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Welcome to the forum, ytviews123! As pointed out by @DrummerFrank, the good news is that there is no evidence that chronic insomnia causes any health problem whatsoever!
It is completely understandable why you would believe this, though — since the media is full of misleading stories about the health issues associated with insufficient sleep.
You might find this podcast episode helpful: Busting sleep and insomnia myths with clinical psychologist and behavioral sleep medicine specialist Dr. Jade Wu.
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! Your story and experience with insomnia will be familiar with many people here!
I am so encouraged to hear that you are implementing constructive techniques that will help improve your sleep over the long-term. Since you are taking action to improve your sleep over the long-term, what happens on any individual night doesn’t actually matter too much!
As you mentioned, trying to figure out when to get out of bed or if a certain amount of time has passed can be difficult, and often unconstructive since all the mental gymnastics aren’t going to help you sleep!
Since the goal when it comes to getting out of bed is to avoid reinforcing an association between the bed and unpleasant wakefulness, you might find it more helpful to decide when to get out of bed based on how good it feels to be in bed.
So, if you are in bed awake, and it feels good to be in bed and awake, then why not stay in bed? Conditions are right for sleep and you aren’t strengthening a negative association between the bed and unpleasant wakefulness.
If, however, being in bed doesn’t feel good or if you find yourself experiencing the mental gymnastics on whether or not to get out of bed, that can be a good cue to get out of bed and do anything you find relaxing and enjoyable until you feel calm and relaxed enough to return to bed.
Finally, if you feel that worry, anxiety, or a lot of sleep-related thinking and concern is perpetuating sleep difficulties, you might find it really helpful (and liberating) not to use a sleep tracker.
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 on the right path, LynnS! Allotting an appropriate amount of time for sleep and observing a consistent final out of bed time in the morning will help your body clock regulate sleep and wakefulness, build sleep drive, and reduce nighttime wakefulness.
In addition, getting out of bed whenever being in bed doesn’t feel good will help to address any conditioned arousal that might be making sleep more difficult. Over time, this technique makes the bed a much stronger trigger for sleep.
Although your concern about daytime function is completely understandable, people with insomnia are experts at getting through the day after a difficult night of sleep — so I suspect this might end up being less of an issue than you think!
—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 Gracie! As suggested by @Edgar, that high level of sleepiness is quite common in the short-term — and is one of the early goals of sleep restriction since many people with chronic insomnia have actually lost that strong sensation of sleepiness. Getting it back can be very reassuring!
What is the start time and end time of your current sleep window? If you are feeling very sleepy during the day then it’s worth making sure that it’s not too short. The goal with sleep restriction isn’t sleep deprivation — we simply want to build sleep drive and reduce nighttime wakefulness.
Feeling sleepy before going to bed and then awake when you get into bed is a symptom often associated with conditioned arousal. One way we help to tackle that is to get out of bed whenever being in bed doesn’t feel good.
As you said, these techniques are challenging but they are very effective.
—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 Jim! Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing your story! How have you been doing since you posted?
You might find it helpful to explore why you become concerned about not falling asleep. When you don’t fall asleep relatively quickly and find yourself worried about this, what is going through your mind? Is the thought that the next day will be ruined if you don’t fall asleep? Is the thought that you won’t get any sleep if you don’t fall asleep really quickly?
Sometimes it can be helpful, during the day, to explore the accuracy of such thoughts and the likely outcome of such predictions. When we do this, we can often see that the thoughts we have that trigger arousal often aren’t very accurate — and often the consequences we envision or predict are rarely accurate or realistic.
When we can recognize that these thoughts and predictions are rarely accurate, it can really help lower the intensity of the arousal they can produce.
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.
Hello Jess! Great to hear that you are implementing sleep restriction and stimulus control to build sleep drive, improve sleep quality, and reduce arousal.
It will probably take more than a week for you to notice significant improvements from these techniques so I’d encourage you to keep going and to keep looking forward!
What makes you think you are only getting very light sleep? Ultimately we have no control over sleep architecture but I can tell you that the body always prioritizes deep sleep if we are sleep deprived — so it would be unusual for you to only be getting light sleep for a long period of time.
It might be that hyperarousal is making you believe you aren’t getting as much deep sleep (or even as much sleep in general) as you might actually be getting. Here’s a video related to this: How to address paradoxical insomnia (sleep state misperception).
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.
