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In the short-term, implementing evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques might lead to less sleep — however, sleep drive ALWAYS wins. So, if you only give yourself a specific (and appropriate) sleep window for sleep, you will start to sleep during that sleep window.
Sleep drive can overpower arousal and anxiety — put simply, we cannot stay awake indefinitely. Every minute of wakefulness builds sleep drive. Sleep drive will always make us sleep when it reaches a high enough level.
Through repeated exposure to the power of sleep drive, you will regain confidence in your ability to sleep.
It’s also helpful to evaluate the thoughts that lead to anxiety for accuracy. Thoughts are thoughts — they aren’t facts, and the thoughts we have are rarely accurate or factual.
Next time you feel anxious, ask yourself “What was just going through my mind?”. Uncover the thought that created the anxiety and try to evaluate it for accuracy. More often than not, you will be able to recognize that the thought isn’t very accurate — and certainly isn’t a fact!
—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! Ultimately, for sleep restriction to be successful, you need to be committed and consistent!
How are you getting on since you posted? What is your current sleep window, and what is your current average nightly sleep duration?
—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 suspect that you may be going to bed before you are sleepy enough for sleep — it is so easy to confuse fatigue with sleepiness and to go to bed before we are actually sleepy.
When do you normally 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.
If your average nightly sleep efficiency, measured over at least a week, is over 85% this suggests that you might benefit from extending your sleep window by 15 minutes or so.
If you are naturally waking within around half-hour of the end of your sleep window, this is remarkably close to your goal — in fact, it’s downright impressive! Your body, all by itself, has been given six hours in which to sleep, and it managed to wake you up, quite naturally, within half an hour of the end of your sleep window.
It’s quite amazing that, after living with insomnia for a while, we see this as such a negative, rather than quite a remarkable positive! Sometimes we can be exceedingly hard on ourselves in pursuit of sleep perfection — and this frustration and effort typically makes it harder for us to improve our 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 important to recognize that anyone would struggle with sleep if they just found out their dog has kidney disease. So, the sleep disruption you experienced after learning of this is normal, to be expected, and isn’t a sign that insomnia has returned.
Ultimately, it’s our response to acute sleep disruption that determines how quickly our sleep recovers. If we fail to recognize the normalcy of the sleep disruption and start to panic that something (such as a drug) is no longer “working”, start to endlessly think about (and research) sleep and new sleep “crutches”, we risk making it harder for our sleep to recover by itself.
In other words, if you avoid compensatory behaviors (such as spending more time in bed and/or modifying your day in response to the poor sleep) you will give your sleep the best chance possible to recover all by itself.
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 Bayarmaa and welcome to the forum. First of all, have you looked into cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I)?
At the current time, when do you go to bed at night and when do you get out of bed to start your day? Do you tend to find it hard to fall asleep at the start of the night, or is your challenge more to do with sleeping through the entire 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.
Chronic insomnia is fed by our sleep-related thoughts and behaviors. That’s because these thoughts and behaviors can lead to sleep drive disruption, body clock disruption, and arousal.
When we activate the arousal system (for example, by worrying about sleep or relentlessly researching sleep) we make sleep more difficult — and this perpetuates our insomnia.
So, it’s quite normal (and to be expected) that the body’s fight or flight response interferes with sleep.
The good news is that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques help address all the perpetuating factors behind insomnia and that’s why it’s so effective.
You might find this video helpful: Four important questions for everyone with chronic 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.
Many people with chronic insomnia can struggle to detect sleepiness — either because of insufficient sleep drive or high levels of arousal.
Ultimately, if you implement a consistent and appropriate sleep window, you will sleep during that sleep window. Depending on how entrenched your insomnia is, and how intense your anxiety is, it can take quite some time before you notice sleep become more consistent — but it will become more consistent. Sleep drive always wins.
—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.
