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We are all here for you, MrsBay — and know what you’re going through. If you have any specific 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.
Hello Alex — it’s your mind-reading guru here! Only kidding — I can’t read minds (yet) but I can tell you that your story and experience is, once again, not unusual!
In and of itself, adding 15 minutes onto a sleep window of five-and-a-half hours is a tiny change to make (it’s just a 5% increase in time allotted for sleep). So, with this in mind, perhaps it’s not the extra 15 minutes that’s creating some additional wakefulness — but the increased monitoring for the effects of the extra 15 minutes.
Any time we make a change, our brain will want to be a bit more active to evaluate the effectiveness of the change. In the short term, this can create a bit more sleep disruption — but the mind soon adapts and gets used to the change, and becomes less inclined to monitor.
With this in mind, next time around you might find it helpful to add the 15 minutes and stick to it for longer — maybe a month or so, before deciding what to do next.
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.
Thanks for sharing that you are practicing having a positive mindset — you absolutely can move past insomnia and enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life!
What is your current sleep schedule like? When do you go to bed at night, when do you get out of bed to start your day in the morning, and how many hours of sleep would you say you get on an average 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.
In my experience, the best outcome associated with checking the time during the night is neutral. In my experience working with clients who have chronic insomnia, checking the clock during the night often increases arousal and that can make sleep more difficult.
I think it can be helpful to ask yourself what the benefits are to knowing the time during the night. Sleep cannot be controlled, so there’s nothing we can do with the information — but there is a very real risk that we might start to get frustrated or put pressure on ourselves to sleep after checking the 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.
It sounds as though you might be learning from experience that alcohol isn’t an effective long-term solution for insomnia!
Thanks for sharing that you’ve decided to commit yourself to sleep restriction — a technique that has overwhelming evidence to confirm its effectiveness!
—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 and welcome to the forum.
We can’t directly control sleep, unfortunately — but we can control our behaviors. And, fortunately, there are plenty of behaviors we can change/implement in order to create better conditions for sleep to occur!
You might want to start by taking a look at my page on cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I).
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.
The more difficult nights can definitely be a challenge — but let me ask you this:
Do you expect every day to be better than (or just as good as) the last? If not, why place such importance on experiencing a night that must always be better than (or just as good as) the last?
It’s great to know that you are working on implementing techniques that are proven to be effective — good on you for getting started, for moving forward, and thank you for sharing your challenges with 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.
Welcome to the forum! It sounds as though you recognize that there’s not much unusual happening when we experience some sleep disruption at a time of such stress and worry! Usually, sleep recovers as we adjust or when the initial trigger for sleep disruption is no longer relevant.
If sleep doesn’t recover by itself, that’s usually because of a change in our sleep-related thoughts and behaviors — as you have been learning from the Insomnia Coach YouTube channel!
Thanks for sharing your story and please keep us updated with your progress!
—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.
If there is no other medical explanation for that chest sensation, it could be a symptom of physiological arousal.
It is, of course, essential to get any chest pain or other symptoms checked out by a doctor — but if there is no apparent cause, it’s almost certainly related to arousal (especially for those of us with 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.
If you feel that falling asleep at the start of the night is one of your biggest challenges at the current time, working on a consistent final out of bed time in the morning can be really helpful.
That’s because getting out of bed by the same time every day (regardless of how you sleep) helps strengthen the body clock (so it can more effectively regulate sleep and wakefulness) and ensures enough time for sleep drive to build during the day (in other words, ensure you are awake for long enough) to help you sleep at night.
You might find the page on sleep restriction 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.
Insomnia can stick around after the initial trigger is no longer relevant — often that’s because of a change in our sleep-related thoughts and behaviors. As Chee pointed out, this can involve a desire to control sleep or avoid wakefulness which, in turn, can make conditions more difficult for sleep and lead to less sleep confidence and more sleep-related worry.
I would suggest reading about cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) to see if those techniques sound like they 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.
It sounds as though you’ve been trying really hard to fix your sleep issues and been trying a lot of different sleep aids. Since you are here today, it seems as though those things haven’t been effective over the long term, so perhaps a different approach might be helpful?
If you agree, a good place to start might be this page on cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I).
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.
You’ve definitely faced some big challenges, Ashlea — but you have come through all of them and are still here today! So, we know for a fact that you can get through difficult periods of sleep and that your body will always generate — at the very least — the bare minimum amount of sleep needed to keep you going.
You mentioned that fitness is your passion but you can’t go because of how you sleep. What would happen if you did go?
—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 Stewart! If you implement what you learn, you’ll create better conditions for sleep to occur — that is my best advice!
Oh, and to emphasize how committed I am to your success, I’d even encourage you to substitute the use of sleep forums like this with activities that add enrichment to your life and help you live life according to your values — because, ultimately, what we do when we are awake usually has far more influence over the quality of our lives than how we 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.
Thanks for sharing that you slept in your own bed and have committed to sleeping in your own bed — and that you got out of bed when being in bed didn’t feel good to help make being awake a bit more pleasant!
We can’t control sleep but we sure can control our behaviors 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.
