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Your experience with the “sleep obsession” and adoption of sleep hygiene rituals that can make sleep feel even more burdensome (and have us remove things we enjoy from our lives) is very common. Wayne got really obsessed with his sleep, to the point where he kept color-coded journals (he now realizes this probably wasn’t a helpful strategy!).
To answer your questions:
* I find that most of the videos target chronic insomnia, therefore I was wondering if CBTi is appropriate to my situation?
CBT-I is intended to help with chronic insomnia, which is considered to be three months of sleep complaints. However, if you recognize that you are spending a lot more time in bed than you typically spend asleep, if you now associate the bed with unpleasant wakefulness, if you find yourself rearranging your life in response to sleep, and if you find yourself really struggling with difficult thoughts, feelings, and emotions, I think you will still find cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques helpful.
** Is it “normal” to have these short chunks of sleep in the first week of RS while I allocate at least a 6 hour window?
We can’t really draw any inferences from the first couple of weeks of sleep restriction, since we are adapting to a new schedule and whenever we do something new, the mind is usually a bit more active to monitor/evaluate the effect of the changes we are making. Many people find that their sleep even gets a bit worse in the short term.
*** The last question is – although I used to sleep well falling asleep very quickly and sleeping pretty long, I rarely felt a sleepiness in the evenings (I used to feel it when I was younger). What could this mean?
We don’t always feel a strong sense of sleepiness in the evening — for people without insomnia, that’s probably because they aren’t really monitoring for it and they simply enjoy being in bed at night. So, they just go to bed at a similar time or when they feel relaxed enough for sleep to happen. For people with insomnia, high levels of arousal can suppress or hide sleepiness cues.
You might find this video helpful: How to improve sleep when you don’t feel sleepy and don’t know how to get sleepy.
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.
As you suggested, it sounds as though you are (quite understandably!) placing a lot of importance on sleep. This, in turn, can lead us to put pressure on ourselves to sleep and put effort into sleep — things that make conditions for sleep less favorable.
I am a bit surprised by your experience with feeling *sleepy* since people with chronic insomnia typically feel fatigued rather than sleepy (when we are sleepy we are finding it hard to stay awake — and when we are extremely sleepy we might fall asleep without warning). Have you ever fallen asleep during the day without warning?
What is the start time and end time of your current sleep window and how much sleep do you feel you’ve been averaging each night over the past week or two?
—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 Kazza and welcome to the forum.
Your response to that sleep disruption is as understandable as it is a textbook example of how our behaviors can perpetuate sleep disruption. This is good news since it means that some behavioral changes might help turn the tables on your insomnia and create significantly better conditions for sleep.
Have you tried implementing any cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques 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.
Hello Mango and welcome to the forum! What changes have you started to make? I’d love to know more!
—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 make a great point that most of the posts here in the forum see individuals mention anxiety — and I am yet to meet someone with chronic insomnia who doesn’t identify anxiety (or at least worry) as something that has a negative effect on their sleep!
With that being said, I need to clarify that I have never claimed insomnia is perpetuated only by anxiety. Insomnia is perpetuated by thought processes and behaviors that weaken sleep drive, disrupt the body clock, and/or heighten arousal.
If someone is regularly going to bed at 6:00 PM, getting out of bed at 6:00 AM and is unhappy with the fact it takes hours to fall asleep, they are spending hours awake later in the night, and they are getting four hours of sleep, we might recognize that this behavior is likely perpetuating their insomnia — rather than anxiety.
If someone gets out of bed at 6:00 AM one day, 10:00 AM the next, 3:00 AM the next, 3:00 PM the next and is unhappy that their sleep doesn’t seem to be consistent and that they often feel fatigued and groggy, we might recognize that this behavior is likely perpetuating their insomnia — rather than anxiety.