Some good tips here! A few more would include:
* Choose clothes that you can wear the next day
* Make your lunch
* Marinate or start to prepare food for dinner the following day and store it in the refrigerator
* Gather old bills and statements and shred them
* Organize collections: photos, old letters, wine, books, or other items
* Catch up on laundry or folding clothes
* Polish your shoes
* Iron or mend clothing
* Do some stretches
* Go for a walk
* Give yourself a pedicure, manicure, or facial
* Sweep or mop the kitchen floor while no one else is there to walk on it!
* Sort out junk mail
* Play solitaire (with cards)
* Call friends who live in other time zones
* Clean out the refrigerator
* Make a grocery shopping list for the week
* Create a detailed menu for dinners
* De-clutter your coffee table, dining room table, kitchen countertops or desk
* Create a list of activities that you’d enjoy doing on weekends and vacations
* Work on photo albums or scrapbooks
* Choose one or two drawers to clean out (in your desk, kitchen, bathroom)
* Organize collections of CDs or DVDs and choose some to donate or sell if you no longer enjoy themHow are you getting on, @Msladyj?
—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.
Sleep medication doesn’t generate sleep. Tea doesn’t generate sleep. The only thing that can generate sleep is your own biological sleep drive.
Sleeping pills can help reduce the initial obstacle to sleep (often a high level of arousal/anxiety) — but they don’t generate sleep.
If you want to come off your pills, you should discuss this with your doctor. If you have chronic insomnia and want to improve your sleep for the long-term, I encourage you to look into cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I).
One of the benefits of CBT-I is that you don’t need to quit sleeping pills before getting started.
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.
First, it’s important to recognize that sleep restriction can be hard! So, don’t be tough on yourself — give yourself credit every time you are able to stay up until the start of your sleep window and every time you get out of bed by the end of your sleep window.
It can be helpful to ask yourself whether staying in bed after your alarm goes off is helping you improve your sleep for the long term. I suspect you will be able to recognize that the answer is ‘no’ — since you are still living with sleep issues.
So, ultimately, I think it’s a case of forcing yourself to be disciplined — to recognize that there will be some short-term pain to get those long-term gains that you’re looking for.
If you are finding it hard to get out of bed when your sleep window ends, here are some strategies you can try:
1. Set an alarm clock and keep it on the other side of the room so you have to get out of bed to switch it off.
2. Make plans with friends or family to meet at a certain time in the morning.
3. Put your feet on the floor as soon as your alarm goes off, while the rest of your body remains lying in bed — this is an uncomfortable position that might make it easier for you to motivate yourself to get out of bed!Here’s a short video about this that you might find helpful: How to get out of bed at the same time every morning when living with chronic 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.
It’s perhaps not too surprising that you had a hard night after getting an additional one-and-a-half hours of sleep the previous night. What likely happened is that you went to bed before you were sleepy enough for sleep (due to reduced sleep drive because of the additional sleep the previous night) and when you started to struggle, you began to feel anxious and frustrated. This triggered the arousal system and made it very hard for you to fall asleep.
If you only have two hours of your sleep window left, I suspect that it would usually be a good idea not to take a pill since this will only lead to you reinforcing the idea that you can’t sleep without a pill (and, after only two hours of sleep, you’d be dealing with the potential side-effects of the medication while awake).
It can be helpful to simply get out of bed and do something relaxing and enjoyable when you feel anxious during the night. Wait until you feel calm again, and then return to bed and see what happens.
In my opinion, I think it’s better to chalk up the bad night, get through the day (as you’ve done countless times before) and use your natural sleep drive to your advantage.
Sleep always becomes more likely after a night of bad 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.
First, it’s important to recognize that you will sleep without medication if you are awake for long enough! We never lose our ability to sleep and our biological sleep drive never goes away. If we are awake for long enough, we will sleep.
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 a typical 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.
Welcome to the forum. Are you able to predict when these periods of sleeplessness are going to occur? Do you have a consistent bedtime and morning out of bed time every 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.
If you’re concerned about such physical symptoms, you should talk to your doctor. With that being said, we often do a lot more self-monitoring for the effects of a bad night and might notice or focus more on things we might otherwise have never noticed after a more satisfying night of sleep. More on that in this video, “If insomnia doesn’t cause any health problems why do you feel aches and pains after a bad 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.
