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Welcome to the forum and I hope you’ve found the support here helpful so far!
Reading your posts, it sounds as though there might be some “anxiety avoidance” going on — and trying to avoid anxiety is often the fastest route to more anxiety and heightened arousal!
If you are able to explore the possibility of changing the way you interpret or react to the thoughts that usually generate anxiety, and perhaps even become more accepting of these thoughts (since, after all, thoughts are just thoughts and not facts) you might find that — in response — they generate less anxiety and worry.
Have you been able to explore the thoughts you have that seem to generate anxiety? When you feel anxious, what is going through your mind?
—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 asked about what you can do to stop your mind from racing — to be honest, I don’t think it’s usually helpful to try to suppress thinking or thoughts since that takes a lot of effort and just makes sleep more difficult.
Instead, it can be helpful to explore the thoughts you have. What kind of thoughts are you having that lead to that racing mind?
Thoughts are just thoughts! It’s our reaction to those thoughts — our relationship with those thoughts — that determines whether they lead to more arousal or not.
—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 been able to identify any of the thoughts that seem to generate an anxious response? That can sometimes be a good place to start when it comes to tackling sleep-related anxiety.
—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 has already been pointed out, it’s best to discuss medication with your prescribing physician. What I would like to add is that since no medication can generate sleep, the four hours of sleep you get after taking 5mg of Ambien is still sleep that your body is generating all by itself!
Medication can generate sedation and medication can help lower that initial obstacle to sleep (often worry about sleep) but the only thing that generates sleep is our own biological sleep drive!
When we have been awake for long enough, we will always 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.
It sure sounds as though you’ve tried lots of different things in a bid to improve your sleep! However, I didn’t see any mention of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques. Is that something you’ve heard of or tried?
—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, Tatyana! It might be helpful to explore the thoughts that seem to be generating that anxiety — what do you think would have happened if you had gone into work after zero hours of 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.
It sounds as though pinpointing the source of that anxiety might be helpful. What is it about the idea of being awake through the night that seems to generate anxiety? What is going through your mind when you feel that anxiety?
—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.
Those setbacks sure can be very disheartening, stressful, and concerning — but they are all part of the process. The only way you can regress is if you abandon all the techniques you previously found helpful!
If you keep moving forward your sleep will get back on track because the techniques you have learned and have been implementing help to build sleep drive, strengthen the body clock, and lower arousal. In other words, they rob insomnia of the oxygen it needs to survive for the long-term.
What is the start time and end time of your current sleep window? You mentioned that you are implementing stimulus control — what is your current cue to get out of bed and when do you decide to return to bed?
—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 heightened arousal might be making sleep more difficult for you, Stu. This arousal can take a number of forms, the three most prominent forms being:
1. Cognitive arousal (eg thinking/worrying about sleep, monitoring for sleep)
2. Physiological arousal (eg racing heart, cold sweats, etc)
3. Conditioned arousal (we can learn to associate our bed with wakefulness)So, it might be helpful to see if we can help lower any arousal that might be present.
Often, a good place to start is building sleep drive (this can also help overpower arousal) and reducing the amount of time available for prolonged nighttime wakefulness by allotting an appropriate amount of time for sleep.
At what time do you usually go to bed at night, and when do you usually get out of bed to start your day in the morning?
You might also find it helpful to get out of bed and do something a little bit more enjoyable whenever being in bed feels unpleasant. This helps make nighttime wakefulness a bit more pleasant and prevents you from reinforcing a negative association between the bed and unpleasant wakefulness (conditioned arousal).
Do you ever have issues with waking during the night and finding it hard to fall back to sleep, or is your biggest challenge at the current time just falling asleep when you first get into bed?
I will end this post by emphasizing that nobody here (myself included) is qualified to assist with depression or psychosis since they require medical intervention.
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.
Sometimes sleep is temporarily disrupted for obvious reasons — and it sounds like starting to use a steroid inhaler might be the obvious cause here.
Have you discussed your concerns about this with your doctor? Since it has only been a couple of days, it might just be a case of giving yourself time to adjust. Sleep is often temporarily disrupted whenever there’s a change in our lives, and starting a new medication would definitely be considered a life change!
—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 dropping by to share your story, AFriend! It can definitely take time and quite a few ups and downs for us to build and strengthen our sleep confidence — and you continue to be successful because of your own efforts to implement behavioral techniques that build sleep drive and lower arousal while also exploring the thoughts and beliefs that can generate anxiety and 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.
Thanks for sharing! Taking time to unwind before going to bed can be so helpful — and the activities we do as bedtime approaches will vary from person to person since what one person might find stimulating and unhelpful, someone else might find relaxing!
Not going to bed until you feel sleepy for sleep can certainly make it easier to fall asleep when you first get into bed — as I like to say, the clock doesn’t know when you’re sleepy!
I appreciate you pointing out that you still have difficult nights from time to time because they are a part of life and part of the human experience! Nobody has a perfect night of sleep every single night — ultimately it’s how we react to any difficult nights that often determines how long they stick around for. The less we react, the faster they tend to disappear!
—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.
Glad to hear that what you’ve been doing seems to be working — would you like to share those techniques with us?
The phrase “sleep restriction” is confusing since it implies we are restricting sleep but we are not! Rather, we are restricting prolonged wakefulness by allotting an appropriate amount of time for sleep. Since the amount of time we allot for sleep should always be a little longer than our average nightly sleep duration, it shouldn’t restrict sleep.
It sounds as though you settled on a sleep window that is seven hours long. If you think about your sleep over the past couple of weeks, what would you say your average nightly sleep duration was?
—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! First, let me reassure you that there is no evidence whatsoever that chronic insomnia causes any health problem. So, hopefully, this is one less thing for you to be worried about.
It sounds as though your sleep disruption might be driven primarily by sleep-related anxiety — by thoughts that lead you to think your situation will never get better. You might find it helpful to explore these thoughts since often they are not as accurate as they seem when we first think them. Recognizing this can help lower the amount of anxiety they generate.
Let’s say your insomnia does stick around. What is the catastrophic outcome that seems likely to happen? In other words, what is it about the idea of having insomnia that generates anxiety? How accurate or likely is that outcome — is there, perhaps, any possible alternative outcome — maybe one that is more likely or more realistic?
—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, Sairana — I am glad to hear that you have discovered sleep restriction since that is one technique that can help build sleep drive and reduce the amount of time available for prolonged nighttime wakefulness. It is, however, only one technique in the “CBT-I toolbox” so it’s good to hear that you are also working on techniques such as getting out of bed during the night and ensuring you remain active and engaged during the days!
It can take some time and consistent implementation of an appropriate sleep window before you notice consistent improvements in sleep — and this is why many people give up if they don’t notice results within a week or two. I would encourage you to keep going!
What is your current sleep window? What’s your earliest possible bedtime and final out of bed time in the morning?
—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.
