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Welcome to the forum, Meryll! When you wake feeling exhausted, is that how you will feel for the rest of the day, or does how you feel change as the day progresses?
At the current time, when do you usually go to bed at night and when do you get out of bed to start your day in the morning? On an average night, how many hours of sleep would you say you are getting?
—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’re making real progress — and, at the same time, perhaps there is still some totally understandable resistance to experiencing difficult thoughts and feelings.
So, perhaps it might be useful to continue practicing ways of acknowledging when your body feels tense and uncomfortable. Observing those feelings and allowing them to come and go as they please (even though you wish they weren’t present at all!) instead of trying to fight or avoid them.
Similarly, it might be useful to practice acknowledging and observing the appearance of worry — something you will always experience for as long as you are a human being! Worry doesn’t prevent sleep from happening, but trying to fight or avoid it sure can!
—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.
Can you tell us a bit more about the CBT techniques you implemented for your insomnia? Which specific techniques did you implement, how did you implement them, and for how long? Why do you feel they didn’t 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.
Waking during the night is a normal part of sleep — so the fact you are waking after about four hours is not unusual. In fact, much of our struggle with these awakenings can stem from our desire and attempts to fight or prevent them!
When we try to fight or avoid nighttime wakefulness, we make sleep more difficult. When we find sleep more difficult we might then start chasing after sleep (by doing things like allotting ever-more time for sleep). The end result is often even more time spent awake, more fatigue, and the appearance of more difficult thoughts and feelings associated with insomnia.
This, in turn, can then lead us to exert more effort into sleep. We might start experimenting with medication, supplements, and other gadgets and gizmos. All these efforts can train the brain to believe that wakefulness is a threat — and when the brain thinks we are under threat, it goes into alert mode and that, of course, makes sleep more difficult.
In other words, it’s our (understandable but sometimes misguided) response to sleep disruption that gives insomnia the oxygen it needs to survive.
I hope there’s something useful here, John!
—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 on hypnic jerks helpful, if you haven’t seen it yet!
—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 what can be helpful is to do something more pleasant whenever nighttime wakefulness doesn’t feel good.
So, we allow wakefulness to exist for as long as it feels comfortable and if it starts to feel uncomfortable, we have the opportunity to do something more enjoyable instead.
That more enjoyable activity might be something we do in bed or out of bed — I would simply be mindful of intent. The intent isn’t to make sleep or sleepiness happen since if that’s our goal, we are engaged in a sleep effort and they’re not helpful since sleep doesn’t respond well to effort.
The goal is simply to make unpleasant wakefulness more pleasant.
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.
Ah, if only we could control our minds, right? Unfortunately there’s no off switch for the brain and there’s no delete button, either! For as long as we are human beings we will experience all different thoughts and feelings. Some feel good and some don’t. Some are useful and some aren’t.
And yet, at the same time, it’s not our thoughts and feelings that make sleep difficult — it’s usually the battle we engage in, as we try to fight or avoid them.
So, sometimes, a new approach can be helpful. An approach where we remove ourselves from a battle with our minds. Where we allow the mind to generate all the thoughts and feelings it wants. Where we acknowledge those thoughts and feelings and allow them to come and go as they please.
Sure, we don’t want them to appear — but there they are. The difference now is that we’re no longer engaged in a battle. We free up energy to do other things. And, when we aren’t engaged in a battle, we might find sleep becomes more likely!
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.
Welcome to the forum, Aimz35! If what you are currently doing isn’t proving to be helpful, perhaps a new approach might be useful? You always have the choice whether or not to use a Fitbit!
—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, Mams!
It sounds as though all the things you’ve tried are things that we might not expect to prove helpful since they don’t usually get to the things that keep insomnia going — the behaviors we implement in an attempt to make sleep happen and the relationship we have with the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with insomnia.
So, with this in mind, it’s normal for insomnia to continue even after trying sleep hygiene, exercise, and meditation.
A starting point for a new approach might be my free two week insomnia sleep training course.
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.
Thank you for sharing! It was a pleasure to work with 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.
Welcome to the forum!
If a sleep window of 12:00 AM to 6:00 AM feels like a good fit for you, go for it!
I often like to think of the start of the sleep window as an earliest possible bedtime but if you are finding it almost impossible to stay awake in the hour before the sleep window begins, feel free to go to 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.
There’s no evidence that melatonin is helpful for chronic insomnia — it’s another one of those things that we (totally understandably!) try in an effort to create a certain amount or type of sleep. And, as with all cases of insomnia, it’s all the effort that provides insomnia with the oxygen it needs to survive.
Effort to fall asleep.
Effort to stay asleep.
Effort to fall back to sleep.
Effort to feel a certain way.
Effort to fight or avoid certain thoughts.Without the effort, we have people who sleep just fine — as we can all find evidence for by asking someone without insomnia what they do to make sleep happen!
Best wishes for your telephone appointment; I hope it proves 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.
Would you like to share the specific techniques you’re starting to implement?
—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 to add to Scott’s comments, I wonder whether — when you look back on your life in 100 years — you’ll remember all the great nights of sleep you had or whether you’re more likely to remember all the rich and meaningful experiences that come with traveling to new places and socializing (even though they might also come with difficult thoughts and feelings, such as anxiety, as important things usually do)?
—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! It’s great to hear that you are living a rich and meaningful life, even in the presence of insomnia. I think that might go to show that insomnia doesn’t prevent us from living a rich and meaningful life — our actions determine the kind of life we live. And, fortunately, we always have control over our actions (whereas we have no control over sleep and all the thoughts and feelings our brain generates as it does its job of looking out for 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.