Glad to hear you are considering cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques to improve your sleep for the long-term!
You can find plenty of insomnia success stories here in the forum, you can listen to and watch a number of success stories in the Insomnia Coach® Podcast, and you can check out the case studies page, 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.
Why do you think you find it hard to fall back to sleep when you wake during the 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.
Since chronic insomnia is perpetuated by sleep-related thoughts and behaviors, it’s very unlikely that a vitamin deficiency is the cause of your long-term sleep problems. If you are concerned about headaches or a vitamin deficiency, I’d encourage you to talk to your doctor.
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.
Hello NWSleepy! Are you currently following any kind of sleep schedule? That would probably be a good place to start!
—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 encouraged that you are exploring evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques as a way to address the thoughts and behaviors that perpetuate sleep disruption!
Your concern about job performance is understandable, but how we sleep usually has far less of an impact on our days than we often think.
Trainee doctors and surgeons, for example, often have to deal with life-or-death situations while getting as little as three hours of sleep each night (and often working more than 100 hours each week) — but they get through it and successfully complete their training.
In studies, the only consistent observations we see connected to sleep loss are daytime drowsiness (usually when sedentary), reduced performance on routine and boring tasks and more irritability — and even these effects subside after a couple of weeks as the body becomes accustomed to less sleep.
What can happen, however, is that every time we make a mistake or experience a negative moment during the day we blame the previous night of sleep — whether sleep is truly to blame or not.
Sleep restriction is only one component of CBT-I and usually takes a few weeks of consistent implementation. If you are spending a lot of time awake in bed during the night, and that wakefulness is not pleasant, it can be really helpful to get out of bed and do something you find a bit more enjoyable instead.
Shifting unpleasant wakefulness out of bed often helps calm the mind a bit quicker and it prevents you from reinforcing a negative association between the bed and unpleasant wakefulness.
If you are spending hours and hours awake in bed on most nights, this suggests that you might be allotting a bit too much time for sleep, but it’s hard to say for sure based on your post alone.
Ultimately, nothing you have described is unusual so I have no reason to believe you won’t find CBT-I techniques helpful. I don’t typically coach clients on ACT techniques because I feel that staying in bed when being in bed doesn’t feel good and accepting any worries or thoughts (really the only main difference between ACT and CBT-I) is a very high cognitive skill that requires a lot more practice compared to just getting out of bed and doing something enjoyable.
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.
Temporary sleep disruption during a heatwave isn’t unusual and probably isn’t something to be concerned about! How are you doing since you posted?
—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 Jrehark and thanks for your post. You mentioned that you go to bed at 10:30 PM. What time do you usually get out of bed to start your day? Is there any consistency with that final out of bed time in the morning? If you looked at your sleep over a period of say, one or two weeks, what would you say your average nightly sleep duration is?
—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, T6001. You are NOT alone!
Trying to wean off Ambien without taking any steps to tackle the thoughts and behaviors that perpetuate chronic insomnia is a tall order. So, I am not surprised that you have found this difficult. The fact you have tried to do this, and the fact you have tried many things to improve your sleep, is a reflection of your tenacity and determination to sleep better.
This is encouraging because it means you likely have the tenacity and determination to improve your sleep with the implementation of evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques since they can be challenging to implement (especially over the short-term) — but they are very effective over the longer-term because they address the thoughts and behaviors that perpetuate insomnia.
The good news is sleep hygiene isn’t an effective treatment for chronic insomnia, so you can watch TV at night without fear or concern. If watching TV at night caused chronic insomnia, I think we’d see about 98% of the population of the Western world finding it hard to sleep at night!
Have you looked into (or tried) cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques to help improve your sleep for the long-term?
—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.
Ups and downs are completely normal — everyone experiences sleep disruption from time to time! Ultimately, how we choose to react to the difficult nights usually determines how long they’ll stick around for.
As mentioned by @hiker, if we don’t make a big deal of the difficult nights, if we don’t modify our days or try to compensate for any difficult nights, if we continue to look forward and continue to implement techniques that chip away at the thoughts and behaviors that perpetuate sleep disruption, those difficult nights can’t stick around for long!
If you find that a lot of your worry comes from concern about what the next day will be like, it can be really helpful to make the conscious effort to add positive moments to your days. Here’s a short video about this: If you can react positively to difficult nights of sleep you might start to enjoy better 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.
