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How are you doing since you posted? There’s no reason to think that you won’t be able to improve your sleep if you implement cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques.
If you typically average around five hours of sleep, allotting somewhere between five-and-a-half and six hours for sleep might prove to be helpful since that will build sleep drive, generate some more consistency in your sleep, and reduce nighttime wakefulness that tends to feed into sleep-related worry and anxiety.
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.
The short answer is, if you get back into bed and are still finding sleep difficult, it’s helpful to get right back out of bed! I am moving away from encouraging people to estimate 30 minutes and moving towards simply determining when to get out of bed based on whether or not it feels good to be in bed.
If you are awake and it feels good to be in bed, it’s OK to stay in bed since conditions are right for sleep! If it doesn’t feel good to be in bed, getting out of bed to do something relaxing and somewhat enjoyable can be a more appealing alternative to staying in bed!
Furthermore, getting out of bed when being in bed doesn’t feel good to do something else can help distract the mind so it’s not obsessing/worrying about sleep and prevents you from associating the bed with unpleasant wakefulness.
To answer your second question, if your sleep window is from midnight to 6:00 AM and you only get sleepy and go to bed at 2:00 AM, it’s a good idea to still get out of bed by 6:00 AM. Here’s a short video related to this: Should you worry about how long it takes to fall asleep when following a short sleep window?.
—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.
Isn’t it amazing how the mind focuses on the one difficult night you experienced rather than the seven nights of good sleep you had? Ups and downs are a normal part of the process — if you can avoid the temptation to react and make changes in response to a difficult night your sleep will soon get back on track all by itself!
You might find these videos helpful:
When you have insomnia, keep looking forward and avoid dwelling on the setbacks and difficult nights.
If you have insomnia, what happens tonight is far less important than what you do today and tonight.
—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 that learning more about the mechanisms of sleep — understanding how sleep works — can be really helpful since many of us have inaccurate beliefs that lead to more sleep efforts, the creation of unrealistic goals, and we then can end up putting more pressure on ourselves to sleep. This makes sleep more difficult!
Since nothing can generate sleep apart from your own biological sleep drive, you shouldn’t feel any pressure when it comes to getting off your sleep medication because it’s likely not having a huge influence on your sleep from a biological standpoint. This is a hurdle you can cross when you feel confident to do so — and, of course, should be done under the supervision of your prescribing physician!
—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 so happy to hear that you have been experiencing some improvements in your sleep! How are you doing since you posted?
There’s a lot that goes into feeling refreshed after sleep — and it’s often influenced more by sleep quality than sleep duration alone. Many people also experience sleep inertia — a sense of grogginess in the morning that can take a half-hour or so to shake off. So, how you feel first thing in the morning isn’t always an accurate reflection of how well you slept.
I think that it’s entirely possible to feel good the next day after just one night of good sleep, but how we feel is influenced by many factors that are both related and unrelated to sleep. So, you might need more than one good night of sleep to feel refreshed in the morning (but you might 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.
The problem with feeling reliant on any external sleep crutch is that it can make it harder for you to rebuild confidence in your own, natural ability to sleep. The good news is that nothing can generate sleep other than your own biological sleep drive — so, even on nights when you do take medication, the sleep you get is sleep YOU are generating!
If you’re able to identify anxiety as being a primary driver of your insomnia, it might be helpful to see if you can identify the thoughts that are generating that anxiety. If you can do this, you can then evaluate those thoughts for accuracy. When you do this, you might see that the thoughts that generate so much worry aren’t very accurate — and this can strip them of their power!
Here’s a short video about this: “What to do when anxious thoughts are making sleep difficult and leading to 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.
How are you getting on since you posted? What is it about the idea of finding it hard to fall asleep that makes you feel worried?
—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 don’t know of any scientific evidence that supports the idea that a cold shower can improve deep sleep — and that’s probably not too surprising because the body takes care of sleep architecture all by itself.
When it comes to deep sleep in particular, this is the stage of sleep that is prioritized by the body — so very few people miss out on deep sleep for any significant period of time. Even if you are only getting a few hours of sleep, your body is likely getting all its required deep sleep. If you have a night (or a few nights) of absolutely no sleep, again the body will prioritize deep sleep when you do sleep — so you will spend more time in deep sleep.
Ultimately, sleep architecture is something that the body takes care of all by itself and it’s something we have no control over. So, worrying about sleep stages or trying to get more (or less) of a certain type of sleep usually only leads to heightened arousal and this can perpetuate insomnia.
On that note, the best way to improve chronic insomnia is by identifying and addressing the thoughts and behaviors that perpetuate insomnia — one of which is the attempt to control or force 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.
I think you can attend a late night party occasionally even while implementing cognitive and behavioral techniques!
You might find this video helpful: “You can still be social, active, and have fun while going through a course of CBT for 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.
The most helpful sleeping regimen is probably something along the lines of:
1. Make sure you are not allotting too much time for sleep
2. Only go to bed when you are sleepy enough for sleep
3. Get out of bed if being in bed doesn’t feel good
4. Get out of bed and start your day at a consistent time every day
5. Add as many enjoyable, enriching, and rewarding activities to your day as possibleI hope this gives you some things to think about and proves to be 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.
No herbal supplement will fix chronic insomnia because no herbal supplement can address the thoughts and behaviors that perpetuate insomnia.
You have a natural ability to sleep! You do not need a pill to sleep!
Behavioral changes such as allotting an appropriate amount of time for sleep, sticking to a consistent out of bed time, and getting out of bed when being in bed doesn’t feel pleasant will be far more effective (especially over the long term) than any supplement, pill, or potion!
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.
There is a money-back guarantee for my online course. If you remain on schedule, implement all the techniques you’ll learn, and see no improvement in your sleep then you will get your money back. All the “legalese” for this can be found in the terms of service, under section 10.
—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 restriction can take a bit longer than six nights so I’d encourage you to stick with that sleep window and stay as consistent as possible! Are you implementing any cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques other than sleep restriction?
If the two of you would like to connect, if you contact me and give me explicit permission, I can share your email addresses with one another. To protect you from spam, I remove email addresses that are posted in the forum.
—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.
Thank you so much for sharing your transformation, Jennifer — I just know that your story is going to help, encourage, and reassure a lot of people.
—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.
Sorry to hear about your struggles with sleep — have you tried implementing cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques to help tackle the thoughts and worries (and any sleep-related behaviors) that might be making 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.
