing a lot of difficult thoughts and feelings — and they sure don’t feel good!
As a result, we all have a natural desire to fight or avoid them. Unfortunately, we just can’t control our thoughts and feelings — not over the long term, at least.
The more we try, the more we get tangled up in a struggle. It’s not really thoughts that make sleep more difficult — it’s all our attempts to fight or avoid them.
I wonder if it might be helpful to make a bit of space for those difficult thoughts and feelings to exist instead? To allow them to hang out for as long as they wish? To give them permission to come and go as they please?
If nothing else, you will get to drop the struggle and that, in itself, might take a huge weight off your shoulders!
—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.
