Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
You can find a number of success stories in these places:
1. The Insomnia Coach Podcast
2. The Insomnia Success Stories Forum
3. Insomnia Coach ReviewsAs Chee suggested, a common theme running through all success stories is the shift away from trying to control sleep and bringing more focus onto the things we can control — the actions we can engage in that help us live the kind of life we want to live (independently of sleep) and help create and maintain good 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.
This is great to hear — do you feel there were any specific changes you made that proved to be most 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.
Unfortunately, sleep issues other than chronic insomnia are outside my area of expertise — and when a psychotic illness is also present, medical advice should always be sought.
I would suggest seeking advice from someone who specializes in circadian rhythm sleep disorders.
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 always think it’s interesting that when our challenge is sleep, we might implement a sleep window and then find it really hard to stay awake! What a powerful reminder of the power of sleep drive!
Often, the more sedentary we are the more likely we are to fall asleep. Some kind of movement can be helpful since it’s hard to fall asleep when we are moving.
One thing you might want to try is to make the hour before the start of your sleep window the last time you check the clock at night and then to simply go to bed whenever you feel a strong sense of sleepiness. This will give you the opportunity to “extend” your sleep window if conditions feel right for sleep.
Finally, it can be worth recognizing that waking during the night is a normal part of sleep — and the goal of getting out of bed during the night isn’t to make sleep happen. It’s simply a technique that prevents us from reinforcing an association between the bed and unpleasant wakefulness.
So, if you are awake in bed but it feels good to be in bed, there’s probably no need to get out of bed. If being in bed starts to feel really unpleasant, that can be a good cue to get out of bed and do something a bit more appealing until conditions feel better for 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.
Wow, what a fast transformation! What do you feel were the key techniques that helped you improve your sleep and your relationship with 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.
Have you asked your doctor if they think you might be a good candidate for 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.
After six hours of sleep there isn’t going to be much sleep pressure remaining, so falling back to sleep after six hours of sleep is going to be less likely compared to waking after one or two hours of sleep!
Falling back to sleep can also become more difficult if we put pressure on ourselves to fall back to sleep or put effort into falling back to sleep — since these actions increase arousal and, after a good amount of sleep, we don’t have enough sleep drive to overpower that arousal.
You might find it helpful to implement a sleep window since this can help reduce the amount of time available for wakefulness, help strengthen the body clock, and ensure sufficient sleep drive for sleep at night.
At the end of the day, we have no control over sleep. We can’t make ourselves fall asleep, fall back to sleep, or get a certain amount of sleep. All we can do is create and maintain good conditions for sleep, live the kind of life we want to live, and trust our body’s natural ability to sleep. The body will always generate, at the very least, the minimum amount of sleep we need.
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.
Welcome to the forum. You might find it helpful to spend a bit less than 12 hours in bed since that usually serves only to generate more wakefulness and more fatigue. Spending 12 hours in bed also means less time available to do things that might add real meaning and value to our lives.
I’d suggest reading this overview of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques since they can help address the thought processes and behaviors (such as spending long periods of time in bed) that can perpetuate sleep disruption.
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.
That last step off the medication is often the most difficult — and it will always generate some heightened sleep disruption in the short term since your mind will want to be more active to monitor/evaluate the effect of going to bed without taking anything!
However, the fact of the matter is, the human body doesn’t require any medication or supplement to generate sleep. It just needs to be awake for long enough!
So, if you are determined not to take medication or supplements any longer, if you continue not to take them, sooner or later sleep will happen. And, when that sleep occurs without any medication or supplements, you will know for an absolute fact that you don’t need them to generate sleep!
You might find this video helpful, too: Why you just can’t seem to get off the sleeping pills or supplements when you have 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.
How have you been getting on since you posted, Francisco?
—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.
Shift work is really tough on the body clock and on sleep. I would suggest seeking advice from someone who specializes in circadian rhythm sleep disorders and who has experience working with shift workers.
—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 think this comes down to personal values — what’s important to you and helps you live the kind of life you want to live? If sleeping alongside your partner helps move you toward the kind of life you want to live and not sleeping with your partner is something that moves you away from the kind of life you want to live, it might be worth “retraining” yourself to share a bed with your partner.
If you do decide to begin sharing a bed with your partner again, it might be worth getting his snoring issues investigated — not only for his own health but to help create more favorable conditions for sleep for you, too!
—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.
Sleep definitely changes as we get older — you mentioned that you are waking earlier and earlier — when are you usually going to bed at night. Has that changed? If you don’t feel sleepy when you wake and you feel pretty good during the day you might not need more sleep — and that could explain why more sleep isn’t happening.
—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.
Medical issues are a common trigger for insomnia. Usually, sleep recovers as we adjust or heal — if it doesn’t, that’s often because of a change in our sleep-related thoughts and behaviors.
We might start to do things like go to bed earlier, stay in bed later, nap during the day, be less active during the day, start researching sleep, experiment with meds and supplements, try sleep meditations and apps, etc…
All these things seem logical, but they usually serve only to perpetuate sleep disruption since they can weaken sleep drive, disrupt the body clock, and heighten arousal.
So, you might want to start by reading an overview of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques since they help address all those perpetuating thought processes and behaviors!
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.
Hello Jess and thanks for sharing your concerns — concerns that I think a lot of people reading will identify with!
First of all, you might want to give yourself a bit more opportunity for sleep — five hours isn’t a whole lot of time! Bear in mind that the start of your sleep window is nothing more than an earliest possible bedtime. So, if you don’t feel sleepy enough for sleep when your sleep window begins, it might be helpful to delay going to bed until you do feel a strong sense of sleepiness (difficulty staying awake).
If you feel as though you just never get sleepy, you might find this video helpful: How to improve sleep when you don’t feel sleepy and don’t know how to get sleepy.
Since a clock doesn’t know when we are sleepy enough for sleep, we don’t necessarily want to be going to bed at the same time each night. The final out of bed time in the morning is where we want to be really consistent.
It might also be helpful not to check the time when you wake during the night (and to recognize that waking during the night is actually a normal part of sleep).
Unfortunately, sleep is completely out of our control. It’s when we (quite understandably) try to control sleep that we can really get caught up in the struggle.
Fortunately, we can always control our actions. So, we can implement sleep-related behaviors that help create and maintain good conditions for sleep and we can do things each day that help us move toward the kind of life we want to live, independently of sleep.
I think it’s the latter point that can really help us move beyond insomnia because it shifts our attention to what we can control and what truly matters — what we do when we are awake, and whether we live a life that’s aligned with our values or not. We get to decide that, not sleep or 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.
