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This is a good question! What guidance does your own experience have to offer you?
According to your own experience, how effective is a strategy of trying to fall asleep, trying to fall back to sleep, or trying to make a certain amount or type of sleep happen through effort?
—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 the update. What kind of medical advice (or treatment) have you been offered for the alpha-delta intrusion sleep? What connection, if any, is there between your current relationship with sleep and your experience with anxiety and depression?
—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.
After giving yourself permission to stop struggling with sleep, a weight has been lifted off your shoulders. That extra time you now have for yourself in the mornings sounds blissful, TOHO!
—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 makes complete sense that you feel afraid of what might happen to your mental state if you happen to be awake for days — especially as a mother with two small kids.
I can’t speak for others but I suspect you aren’t alone in experiencing that kind of fear — it comes from your brain doing its job and looking out for you.
How do you usually respond to that fear, and what are you learning from that response?
—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 taking action, learning from your actions, and experiencing change thanks to your actions, TOHO.
Your bed has become less of a battleground. You are getting more comfortable with wakefulness (which, in turn, makes it less difficult to experience). You know you can get through the next day and do what matters, independently of sleep.
You are getting your mornings back. You are enjoying screens at night. You are breaking down sleep-related rules and rituals.
You are getting your life back from insomnia and moving away from the insomnia struggle.
I wish you all the best as you continue on your journey!
—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 problem-solving brain is generating thoughts and feelings as it does its job of looking out for you and reminding you of what’s important.
What makes worry a problem for you, @Anna1?
—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’s definitely OK to share!
Thanks to your growth mindset, you’ve identified “relapses” or times when you might experience sleep differently to how you want (or notice you might be getting pulled back into the struggle) as reminders and opportunities to practice what you’ve been learning.
You are building evidence of your superpowers. Your grit. Your determination. Your resilience. The fact you have all the power because you always get to choose your actions and your response.
—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 your curiosity and willingness to experiment, @Marjoe!
Drowsiness is going to show up eventually even if you are doing jumping jacks on a trampoline — however, it might take a bit longer if you choose to do that 😜
If your goal isn’t to make sleep happen (it’s just to experience wakefulness with less struggle and less resistance) then it doesn’t matter what you do.
What kind of ideas have you come up with so far?
—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 Thérèse and thanks for sharing that getting out of bed at 7:00 AM comes with the benefit of giving you your mornings back — what kind of things are you doing with that additional time that’s now available to you?
A sleep window isn’t supposed to make sleep happen or get rid of nighttime wakefulness because those things are out of your control. Sleep cannot be made to happen through effort and nighttime wakefulness cannot be eliminated through effort.
A sleep window is more about moving you away from chasing after sleep by doing things like going to bed earlier in an effort to make sleep happen or staying in bed later in an effort to make sleep happen.
A sleep window comes with some additional bonuses that can help set the stage for sleep, too (but there’s still no guarantees!). A consistent out of bed time helps to strengthen the body clock and ensures enough time for sleep pressure to build during the day.
Less time in bed also means less opportunity to struggle with being awake when you want to be asleep and more opportunity to engage in the world around you and do things that matter.
Does this 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.
Hypnic jerks are not unusual and are actually a sign that sleep is happening — they typically happen during the very first stage of sleep (N1 sleep).
How do you respond to them when they show up, Riinuska — and what are you learning from that response?
—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 superpowers of self-awareness and self-reflection are making themselves known!
Although you knew that sleep was out of your control, you weren’t aware that you were actually engaged in sleep efforts until you evaluated the goal behind your actions.
Your newfound awareness offered you the opportunity to change your approach 🙂
—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 what you’ve been learning so far, Andrew!
You’ve clearly found it helpful to implement a sleep window and not check the time during your sleep window. Through that action you eliminated a big source of anxiety (although that doesn’t mean anxiety is permanently deleted from your life!).
As you implement a new approach to sleep you are finding that thoughts and feelings like anxiety are starting to lose their power and influence over you. It also sounds as though there might be the occasional benefit to waking during the night 😉
—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, Rachel!
Your problem-solving brain is still doing its job of looking out for you and generating some thoughts and feelings about sleep (thanks, brain!). And, even though those thoughts and feelings show up, you are still having the best run of sleep you’ve had in 18 months. What does that seem to suggest?
It also sounds as though you suspect your ongoing use of zopiclone when sleep doesn’t happen as (or when) you want it to might be reinforcing the idea that wakefulness is a threat that your brain needs to be alert to protect you from.
Acceptance of difficult thoughts and feelings (and wakefulness itself) is difficult and often requires a lot of ongoing practice.
Acceptance doesn’t mean that difficult thoughts and feelings (and wakefulness) stop showing up — it just means they don’t draw you into a struggle that consumes all your energy and attention. A struggle that might mean you engage in actions (or withdraw from actions) and get pulled away from the life you want to live.
With acceptance, all this difficult stuff starts to become more like water off a duck’s back. It doesn’t disappear forever, though because difficult stuff comes with living a rich and meaningful life.
—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 can be frustrating when you wake during the night — especially when it seems as though, no matter what you do, you cannot make yourself fall back to sleep.
You might want to revisit Week 2 of the course which really focuses on dealing with waking during the night.
You mentioned that you shouldn’t be fighting it — why is that important?
You also said you tried practicing the AWAKE exercise and it didn’t help. If the AWAKE exercise had helped, what would be different?
—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 your problem-solving brain doing its job of looking out for you again, Molly! What’s the best way to respond to that?
—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.
