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If there’s ever any potential safety risk, you need to do what is right for your personal safety. If you are finding it hard to stay awake, you should not drive.
Although drowsy driving is very dangerous, we don’t often hear of people with chronic insomnia falling asleep behind the wheel (unless medications are involved) since people with chronic insomnia often give themselves more than ample opportunity to sleep and are often “tired but wired” — they are typically fatigued rather than sleepy.
However, just to reiterate — safety trumps everything and so if you are feeling drowsy, you should not drive.
—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 @Grangers! Quite often, when we go to bed before we are sleepy enough for sleep we will spend a lot of time awake. It’s a bit like sitting at the dinner table before we are hungry!
I would recommend discussing your concerns with your OCD therapist. Nobody here is going to be qualified to give you specific advice or recommendations, unfortunately.
—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 successfully abandoned some unhelpful sleep efforts — and that’s entirely down to you!
I appreciated you sharing that your thought pattern has changed; that you are no longer trying to sleep — you are letting sleep happen. How were you able to make such a shift in your mindset? This is where many people 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.
Implementing CBT-I techniques is hard — no doubt about it! Are you working with a therapist? If so, I’d encourage you to share your concerns with them — there are always tweaks and modifications that can make CBT-I techniques more tolerable during the early days, which do tend to be the most challenging.
—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.
Just to clarify, the agreement to enroll in my online coaching course doesn’t exclude all sleeping pills — only benzodiazepines and antipsychotic medications. That’s because some of the techniques I share aren’t always appropriate for those with a history of psychosis and, in my experience, clients who are regularly using benzodiazepines often require more support than I can offer in an online coaching relationship.
In terms of the sleep window, when you have decided on the duration of your sleep window, I often suggest deciding when your final out of bed time will be in the morning, then counting back to get the start time of your sleep window.
Over the short term, implementing a sleep window can be very challenging — so we cannot read into what happens over the first few nights (many people experience sleep getting worse in the short term as they adjust to a new sleep routine). I think @shattered had a good plan for sticking to the window for a month before drawing any conclusions or doing any additional detective work.
When it comes to going to bed before the sleep window begins, the typical suggestion is to avoid going to bed or falling asleep before the sleep window starts in order to really build that biological sleep drive. However, I think it’s OK to go to bed within 30-60 minutes of the sleep window beginning if you feel really sleepy and are finding it hard to stay awake.
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.
All those worries are normal — so, it might actually be helpful to give all those worries and anxiety a bit of space to do what they want to do in your mind. Often, it’s when we try to fight or avoid difficult and uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, and emotions that we get most caught up in them!
—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’m sorry to hear that a specialist said they couldn’t help you because you’ve experienced sleep issues since childhood. In my experience, that doesn’t usually suggest someone won’t experience improvements with some behavioral changes that can create better conditions for sleep to occur and some exploration of the thoughts, feelings, and emotions that can influence our relationship with sleep.
Thanks for sharing that you are finding the YouTube channel 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.
I admire your persistence and tenacity, Karla! The fact you are still doing this, even though it feels really uncomfortable, shows that you are still able to control your behaviors and do hard things even in the presence of difficult thoughts, feelings, and emotions!
Waking during the night is a normal part of sleep — so the fact you recall waking during the night is not unusual. If you aren’t already doing so, it can sometimes be helpful not to check the time during your sleep window.
Have you got in touch with your therapist to discuss your concerns and get some additional support?
—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 are absolutely correct that insomnia can make it harder to be present and to experience time spent with family in the same way — however, it’s important to recognize that we can still spend time with our families and do other things that help us live by our values, even in the presence of insomnia and difficult thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
So, continuing to do things that move you toward the kind of life you want to live is so important and worth giving yourself a lot of credit for — because you have control over those actions (whereas you don’t have control over sleep itself or the presence of difficult thoughts, feelings, or emotions).
If you have any questions about how you are currently implementing sleep restriction, feel free to post them 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.
You are definitely going through a really challenging period — I think it’s important to recognize this and to practice some self-compassion since it’s so easy to forget to treat ourselves the same way we’d treat a friend or family member going through the same thing!
Furthermore, the techniques you are implementing are challenging — the first couple of weeks of sleep restriction, in particular, can be particularly difficult.
When you go to bed at the start of your sleep window, are you falling asleep quite quickly? How does the night go when you get into bed at 1:00 AM (and what time are you getting 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.
If you wake with a gasp, have been told you snore pretty loudly, wake in the morning with a dry mouth or headache, and/or find it hard to stay awake during the day, you might be experiencing symptoms of sleep apnea — but that requires medical investigation and diagnosis.
If you don’t recognize those symptoms, feel you have a lot of worry/anxiety about sleep, and even put pressure on yourself to sleep, the jolts might be a symptom of heightened arousal.
If you are concerned, I’d encourage you to seek medical advice. You might also find my YouTube video on hypnic jerks 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.
Welcome to the forum, Cpm90! As suggested by Elmtree57, a good start would be my free sleep training course — you might also find it helpful to check out the Insomnia Coach podcast and/or the Insomnia Coach YouTube channel!
If you have specific questions or concerns about your sleep, 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.
Very few people consider the danger posed by an aggressive mountain goat! On a more serious note, I think you shared an important insight that making space for panic might take a bit of practice — and our goal is never to eliminate panic but simply to change our relationship with it.
—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.
Abandoning any expectations around sleep is something many people have found helpful! More difficult is trying not to worry, trying not to think, or otherwise trying to control where the mind wants to go — because, like sleep itself, we don’t have much control over what our brain generates!
What can be really helpful is recognizing that the mind will always want to wander, worry, and generate difficult thoughts, feelings, and emotions — while also recognizing that we always have control over how we react to them.
So, we get to choose whether we react in a way that can perpetuate those difficult feelings and can lead to behaviors that move us away from the kind of life we want to live or whether we react by accepting and acknowledging the feelings our mind generates and then continuing to move toward the kind of life we want to live, even in the presence of difficult and uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
I hope this is 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’s normal and natural to feel scared! You might find this other forum topic relevant: Insomnia now for almost two months and this YouTube video might be helpful, too: Why you just can’t seem to get off the sleeping pills or supplements when you have insomnia.
You definitely can sleep without the medication, Elmtree57! Having a clear plan in place for eliminating the meds (while also implementing techniques that help create good conditions for sleep) is often a good way forward and might be worth discussing with your doctor.
—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.