Insomnia can be triggered by any number of things — including all the examples you gave. However, if these triggers are no longer relevant and/or are no longer influencing sleep — if there is no medical explanation for sleep difficulties, then an individual likely has chronic insomnia disorder and chronic insomnia disorder is perpetuated by our thought processes AND our behaviors (again, not anxiety alone).
Thank you for your contribution to the forum, for sharing your thoughts, and for giving me the opportunity to clarify my thoughts on the role of anxiety in chronic insomnia.
—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 so much for sharing! I’m a big fan of the DARE book, too!
Your experience with postpartum insomnia is quite common — and your recovery story is quite similar to Cindy’s too! I think this just goes to show that no matter what the initial cause of insomnia and no matter how difficult things are, there’s always hope!
Cindy’s story:
Forum Post: 100% cured from postpartum insomnia 🙂
Podcast Episode: How Cindy tackled the insomnia that appeared after her baby was born by accepting nighttime wakefulness and eliminating safety behaviors (#31)
Kim, a previous client of mine, also shared a good success story (she developed insomnia when her fifth baby was born).
Thank you again for taking the time to share your transformation, Angelina!
—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 just realized that I hadn’t responded to your update post, Line — my apologies! Thank you for sharing that you are continuing to do well, longer after graduating from my course! All the skills you learned (and practiced) are with you for life — so you are basically your own expert coach now!
—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.
Wow, what a transformation, Anne-Claire — a transformation that is entirely down to your own efforts and your own natural ability to sleep (and to sleep well)!
I particularly appreciate you sharing that you still have some difficult nights from time to time — because that’s a normal part of being a human being! What’s important (and a great testament to your progress) is that you no longer react to difficult nights in the same way that you once did — so your sleep can get right back on track all by itself.
Ultimately, it sounds as though you’ve abandoned all effort to control sleep and that you no2 simply allow your body to generate whatever sleep it chooses to generate — all while living the kind of life you want to live, regardless! If we can do that, insomnia just cannot survive for the long term!
—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 so much for coming back and sharing your experience, Julie! As you suggested, the most effective ways of putting insomnia behind us often do take a lot of practice — ultimately, we are learning new skills and that takes time!
—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 so much for coming back to share an update, Brett! When you consider the challenge of waking during the night and finding it hard to fall back to sleep, do you think there were any specific techniques that were most helpful for that specific issue or do you think all the techniques you shared were equally 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.
Thanks for sharing, Ken — especially in the context of you being a retired cognitive behavioral therapist!
—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 might be worth an experiment for a week or two! After all, if we consider that you might average six hours of sleep while allotting about eight-and-a-half hours for sleep, you are basically setting yourself up for up to two-and-a-half hours of wakefulness.
—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 typically see more sleep fragmentation later in the night — because the body prioritizes deep sleep, we usually get the deepest sleep in the first couple of hours of the night and then cycle through progressively lighter stages of sleep as the night progresses. So, your sketch doesn’t look particularly unusual.
In my experience, I often see people who are getting a good amount of sleep but still complaining about light and fragmented sleep allotting too much time for sleep. The extended sleep opportunity can lead to lighter and more fragmented sleep toward the end of the sleep period and this can, in turn, lead to a sense of heightened grogginess and fatigue.
I’m not a doctor, so I can’t give you specific advice, but it might be worth considering whether allotting a specific amount of time for sleep that is more closely aligned with your 7.5 hour sleep “target” (perhaps by setting an alarm and always getting out of bed by the same time each day) might be 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.
You shared a big insight in your post — that putting effort into sleep makes sleep more difficult!
Since your goal is to sleep without medication, have you tried implementing any cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques to help address the thoughts and behaviors that tend to perpetuate sleep disruption?
—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 not alone, Matt — and it’s normal to find your mind wandering and to find it more difficult to focus when you have difficult nights.
Quite often, difficult thoughts become most problematic when we try to fight or avoid them — because we have no control over the stuff our mind chooses to generate.
You might also find this video helpful: What to do when daytime activities feel more difficult & less enjoyable because of chronic insomnia.
—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.
