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Have you tried getting out of bed when you wake in the middle of the night and find yourself struggling with sleep? Doing this repeatedly, in combination with a regular and appropriate sleep window, can help lower arousal and the accumulation of sleep drive can help reduce the amount of time you spend awake at night.
—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 entirely possible that you may have conditioned yourself to wake around 3:00 AM. If that’s the case, there are things you can do to “recondition” yourself to minimize the frequency and duration of those awakenings.
Observing an appropriate and consistent sleep window will ensure enough sleep drive builds during the day to help you sleep at night (and reduce the amount of time you spend awake at night) and getting out of bed when being in bed doesn’t feel good will help address any conditioned arousal.
These two techniques do require consistent implementation if they are going to be helpful — and it usually takes a few weeks before you’ll notice results. If you are finding it hard to stick to these techniques, you might want to engage the help of a CBT-I therapist or a sleep coach with a proven track record of helping people with 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 are you getting on with that sleep window, Ron? Any changes since you originally posted? Have you been getting out of bed when you wake during the night if remaining in bed doesn’t feel good? This can help address any conditioned arousal that might be making it difficult for you to fall back to 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.
Hello Manfred. Sorry to hear of your recent setback. It can be helpful to remind yourself that it’s completely normal to experience temporary sleep disruption from time to time. If sleep doesn’t recover by itself after a week or two, you are at a big advantage because you know exactly what to do to get your sleep back on track — you just re-implement all the techniques that you know from experience are helpful!
It will take time to rebuild sleep confidence — and every night of better sleep builds and reinforces sleep confidence.
Remember that it’s only ever our thoughts and behaviors that perpetuate sleep issues — if we don’t allow sleep to take over our thoughts and if we don’t implement unhelpful behaviors (such as spending too much time in bed, canceling plans, modifying our days, endlessly researching sleep) then we can ensure that temporary sleep disruption doesn’t become a longer-term problem.
I hope this helps, Manfred — you know exactly what to do to get your sleep back on track.
—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 inspirational transformation, Fiona!
It’s quite remarkable to consider that you were battling insomnia for ten years, averaging between one and three hours of sleep — and after just eight weeks you were falling asleep within 20 minutes of getting into bed and getting at least six hours of unbroken sleep!
As you quite rightly pointed out, the techniques you learned are challenging to implement — especially during the first few weeks. However, if you remain consistent and committed, they will always get you results!
You now have the skills you need to get your sleep back on track should it ever become disrupted again in the future. You also know, from experience, that you are able to sleep naturally and you are able to improve your sleep all by yourself — without pills, gadgets, or gizmos!
Thanks again for sharing your story. It was a pleasure to work with you.
—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.
In my experience, believing that the next day will be ruined or impossible to get through is one of the biggest beliefs among people with chronic insomnia — and this is quite ironic because people with chronic insomnia are experts when it comes to getting through the day after very little (or no) sleep!
I think it can be very helpful to evaluate any thoughts that are generating worry and anxiety because doing this in a methodical way can help us see that the thoughts we have are rarely as accurate as they first seem to be! When we can identify the flaws in these thoughts (and recognize that thoughts are just thoughts, not facts) we strip them of their power.
Furthermore, giving ourselves the opportunity to disprove them can be helpful, too. So, if a primary concern is daytime performance, making the effort to add enjoyable and enriching activities to our days can help us recognize that we have far more control over the quality of our day than our previous night of sleep does!
—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 Ron. I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed several months of good sleep until around six weeks ago. This means that, just as you enjoyed better sleep before, you can do so again!
Did anything happen six weeks ago to trigger your most recent bout of sleep difficulties?
If you wake and no longer feel sleepy, and don’t feel worried or anxious, you might simply no longer be sleepy enough for sleep. How are you feeling during the day? Do you feel high levels of fatigue? Are you falling asleep or napping during the day?
When you were sleeping well, what time were you going to bed at night and when were 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.
Sorry to hear about the negative effect insomnia is having on your life. You are NOT alone, and you can get through this!
I am so encouraged that you have learned about cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and are implementing CBT-I techniques.
These techniques do require commitment, consistency, and a lot of effort — so I would encourage you to keep going! Which techniques are you currently implementing? Is your psychologist helping you with this?
—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.
Difficult nights are completely normal and to be expected! Sometimes, it can be helpful to recognize any potential external cause — in your case, you know that sleep was more difficult as soon as you started to overthink or worry about sleep.
