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Welcome to the forum, active_compassion. First of all, let me tell you this — you CAN sleep! We never lose the ability to sleep — when we have been awake for long enough, sleep will always happen and the body will always generate, at the very least, the minimum amount of sleep we need.
Often, it becomes difficult for the body to generate more than this minimum when we try to get involved in the natural and independent process of sleep. So, as we try to (quite understandably, I might add!) make sleep happen by putting pressure on ourselves to sleep or putting effort into sleep we risk making sleep even worse — and this, in turn, generates difficult thoughts and emotions such as anxiety.
The real key here is to get rid of effort, to allow sleep to happen as and when it wants to happen. This involves learning to accept wakefulness at night, and even to embrace it. It can be a long journey to get to this point — and we often have to implement new habits along the way that can be quite challenging — but it’s a destination that can be reached!
—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 Ben and welcome to the forum. Are you implementing any specific techniques to help create better conditions for sleep as you taper off the sleeping pills?
—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 is your sleep like at the current time? How would you like your sleep to improve? If you can share some more details, perhaps we can offer some 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.
Have you tried staying out of bed until you start to feel a strong sense of sleepiness?
—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 Carole! Sometimes, anxiety itself isn’t the real problem — it’s our natural human desire to fight or avoid it that gets us tangled up in an endless 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.
Does how you feel when you first wake stay the same throughout the day, or does this change as the day progresses or in response to what you 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.
Not many people in their 60s get eight hours of sleep — as we get older, we naturally generate less sleep at night. That’s not to say we should be satisfied with five hours of sleep — I simply mention this so we don’t have any unrealistic expectations when it comes to how much sleep we should be getting!
What time do you usually go to bed at night, and what time do you usually get out of bed to start your day in the morning?
—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 Danzer! As Chee said, waking during the night is a normal part of sleep. If we find it hard to fall back to sleep then we probably aren’t sleepy enough for more sleep, or we might be putting pressure on ourselves to fall back to sleep or putting effort into falling back to sleep.
You might want to ask yourself what you are unable to do, that you would otherwise be doing if you did sleep right through the night. How would this change your life? Is your life affected primarily by how much time you spend awake at night, or by the things you choose to do during the day?
—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! Have you been able to implement any of the cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques that I talk about here and on the Insomnia Coach YouTube channel 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 Suri and welcome to the forum. Your concerns are completely understandable but, as Chee implied, there’s no evidence that chronic insomnia causes any health condition or will shorten your life.
You said that nothing you mentioned seems to work, and that makes sense because none of the things you mentioned tackle the thought processes and behaviors that perpetuate sleep disruption.
Have you tried implementing any cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques?
—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 tried implementing any cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques to help create better conditions 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.
Is your sleep schedule any different on the weekends, compared to during the week? For example, do you go to bed later or stay in bed later on weekends? You might find this video helpful if you haven’t seen it yet: How to get rid of “Sunday Night 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.
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.
