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Sorry for the delay in responding to your post. There is no need to focus exclusively on anxiety before tackling your sleep difficulties. Anxiety and insomnia are closely linked — studies show that when both exist together, improving sleep (for example, by implementing cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques) also helps with symptoms of 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.
How are you getting on since you posted, John?
At the end of the day, everyone experiences a bad patch of sleep from time to time. This is often caused by a stressful or unusual event such as a job loss (or a new job!), a health scare, marriage, divorce, a nightmare, etc.
When this initial trigger is no longer relevant, sleep almost always recovers all by itself. If it doesn’t, it’s because of the thoughts we have and the behaviors we implement in response to that initial sleep disruption.
When we do things like spend more time thinking and worrying about sleep, more time researching sleep, going to bed earlier, staying in bed later, canceling plans, calling in sick to work, modifying our days in response to a bad night, trying to conserve energy during the day, trying to nap during the day, etc, we actually make sleep more difficult and perpetuate the problem.
So, in the short-term, the best thing to do is to avoid all these compensatory thoughts and behaviors. With enough wakefulness, sleep will always happen in the end because sleep drive cannot be denied indefinitely!
Try to remain as active and engaged as possible during the day so your days aren’t filled with thinking and worrying about sleep. Participating in enriching activities can also help you recognize that the quality of your day is influenced far more by what you do during the day than by how you slept the previous night.
Finally, as I think you realize, alcohol is not a solution. It might help you fall asleep a bit faster, but it ruins sleep quality and leads to more wakefulness during the night.
If sleep problems continue for longer than a few weeks, you might want to implement cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques in order to tackle the thoughts and behaviors that are making it more difficult for your sleep to recover.
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. Sorry to hear about your ongoing struggle with insomnia. 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.
I think you’d find cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques very helpful, too!
It sounds as though you are paying a lot of attention to your sleep — and this is completely understandable, but unfortunately, it’s rarely helpful! Since you are referencing sleep cycles in particular, are you using a sleep tracking device to monitor sleep?
If you have any sleep-related worry or anxiety, I would encourage you to avoid using a sleep tracker since the data they collect isn’t always accurate and gives you information that, ultimately, you can’t really do anything with!
We have no direct control over the length of our sleep cycles, how long it takes to fall asleep, how much sleep we’ll get, or when we’ll wake.
CBT-I techniques are helpful since they’ll help reduce sleep-related worry and reduce the amount of time you spend awake during the night (by building sleep drive, strengthening the body clock, and reducing arousal).
You might find my podcast discussion with Dave helpful since he talks about how CBT-I techniques such as sleep restriction led to less time awake during the night and more 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.
I can’t comment from the viewpoint of someone with mild chronic fatigue syndrome, but what I can say is that chronic insomnia is always perpetuated by sleep-related thoughts and behaviors. So, if you are able to address these thoughts and behaviors, sleep will improve. In your case, I would suspect that as your sleep improves, your CFS symptoms would improve, too.
Skipping a few nights of sleep isn’t pleasant and is never a goal of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques — however, sometimes there is a bit less sleep in the short-term as you adjust to the techniques. If your goal is better sleep for the rest of your life, it might be worth pushing through in order to reap the long-term rewards.
The alternative, of course, is to continue as before — and I suspect this may not be a viable option for 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.
I am so happy to hear that you overcame your insomnia after a number of years — this is so encouraging! How did you manage to get your sleep back on track? Were there any specific techniques that you found particularly helpful?
Remember that occasional bad nights are completely normal and to be expected! Even the best sleepers among us will have a bad night every now and again. It would be impossible to sleep perfectly, every single night, forever!
—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 can be very easy to believe that you can’t sleep without sleeping pills — however, it can be helpful to recognize that no pill can generate sleep! The only thing that can generate sleep is your own biological sleep drive — and this is something that never goes away. With enough wakefulness, everyone will sleep.
Hypothetically speaking, do you believe that if you didn’t take sleeping pills you would remain awake indefinitely, or do you think that sleep might happen in the end?
—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.
So glad to hear that you are starting to feel more relaxed about sleep — especially after 40 years of struggle! This is very encouraging and, in my opinion, is a far better predictor of your future success than the one or two nights when you are waking during the night!
Waking during the night is completely normal — if you are able to recognize this and not worry about the awakening, you’ll fall asleep much faster!
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.
Just a quick note that since medication doesn’t address the perpetuating factors behind insomnia (thoughts and behaviors) they are never a long-term solution for chronic insomnia. I would also encourage anyone interested in that specific medication to read the FDA clinical trial information rather than a press release written by the drug company:
https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-approvals-and-databases/drug-trials-snapshot-dayvigo
Digging into the data, it looks as though the drug helped people fall asleep about seven minutes faster than a placebo, and reduced time spent awake by about 15 minutes compared to a placebo (participants taking the drug still averaged around one-and-a-half hours of wakefulness during the night after taking the drug for six months). Sleep efficiency was largely unaffected.
—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, Phil? Any updates for us?
—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 are NOT alone! As you have rightly identified, experimenting with sleep aids is rarely helpful and certainly isn’t a long term solution! Have you tried implementing cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques 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.
So glad to hear your sleep is improving and that you are now averaging between five and six hours of sleep each night! When insomnia becomes chronic (ie you’ve been living with sleep disruption for at least three months) then it might not go away by itself — and that’s because by this point our thoughts and behaviors are perpetuating the problem, so we need to address those thoughts and behaviors to get our sleep back on track. This is where cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques come into play.
You can find many examples of people who have found CBT-I helpful by looking in the insomnia success stories forum, the client case studies page, and the Insomnia Coach Podcast.
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, Chris. Have you looked into cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I)?
Ultimately, it’s the thoughts we have and the behaviors we implement in a bid to improve our sleep that perpetuate insomnia. So identifying and addressing these thoughts and behaviors is almost always the best way forward — and that’s why CBT-I techniques are so 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.
Feeling sleepy before the start of your sleep window and then not sleepy when the sleep window begins is a common symptom of conditioned arousal — you are recognizing sleepiness cues before the sleep window begins because you know that it is not time to sleep. In other words, there is no “performance anxiety” or pressure to sleep.
You are just as sleepy when the sleep window begins, but the arousal system is suppressing those sleepiness cues to “protect” you from the night of struggle it is predicting.
You might find this video helpful: What to do when you feel sleepy early in the evening but don’t feel sleepy when it’s time for bed.
Making sure that you build enough sleep drive before going to bed by observing an appropriate sleep window can help override the arousal system, and getting out of bed when you are struggling can prevent you from reinforcing the idea that your bed is a place for unpleasant wakefulness.
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’s not too surprising that you are struggling with sleep even after the initial triggers aren’t an issue because insomnia is perpetuated by our reaction to the initial sleep disruption — we, quite naturally, start to think (and worry) more about sleep and implement behaviors such as spending more time in bed and modifying our days to try to improve our sleep. Unfortunately, all these thoughts and behaviors actually make it harder for our sleep to recover.
I would suggest starting with sleep restriction by creating an appropriate sleep window since this will help build sleep drive, reduce the amount of time you spend awake at night, and bring a bit more consistency and predictability to your sleep.
This may be all that’s needed to help 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.