In the short-term, you don’t really need to do anything since difficult nights from time to time are completely normal. Avoid the temptation to modify your day or compensate for a difficult night of sleep since this can make it harder for your sleep to recover.
So, if you have a bad night, continue to get out of bed at the same time. Continue with your day as normal. Stay active, don’t cancel plans, and don’t go to bed earlier the following night.
If, after a couple of weeks, sleep doesn’t improve, then you can simply re-implement all the techniques that helped you before. So, as suggested by Jennifer, you can start following a more appropriate sleep window.
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.
It sounds as though you are doing well and you are making progress, @living_tribunal! It does sound as though you have a lot of concern about how much sleep you are getting from night to night and this may be making sleep more difficult since worry and concern activate the arousal system and this suppresses sleep.
The thing about sleep is, it always happens in the end. With enough wakefulness, everyone will sleep. Another thing about sleep that’s good to know is that the body will always prioritize deep sleep and always provide you with at least the minimum amount of sleep you need to get by.
When it comes to deep sleep, this is pretty much completely over within the first third of the night. So, if you are getting somewhere between two and three hours of sleep, then you are probably getting all of your deep sleep. This is why you are still here today, after 15 years of insomnia — because your body is giving you enough sleep.
The challenge, of course, is how to get more sleep — and, ultimately, this is best achieved by removing ourselves from the process as much as possible. In other words, by abandoning any and all sleep effort. Instead, our goal should be to set the stage for sleep — by allotting an appropriate amount of time for sleep, by being active and engaged every day, by getting out of bed by the same time each day, and by getting out of bed when being in bed is unpleasant, for example.
I think a key insight you have recognized is that going to bed only when you feel sleepy enough for sleep is really helpful! The clock doesn’t know when you are sleepy — so, if you are still following a sleep window, try to see the start of that sleep window as your earliest possible bedtime and only go to bed if and when you feel sleepy enough for sleep. Try to stick to a consistent out of bed time, though, to give your body clock a strong morning anchor.
I am confident that if you remain committed to cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and keep looking forward, you will continue to find success. This is a marathon rather than a sprint!
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, Nige!
It is not uncommon for insomnia to get worse upon retirement — and that’s because when we are working we are forced into having some sort of structure to our days and nights (for example, we have to get up by a certain time in order to get to work on time).
When this structure is removed, we can end up going to bed at all hours and getting out of bed at all hours — and this irregularity disrupts sleep drive, disrupts the body clock, and leads to heightened arousal.
Have you tried implementing cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques? I am confident that you’ll find this very helpful since they help address the thoughts and behaviors that are making sleep difficult while strengthing sleep drive and your body clock and weakening the arousal system.
—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, Jess! I am confident that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques will help you since they address the perpetuating factors behind insomnia — in other words, they address (and fix) the cause of ongoing sleep disruption!
—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 glad to hear that you are sleeping well at the moment, and getting between six and nine hours of sleep on most nights.
Building sufficient sleep drive can really help when it comes to falling asleep. If you are getting between six and nine hours of sleep each night, this suggests that you are allotting a lot of time for sleep or you don’t have a consistent sleep schedule. This can make it more difficult to sleep at night, and this can feed into sleep-related worry.
Feeling anxious about sleep is completely understandable if you have been struggling with sleep for a long time. It can be really helpful to evaluate the accuracy of the thoughts you have that lead to worry and anxiety — when you do this, you will often be able to recognize that the thought isn’t is accurate is it first seemed.
A common worry is about next day performance — how the day will be ruined or impossible if you don’t get a good night of sleep. If you are able to take a step back and remember all the good days (or at least the positive or OK moments) that happened after a hard night of sleep you can see that this thought that might be generating so much worry isn’t even all that accurate!
It can also be helpful to make a conscious effort to add enjoyable, enriching, and rewarding activities to your day as much as possible. This not only improves the quality of your life, but it helps you recognize that you can have good days (or good moments) after a hard night, and it distracts you from thinking and worrying endlessly about 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.
Have you looked into cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques? These will address the actual cause of chronic insomnia, which is always inappropriate and/or incorrect sleep-related thoughts and behaviors. Tackling the cause of your sleep disruption is probably going to be more helpful over the long-term than medication.
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. Can you tell us a bit more about your sleep? When do you go to sleep at night, when do you get out of bed to start your day, and roughly how many hours do you get on an average night?
Do you typically find it hard to fall asleep at the start of the night, or do you tend to struggle with waking during the night and finding it hard to fall back to sleep (or both)?
—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.
