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Probably best to let the doctors figure this one out — glad to hear you’re getting it investigated!
—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!
Unfortunately, striving or trying to get a certain amount of sleep can often be our biggest obstacle to reaching that goal because we have absolutely no control over sleep duration. When we try to control sleep, sleep usually becomes more difficult.
With this in mind, it might be worth exploring why you feel you need to get at least six hours of sleep. What if you got five hours and 15 minutes of sleep? What about five hours and 10 minutes of sleep? What about four hours and 50 minutes of sleep? Are those kinds of sleep durations 100% responsible for the quality of your life or is it possible that your reaction to how much sleep you get might have a role (perhaps more of a role, even that sleep duration alone)?
It’s good to hear you are implementing a consistent sleep window to help bring some consistency to your sleep! When you wake during the night (which is a normal part of sleep!) it can be helpful not to check the time since that often increases arousal and can make falling back to sleep more difficult.
I would usually suggest giving yourself until the end of your chosen sleep window to sleep. If you wake during the night and it feels good in bed, there’s no need to do anything since conditions are right for sleep! If it doesn’t feel good to be in bed, it might be helpful to get out of bed to do something a bit more appealing until conditions feel right for sleep.
Your alarm might go off when you are out of bed, but it might not!
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.
Since you mentioned that every day is different in terms of when you get out of bed to start your day, that might be something worth tackling since an inconsistent out of bed time disrupts the body clock and makes it hard to generate any kind of consistency with sleep.
Without a regular rise time, the body clock can start sending wake signals through your body when you want to be asleep, and it can allow sleep signals to take over when you want to be awake.
You said you normally get between three and five hours of sleep each night, which is quite a big range!
If you are going to bed sometime between 10:00 PM and 11:30 PM and getting out of bed any time from 5:00 AM onwards, you might be allotting too much time for sleep compared to your average nightly sleep duration at the current time. This can lead to more time awake at night and lighter/more fragmented sleep.
So, with all this in mind, it might be worth creating a sleep window with an earliest possible bedtime and a final out of bed time in the morning and sticking to that for at least a few weeks to see what effect that has on your nighttime awakenings and the quality of your sleep.
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.
Since the body focuses on deeper sleep in the first few hours of the night, it makes sense to consider that you are more aware of dreaming after a few hours of sleep since that’s when we tend to do most of our dreaming. So far, then, so normal!
Let’s see if we can explore why you might be finding it hard to fall back to sleep when you wake and why you seem to feel unrefreshed in the mornings.
When you wake during the night, why do you think you find it hard to fall back to sleep?
What time do you usually go to bed at night, and when do you get out of bed to start your 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.
Studies have found that CBT-I can be helpful for insomnia and conditions such as depression or anxiety that might exist alongside insomnia. This would be a discussion to have with your doctor though.
—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.
Congratulations on your decision to explore ways to eliminate sleeping medication from your life! I would suggest talking to your doctor about this since Lunesta is a prescription medication.
—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.
Changing our diet might lead to some temporary sleep disruption but diet isn’t usually something that perpetuates sleep disruption and causes chronic insomnia.
When did you stop eating rice at night, and how have you been doing since you posted?
—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 story, Eddie — and good on you for implementing sleep restriction! That is not easy!
I appreciate you sharing that you found it helpful and experienced ten days of good sleep — perhaps this proves that allotting an appropriate amount of time for sleep might be helpful?
Difficult nights sure can bring back all those anxieties and worries about sleep and, in turn, create some additional sleep disruption. It can be helpful to recognize that occasional difficult nights are normal and to be expected — everyone experiences them!
If you continue to implement techniques that build sleep drive, strengthen the body clock, and weaken arousal — and if you are able to go about your days as normally as possible — you give your sleep the best chance to get right back on track!
The fact your wife is telling you that she has seen you sleeping when you have felt convinced you haven’t been sleeping suggests that you might actually be getting a bit more sleep than you think — and sometimes that, in itself, can be quite reassuring!
I actually recorded a video about this “sleep state misperception” (also known as paradoxical insomnia).
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.
I’d suggest that your mom speaks to her doctor if she has any concern about her sleep. If she is diagnosed with chronic insomnia, usually the best treatment is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I).
—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 and thanks for sharing your story! Anxiety is definitely one of the things that can perpetuate sleep disruption, which is quite ironic when we consider that this anxiety often stems from the desire to get more sleep — and that desire, in turn, can make sleep more difficult.
—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 Dosey and welcome to the forum. I’d suggest talking to your doctor about the snoring — it might be alleviated by sleeping on your side, but if your snoring is particularly loud or intense it could be a symptom of sleep apnea, which may require medical treatment.
—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 David and thanks for sharing that you’ve experienced some great improvements over the past couple of weeks!
It can often be helpful to recognize that everyone experiences difficult nights of sleep from time to time — even people without insomnia! These difficult nights sometimes have an obvious cause, but sometimes they don’t. They’re just a part of life and the overall human experience.
Usually, the best reaction to difficult nights is no reaction — because it’s our reaction to difficult nights that risk perpetuating that sleep disruption. By resisting the temptation to modify your routine (for example, by spending more time in bed, canceling plans, or changing what you do during the day) you give sleep the best chance possible to get right back on track. Sleep drive always wins in the end!
As you shared, being angry or upset can make sleep more difficult since that increases arousal and the body then needs to generate more sleep drive (spend more time awake) to overpower that arousal.
If you fall asleep on the couch accidentally, there’s no need to feel angry or upset — that’s now in the past! Instead, you might simply move to bed if you still feel conditions are right for sleep. If conditions don’t feel right for sleep, then it might be helpful to do something you find relaxing and somewhat enjoyable until you feel conditions are right for sleep before going to bed.
Ups and downs are normal and to be expected (as most of the guests on the Insomnia Coach podcast talk about). Continue moving forward and you’ll continue to make 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.
Congratulations on eliminating that final dose!
When we consider that the brain will always want to evaluate and monitor for the effect of any changes we make, might it be normal and to be expected that there might be some temporary sleep disruption during those first nights of zero medication?
What is it about the idea of not getting any sleep that seems to generate anxiety? Do you have anything good planned for today to help you train your brain that you might have a good amount of control over the quality of your day, rather than this being completely predetermined by how you 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.
What a great question! The short answer to this is no: the sleep window is not something you’re expected to follow for the rest of your life! It’s simply a way to rebuild sleep drive, reduce nighttime wakefulness (and, by consequence, help lower arousal) and create better conditions for sleep.
As sleep improves, the sleep window is usually extended and, when the time is right, followed less rigorously or even discarded entirely. If you ever find that long lie-ins lead to sleep disruption in the future, you might then explore whether catch-up sleep on weekends is a helpful strategy or not!
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.
Why does wakefulness seem to make you angry, Dauphin?
You can learn more about the sleep window on the page about sleep restriction.
If you have any questions after reading that page, 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.
