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Sorry to hear about your struggles with sleep. Waking in “fight or flight” mode is a relatively common symptom of hyperarousal and many people with chronic insomnia experience hyperarousal due to the repeated experience of sleep difficulties.
You might find this video helpful: Why you feel a sense of panic when you drift off to sleep (or when you wake during the night).
How long have you been experiencing this? Have you spoken to your doctor or looked into 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.
With that bedtime and rise time, we can see that your son is allotting around eight-and-a-half hours for sleep — that’s a long period of time to be allotting for sleep! If your son currently gets around three hours of sleep at night, we can see that allotting over eight hours for sleep is only guaranteeing up to five hours of wakefulness during the night.
A good first step might be to reduce the amount of time he allots for sleep to around five-and-a-half hours. This will help build sleep drive and reduce the amount of time he spends awake during the night.
You can learn more about this on the sleep restriction page.
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! First of all, it’s important to stress that you CAN sleep — every human being on earth can sleep! If we are awake for long enough, we will sleep.
With that being said, we can definitely struggle with sleep and find it more difficult than it should be — and that’s usually down to the way we think about sleep and the behaviors we implement to improve our sleep that actually get in the way of sleep.
How have you been getting on since you posted? Most of the time, sleep will recover by itself after the initial trigger for sleep disruption is no longer a relevant issue. If not, I would suggest familiarizing yourself with cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques to address the perpetuating factors behind insomnia.
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 John. I am sorry to hear of your horrific childhood experience. That is very likely the initial trigger of your sleep issues — and led to changes in the way you think about sleep and probably in your sleep-related behaviors, too. Ultimately, it’s these thoughts and behaviors that perpetuate insomnia and make it difficult for us to get out sleep back on track.
Have you looked into cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I)? It’s a great collection of techniques that help identify (and address) the thoughts and behaviors that feed insomnia — and for this reason, it’s a really helpful way to improve 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.
It sounds as though you’re doing really well! How have things been over the past couple of weeks?
—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.
Hi Kassandra
It takes time for the sleep window to help build sleep drive and have a noticeable effect on your sleep. We can’t evaluate the effectiveness of a sleep window after just two or three nights. So, what you are experiencing is completely normal.
You will learn a lot more about the sleep window in Session 2. Since you are a client, I would suggest contacting me directly with any concerns you might have so that you receive the best and most relevant guidance possible.
—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.
My thoughts are this:
1. The study involved only 15 people — we can’t extrapolate the results of a study that involved 15 people to a worldwide population of close to 8 billion people.
2. Sleep deprivation is not insomnia. In other words, chronic insomnia is not the same as — and does not have the same effect on the body as — one night of complete and absolute sleep deprivation.
3. The study actually looked at five different biomarkers (t-tau, Aβ40, Aβ42, NfL, and GFAP). Only one out of five (t-tau) was found to be affected by one night of complete sleep loss. In the remaining four markers, no changes were seen.
A line in the article that I would like to draw particular attention to is this one: “The AD [Alzheimer’s disease] risk genotype rs4420638 did not significantly interact with sleep loss–related diurnal changes in plasma levels of Aβ40 or Aβ42.”
4. The biomarkers t-tau and β-amyloid (Aβ) are only associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Association is not causation.
5. The authors of the study fail to mention (or didn’t investigate) what happened to the increased levels of that one biomarker after participants were allowed to sleep after that single night of forced and absolute sleep deprivation.
6. The study only looked at biomarkers in blood, not the brain. As one of the study authors pointed out, “More research is needed to confirm that sleep deprivation increases tau in the brain, since levels in the blood aren’t necessarily indicative of those in the brain [and] higher blood levels of tau after sleep deprivation could be a sign that the brain is clearing out the protein rather than accumulating it”.
So, there is still no evidence that insomnia causes any health problem whatsoever. It’s so important to read beyond the headlines and to get into the nitty-gritty of these studies to see the bigger picture.
It’s probably even more helpful not to read them or look for them in the first place since all they do is increase sleep-related worry and 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.
Any more updates for us, @anna and @jtthemillenial?
—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.
Meditation is great for relaxation, but it’s not going to generate sleep for you — so try to bear in mind that the goal of meditation is meditation, not sleep!
If you are averaging around three hours for sleep each night we can see that allotting eight hours for sleep (bed at 10:00 PM and out of bed at 6:00 AM) is perpetuating your insomnia. You are basically guaranteeing yourself up to five hours of wakefulness during the night, every single night.
I think you would benefit hugely from implementing cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques — and I’d encourage you to start with sleep restriction to reduce the amount of time you spend awake during the night.
You might want to start by allotting closer to five or five-and-a-half hours for sleep each night. This will build sleep drive and reduce the amount of time you spend awake at night.
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 a shame to read about unsupportive spouses — I think this is a big challenge for people with chronic insomnia and is something that is rarely acknowledged. At the very least, everyone has an outlet here in the forum to vent their frustrations and get support from others who know exactly what you’re going through!
—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.
Have you tried 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 have certainly tried a lot of things, but I didn’t see cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) in your list. Is this something you’ve tried?
Your insomnia doesn’t sound unusual in any way, so I have no reason to believe that you wouldn’t find CBT-I to be helpful at getting your sleep back on track.
You might also like the podcast episode where I talk to Jeff — he often found it hard to fall asleep but when he gained additional job responsibilities and became a parent, those difficult nights became more common and this led to a lot of sleep-related fear, worry, and anxiety.
I think you’ll find that you have a lot in common with his story and that of others who once struggled with insomnia and improved their sleep using CBT-I techniques.
Good luck, and I hope this helped!
—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’re doing better — thank you for sharing your story!
—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.
Have you discussed cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) with your son’s doctor?
When does your son typically go to bed at night, when does he get out of bed to start his day, and how many hours of sleep would you say he gets 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.
