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Remember that your initial sleep window is just that — an initial sleep window. It isn’t something you will be following indefinitely!
If you are currently averaging four hours of sleep each night and you are allotting five-and-a-half hours for sleep, you will be reducing the amount of time you spend awake, building sleep drive, and still giving yourself the opportunity for up to one-and-a-half hours of additional sleep.
As you start to fill your initial sleep window with sleep, you’ll be gradually extending the sleep window so you will always have the opportunity for a bit 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.
Your experience is a typical symptom of conditioned arousal — you are recognizing sleepiness when there is no pressure to sleep because it’s not time for bed yet. However, when bedtime arrives and you get into bed, your body prepares you for a difficult night because it has experienced so many of them in the past. This leads to a feeling of being wide awake and the loss of sleepiness cues.
Ultimately, the only way you can retrain yourself to see the bed as a place for sleep rather than wakefulness is to get out of bed when you are in bed, awake, and feeling worried, anxious, frustrated, or highly alert. Return to bed when you feel calm and relaxed and see what happens. You may need to repeat the process many times during the night, especially in the short term.
When you combine this technique (part of stimulus control therapy for insomnia) with an appropriate sleep window you will be building sleep drive. If you only allow yourself to sleep during your sleep window and in your own bed, this is when and where you will sleep.
Over time, you will associate your bed with sleep and this will prevent you from feeling wide awake as soon as you get into bed.
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 much sleep are you typically getting before you wake and then find yourself unable to fall back to sleep? Is it possible that you have simply got enough sleep and don’t need any more? When do you typically go to bed at night and when do you get 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.
You’re very welcome! If you find the idea of jumping straight to a five-and-a-half-hour sleep window a bit intimidating (which is completely understandable) you can indeed make the reduction a bit more gradual and staggered.
There is evidence to support the effectiveness of such a strategy — it’s known as sleep compression. Here’s a video about it: If sleep restriction for insomnia is too hard, sleep compression can be a good alternative.
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 completely agree!
—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 best thing to help you feel refreshed in the morning is probably better quality sleep. Instead of the ongoing experimentation with medication, have you looked into the most effective long-term treatment for chronic insomnia, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I)?
—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’ll very likely find cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques helpful regardless of whether you are taking medication or not. So, I would suggest simply taking any medication as it has been prescribed to you by your physician. You certainly shouldn’t make any changes without talking to your physician first.
The only time sleeping pills can become problematic is if you take the medication contingently — because this can continually erode your sleep confidence and make you believe that you can only sleep if you take a pill. You might find this video helpful: Does cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) work if you are taking sleeping pills?
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.
If very tormenting dreams are contributing to your sleep difficulties, I would encourage you to discuss this with your doctor or another licensed healthcare provider. You might also find it helpful to find someone local to you who is certified in behavioral sleep medicine.
—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.
We all have unique sleep requirements — so you may be someone who only needs a small amount of sleep. With that being said, three hours is definitely a very short amount of sleep!
When do you typically go to bed at night and when do you get out of bed to start your day? When you wake after around three hours, why do you think you aren’t falling 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.
It’s completely normal for sleep to be disrupted when we travel. As long as you avoid compensating for any lost sleep (for example by spending more time in bed, modifying your days, trying to conserve energy, etc) then your sleep will soon recover all by itself.
Ultimately, sleep only ever becomes a problem when we try to get involved in the process!
The fact you have a hard time napping shouldn’t be something to be concerned about — daytime naps reduce sleep drive and can make sleep more difficult at night. So, if you want to improve your nighttime sleep, daytime naps are best avoided anyway.
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Mastery program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
As Deb suggested, one of the best things you can do to prevent your days being filled with sleep-related thoughts and worries is to fill your days with something else! The more active and engaged you are during the day, the less time you will spend thinking about sleep and the more you will be able to recognize that you have far more control over the quality of your day than how well or how poorly you slept the previous night!
Waking during the night is completely normal — if however, you worry about those awakenings, it can be difficult to fall back to sleep. If you allot an appropriate amount of time for sleep each night you will spend less time awake during the night. And, if you get out of bed when being in bed is unpleasant, you will not be reinforcing the idea that the 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.
I am so sorry to hear that a doctor told you that CBT-I probably wouldn’t work for you since you have anxiety and depression and that medication would be a better solution. Since cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) specifically helps lower sleep-related arousal, it’s a great way to improve sleep when sleep-related worry and anxiety is making sleep difficult.
One of the best things to do when it comes to anxiety is to see if you can identify the thought that is causing anxiety. Anxiety doesn’t occur by itself — we have a thought and this triggers an anxious response. So, next time you feel anxious, ask yourself what is going through your mind.
If you can uncover the thought(s) that are causing the anxiety, you can then evaluate the accuracy of those thoughts. When you do this, very often you will see that the thoughts that are generating such powerful anxiety aren’t even particularly accurate — and this, in turn, can reduce the power of the anxiety they generate.
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.
You aren’t alone! I am so glad to hear that you’ve found the Insomnia Coach Podcast helpful — if you can recognize any of your own experience in the stories others share, you can recognize that you can get your sleep back on track just as all the podcast guests have done!
When do you currently go to bed at night, when do you get out of bed to start your day, and roughly how many hours of sleep do you get on an average 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.
Waking during the night is quite normal — but if we worry about these awakenings, it can be hard to fall back to sleep.
Alcohol withdrawal may contribute to some temporary sleep disruption. You might find it helpful to implement cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques to help set the stage for sleep and prevent you from perpetuating your current sleep disruption.
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.
Those jolts you are describing sound like hypnic jerks, which are quite common and certainly not a sign that something is wrong with you or your sleep. You might find this forum discussion helpful: Jerking self awake when falling asleep / hypnic jerks?
If you are experiencing dreams, then you are almost certainly getting deep sleep too since this sleep stage is prioritized by the body when sleep deprived.
Have you looked into cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I)? I think you’ll find it very helpful since it will help address any incorrect or inappropriate sleep-related thoughts and it will help you implement constructive behaviors that will give sleep the best chance possible.
To start, since you are going to bed at 10:30 PM and getting out of bed between 5:00 AM and 6:00 AM this means you are allotting between six-and-a-half and seven-and-a-half hours for sleep. If you are currently averaging around four hours of sleep each night, we can see that your current sleep schedule is virtually guaranteeing you up to three-and-a-half hours of tossing and turning during the night.
I hope this gives you some things to think about and that you found this post 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.
