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I appreciate you letting me know, Matthew. What’s your plan, moving forward?
—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.
Thanks for the question, ilsundal!
Waking is a normal part of sleep and it can happen for obvious reasons (such as needing to pee) and it can happen for no obvious reason.
What tends to make these awakenings more difficult are our attempts to fight or avoid them or otherwise “figure them out”.
Of course, there might be some common sense/straightforward things you can do if there’s an obvious cause (stop drinking fluids a certain time before bed if you always need to pee during the night, for example) but beyond that, we might be more likely to get pulled into a struggle the more we try to figure out something that cannot really be controlled. And that struggle can consume our energy and attention and make things more difficult.
It also sounds as though your experience is telling you that the more you live your life the way you want to live it — the more you engage in actions and behaviors that matter to you — the more effortless sleep seems to become and the less attention it seems to require (or consume).
With all this in mind, what do you feel would be the most workable way to respond to these awakenings?
—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.
Great! Do let us know if you end up finding that 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.
That vacation sounds fantastic, Priyanka — thank you for sharing! You are clearly getting your life back from insomnia and doing things that matter to you. You are leading a rich and meaningful life, independently of sleep.
Perhaps that sense of greater sleepiness is a sign that there’s less struggle and less of a threat associated with sleep/wakefulness?
In terms of that morning sleepiness — how long does it tend to stick around for? Is the sleepiness true sleepiness (as in, it’s hard for you to stay awake) or is it fatigue/grogginess? Do you feel as though if you stayed in bed, you would continue 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.
Thanks for sharing, neme90 — the early days are often the most difficult and it can be so easy to give up and stop moving forward. How did things start to get better for you at the end of Week 3 and why do you feel things got better at that point?
—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.
Thanks for sharing how things are going 🙂
To answer your questions:
1) No need to practice the AWAKE exercise if you are experiencing being awake without struggle. You can if you want to, though! Remember the AWAKE exercise isn’t supposed to make sleep happen — if you do *anything* with the goal of making sleep happen, you might be setting yourself up for a struggle because sleep cannot be directly or permanently controlled!
2) Feel free to play around with the AWAKE exercise — I would suggest always starting with Acknowledgement though; just as you said!
Your brain is a thought-generating machine so new thoughts will come up as you work through the exercise. You can either acknowledge them and start the process again, acknowledge them and continue with the step you are on, or acknowledge them and thank your brain for looking out for you and work through the process with them if you decide to repeat the exercise.
All that really matters here is getting in some practice of experiencing these thoughts with less struggle — being more of an observer of them, rather than an opponent of them.
3) If you feel comfortable with your sleep window, there’s no need to make any changes. Remember that we don’t want to use the sleep window as a sleep effort — a tool to make a certain amount or type of sleep happen. Its purpose is to help you move away from chasing after sleep.
Does this help?
—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 for sharing! It sounds as though you are moving in the direction you want to be heading.
This course offers a lot of tools, but tools don’t work if they aren’t used — so good on you for getting the practice in 🙂
—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 kleee and welcome to the course!
Here’s the thing about thoughts and feelings such as anxiety — sleep can happen, even in their presence (and we don’t need sleep confidence for sleep to happen, either).
What tends to make things more difficult is when we try to control our thoughts and feelings. That requires a lot of energy and attention (and often a bit of a battle) — and that’s what tends to make things more difficult.
In other words, what tends to make falling asleep more difficult is trying to make yourself fall asleep! Have you tried asking your wife how she seems to fall asleep so effortlessly? What does she do to make sleep happen?
Your struggle is difficult and it’s a normal part of insomnia. You aren’t alone and we’ll be exploring all these challenges in a lot of detail as you work through the course.
—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 really up to you, Andrea! Remember that the intent of the sleep window isn’t to make a certain amount or type of sleep happen. The sleep window is simply one tool that is intended to help you move away from chasing after sleep.
So, what probably matters here is whether your action of adding time onto your sleep window (or not adding time onto your sleep window) to account for reading in bed is a way of trying to make a certain amount or type of sleep happen. If it is, how does that help you? If it’s not, how is it a problem?
Does this help?
—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.
Were you sleeping OK five years ago because you were trying really hard to make sleep happen?
—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 @Joemann and welcome to the forum!
Yes, practice is the hard part — and when it comes to accepting the difficult stuff in life and doing what matters even in its presence, we are all a work in progress!
Performance anxiety is quite common among those of us who struggle with insomnia — and it usually comes from trying to make a certain amount or type of sleep happen or believing that we should be getting a certain amount or type of sleep. In other words, we have an attachment to a certain outcome and we have resistance to anything other than the outcome we desire.
It makes sense that you don’t like being awake — and I don’t think we can force ourselves to like something we don’t like! That would be a bit like trying to force ourselves to fall in love with someone we aren’t attracted to and don’t care much for!
What can be helpful is to be aware of when we are struggling with being awake. And, when we notice that happening, changing our approach so that we are engaged in something that helps us experience being awake with less struggle.
Sleep can happen regardless of what you think or how you feel. What tends to make it more difficult is trying to control your thoughts and feelings (or trying to control sleep itself) — and it sounds as though your experience is confirming that!
Ups and downs are a normal part of the journey (and of life itself). You might find this video helpful, too: When insomnia comes back: how to deal with insomnia relapses when insomnia returns.
I hope there’s something useful here!
PS: @Packer Fan — ACT for insomnia is the philosophy shared in the online course 🙂
—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.
That’s a great question! I wonder if it’s a bit like trying to figure out what came first — the chicken or the egg?
In other words:
Does insomnia cause stress and then cause health issues?
Or
Does stress cause insomnia and then cause health issues?
Or
Do health issues cause stress and then cause insomnia?
Or
Do health issues cause insomnia and then cause stress?Or even:
Is it how we might respond to insomnia that creates stress? If so, is it our response that might cause health issues, or is it the stress, or is it the insomnia?Yikes, and then we might also need to consider how to define stress and what type of stress might influence our health.
Now we are deep in the rabbit hole!
What I can say is that when it comes to scientific evidence, there is none that exists that has found chronic insomnia causes any health condition whatsoever.
Perhaps what matters more is how we respond to the presence of difficult stuff like insomnia and stress. If we battle with it and try to fight or avoid it, that might make things more difficult — especially if our experience suggests that there are things in life (such as stress and sleep) that cannot be directly or permanently controlled through effort.
—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.
Sounds like you have your detective hat on there, OkieMan — you are clearly a strong advocate for yourself and a problem solver!
Five years ago, did sleep require exploration, effort, detective work, and medication? If not, why is it needed now — and how are those things helping 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.
That sounds difficult, Crryzoke. When you think back to how you slept before June 2022, is there a difference in how you approach sleep now compared to back then?
—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, Billybob!
There are probably billions of things that influence sleep — just as there are probably billions of things that influence our overall health.
As you mentioned, many people find they sleep less as they age. That’s quite natural and normal — people who are 60 or 70 or 80 probably don’t need as much sleep as someone who is 5, 10, or 20 years old! This can sometimes be a source of struggle as we might “try” to sleep how we did in the past — and when we start trying to control sleep we set ourselves up for difficulties.
If you found a supplement helps you sleep better, that’s great 🙂
—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.
