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Waking during the night is actually a normal part of sleep. Unless it’s accompanied by other physical symptoms it’s unlikely to be connected to a medical problem — but if you have any concern about this whatsoever, you should talk to your doctor!
Usually, the biggest problem associated with nighttime awakenings is when we worry about them since this immediately makes it more difficult to fall back to sleep!
I am so encouraged to know that you’ve started with sleep restriction and you’re already finding it helpful! Do keep us updated with your progress, sincny!
—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 it’s quite possible for RLS to exist alongside insomnia — and since you can recognize at least one behavior that can perpetuate sleep disruption (such as sleeping on the couch) we can see there is an opportunity for you to take some steps to improve your sleep, regardless of the RLS!
Have you looked into cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I)? It might be worth asking your doctor if they think you’d be a good candidate for CBT-I since it can help address the thoughts and behaviors 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.
Do you think there’s a possibility you put more pressure on yourself to sleep when you know you have work the next day? Perhaps you feel that if you don’t get a good night of sleep, the next day will be more difficult or you might make mistakes at work?
I don’t think these kinds of thoughts usually wake us up, but they sure can make it more difficult to fall back to sleep! I hope this gives you something that might be worth exploring!
—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 is a common insomnia trigger — how are you getting on with your sleep now, @Sunny? What’s a typical night like?
—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 @niccynicole! I am so encouraged that you tried staying up a bit later — this does usually require a little longer than a few nights to bring about any meaningful improvement in sleep, but if combined with a consistent out of bed time it can help build sleep drive, make it easier to fall asleep, and overpower that anxiety at the start of the night.
You mentioned that you are a very scheduled person who likes to go to bed at the same time every night to ensure you get a good seven to eight hours of sleep. However, it seems that this current schedule isn’t working for you — you don’t seem to be getting seven to eight hours of sleep at night — so might a different schedule be worth a try?
—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, Eric! As you pointed out, the way we think about sleep can generate so much worry and anxiety and this can really disrupt sleep!
So, the less we can worry about sleep, the more accepting we can be of the sleep we get, and the less effort we put into sleep, the better we usually sleep!
I’m glad to hear how well you’re doing — all your improvements are down to your own efforts to change the way you think about sleep and to implement helpful sleep-related behaviors that give sleep the best chance possible!
—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 sure have tried a lot of things, @shaw600! You mentioned talking therapy — can you tell us more about that? Have you tried cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), the best treatment for chronic insomnia?
As you pointed out, worrying about sleep usually makes sleep more difficult and this can then lead to more worry! One way to help you break out of that Catch-22 situation is to work on improving the quality of your days, independently of sleep — the better you can make your days, the less pressure you might put on yourself to sleep and the less effort you might be tempted to put into sleep.
You mentioned that you typically go to bed between 10:00 PM and 11:00 PM — when do you usually get out of bed to start your day in the morning? When you wake during the night and find it hard to fall back to sleep, what do you do next?
—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 have heard from a number of people who have experienced grogginess and fatigue in the morning after taking melatonin. I don’t know of any clinical studies that have made a connection between melatonin use and the symptoms you have described, but anecdotally it doesn’t seem to be especially unusual.
Perhaps all the more reason to avoid using melatonin — something that has no evidence to support its use as an effective treatment for chronic insomnia anyway!
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.
Have you tried cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I)? If not, there’s the magic advice! That’s one wish down, you have two more to 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.
If you’re sleeping well and you have a strong association between your bed, sleep, and pleasant wakefulness then it’s unlikely that spending 20-30 minutes in bed to do some meditation or relaxation first thing in the morning is going to be harmful!
—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 isn’t unusual at all, Christine — and I hope your psychologist has confirmed as much! You are implementing new techniques and these will have your brain monitoring for the effects of the techniques, which can interfere with sleep in the short term.
If you continue to move forward and focus on the process (try to engage that robot mind!) am confident you’ll get through this temporary blip and start to notice some improvements!
It can be helpful to bear in mind, too, that ups and downs along the way are all part of the journey, too!
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 am sorry to hear about your struggles with sleep over the past seven years. As implied by others, it might be helpful to consider any sleep you have managed to get over the past seven years because this serves as evidence that you can sleep. Nobody can remain awake with zero sleep for seven years!
So, you might not be getting as much sleep as you want or getting the sleep quality you want, but you are getting some sleep, even if that only occurs from time to time and doesn’t feel very good. The key, then, is getting that sleep to last longer and to occur more frequently, more consistently, and to feel more restorative — and usually, this is done by building sleep drive, strengthening the body clock, and lowering arousal.
Evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques can help with this — you might want to discuss CBT-I with your doctor if you haven’t done so already.
Good luck, and 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.
If you are finding that it takes a long time to fall asleep at the start of the night, it can be helpful to think of the start of your sleep window only as your earliest possible bedtime. So, if your sleep window begins and you don’t feel sleepy enough for sleep you might want to try delaying going to bed until you do feel sleepy, while maintaining that consistent final out of bed time in the morning.
Taking time to unwind before the start of your sleep window — doing things you find relaxing and enjoyable — can also distract the mind and help to reduce anxiety as bedtime approaches. You might also find it helpful not to check the clock during the night since this usually only leads to arousal and makes falling back to sleep more difficult.
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.
This is so great to hear! I think your plan of adding 15 minutes to your sleep window and giving yourself a week or so to assess whether the change was helpful is a great plan!
Thank you for sharing your story — it sounds as though you’re doing great!
—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.
As pointed out by Gabriele, we are all unique — so progress is different for everyone!
It can be helpful to remember that it took time for your insomnia to develop, so it will take time (albeit usually less time!) to address it!
It can also be helpful to focus attention on the process (doing what you are doing) rather than monitoring for results. The results will come by themselves — and they have already started to appear with those faster sleep onset times!
—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.
