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I’m sorry to hear about your accident and your ongoing struggle with sleep. Have you discussed cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) with your doctor as an alternative (or addition) to sleep medication?
What time 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 would you say you get on a typical night? When you wake during the night, do you find it hard to fall 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.
Sorry to hear about your sleep-related anxiety, ghost1951. This is very common among those of us with insomnia. It’s to be expected, too — after repeated nights of poor sleep, worry, frustration, and anxiety, we come to associate the entire process of going to bed with unpleasantness, and even the very thought of going to bed can lead to anxiety.
Have you looked into cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) as a way to improve your sleep for the long term?
CBT-I techniques can be very helpful since they address the perpetuating factors behind insomnia that feed into our sleep-related worry and anxiety.
—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.
Very few people actually get eight hours of sleep — six hours is probably more common among the general population!
Most cases of insomnia begin in a way that’s similar to what you have described. A specific event leads to worry, stress, or anxiety — and sleep is (quite expectedly) disrupted. Usually, sleep recovers by itself but sometimes it doesn’t.
When the sleep disruption continues for the longer-term, it’s usually because of our response to the initial sleep disruption. For example, we can start to worry about our sleep, we can start to research sleep and put more effort and thought into sleep than we ever did before. We might also be tempted to compensate for lost sleep by conserving energy or canceling plans.
Unfortunately, all these responses perpetuate the problem and turn short-term sleep disruption into a longer-term problem.
The good news is, we never lose our ability to sleep — and we can use the core biological mechanisms behind sleep to override sleep-related worry and anxiety and help set the stage for sleep.
Have you tried implementing 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.
I think you will find it very helpful to allot less time for sleep — you mentioned that you go to bed at 2:00 AM and get out of bed at 2:00 PM. So, you are allotting 12 hours for sleep.
Let’s say your average nightly sleep duration is around five hours — by spending 12 hours in bed, all you are doing is guaranteeing yourself seven hours of wakefulness. This is not only unpleasant but it activates the arousal system and leads to all the symptoms of anxiety that you have described.
I would suggest that you read the page on sleep restriction and start to observe a regular and appropriate sleep window. This will help build sleep drive, give the body clock an appropriate morning anchor, reduce the amount of time you spend awake, consolidate your sleep, and reduce 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.
If you kept a record of your nightly sleep duration every night for two weeks, are you saying that this would average one hour per 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.
Sorry to hear about your insomnia and your tinnitus, Aries. Unfortunately, it’s no surprise that the whole list of things you mentioned didn’t work — because there’s no evidence for any of them being an effective treatment for chronic insomnia.
I would encourage you not to modify your life in response to insomnia — especially when it comes to planning holidays! When you stop doing pleasurable things or try to compensate for lost sleep, you actually risk perpetuating the problem since you can end up spending more time thinking and worrying about sleep, and you actively guarantee that insomnia has a negative impact on your life.
You might find these two videos helpful:
Every time you feed your insomnia, you make your insomnia more powerful and more demanding
Why it is so important not to compensate for a bad night of sleep when you have insomnia
Is your sleep disrupted exclusively by your tinnitus? Or, have you now reached the point where perhaps sleep-related worry and anxiety (not connected to the tinnitus) are disrupting your 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.
Are there any environmental cues that could be waking you at around 7:00 AM? Maybe the neighbors going to work or other environmental sights or sounds?
—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, if I understand you correctly, your current sleep window is 12:15am to 6:30am — but you often wake somewhere between 4:30am and 5:20am. Is that right?
This suggests that your average nightly sleep duration is somewhere around four to five hours (if we allow you some time for falling asleep at the start of the night). Does that sound right? If so, you might find it helpful to reduce your sleep window a bit (somewhere around five-and-a-half hours might be beneficial).
How do you feel when you wake between 4:30am and 5:20am? Do you feel rested? Do you get through your day pretty well, or do you experience very high levels of fatigue and/or sleepiness?
Before you had any issues with sleep, when did you usually go to bed (roughly) and when would you get out of bed (roughly)? Were you more of a night owl or more of a morning lark?
—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 Jo! I was just reorganizing the forum and noticed that your post completely slipped through the cracks and didn’t get a response — I do apologize for that.
The symptoms you are describing are quite common among people with insomnia — after repeated unpleasant nighttime experiences, you have learned that going to bed is not a pleasant activity and this kicks in the body’s fight or flight response.
How has your sleep been since you posted? Did you complete that course of 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.
What is your question? Ask and we’ll try to 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 so much for sharing your success story! I strongly believe that everyone with insomnia craves success stories like yours — but they can be hard to find because people who no longer think about sleep are rarely motivated to contribute to insomnia forums or talk about their sleep!
I think it’s really insightful that you found both behavioral techniques (such as not going to bed until sleepy and always being out of bed by the same time) and cognitive techniques (such as eliminating sleep effort and not obsessing about sleep) to be helpful — this is exactly why cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques are so powerful.
CBT-I techniques address the thoughts that are making sleep more difficult AND the behaviors that are making sleep more difficult. Insomnia, therefore, doesn’t stand much of a chance!
Recognizing that teas and supplements are not the answer is another big insight. As you rightly point out, you were once able to sleep well without them so you don’t need them to sleep well again!
I remember you posting a few times back in May about your struggles with sleep. Can you tell us a bit more about how your insomnia developed, and what aspect(s) of sleep you struggled with?
—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 update!
When it comes to temperature, sleep definitely prefers cooler temperatures over warmer temperatures. With that being said, many people can usually recognize when high temperatures are disrupting their sleep — for example, feeling hot or waking in a sweat are indicators that temperature might be an issue (as can experiencing “seasonal/summer” insomnia).
You mentioned that, at the same time as you swapped out your comforter for lightweight blankets, you were implementing CBT-I techniques — specifically, you were getting out of bed when you were finding it hard to fall asleep/back to sleep. I wonder if this may have had a bigger influence on your improvements than changing the bedding or your attempts to cool off when finding sleep difficult.
Finally, the hormonal changes associated with menopause can definitely have a short-term impact on sleep — but these changes don’t mean you have to resign yourself to a life of insomnia over the long term! I think that leaving the bed when you are having a hard night and doing something relaxing until you feel sleepy is likely the key technique that has helped you improve your sleep — and if getting out of bed helps you feel more comfortable, temperature-wise, then more power to you!
Thanks for sharing your improvements with us — and do keep in touch!
—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 Brian! Conditioned arousal/anxiety is very common among people with insomnia. Repeated negative experiences night after night have (understandably) led to you associating sleep, bed, and maybe even the evenings with negative emotions such as fear, worry, and anxiety.
The good news is that, since this association was learned (you didn’t always associate sleep with such negative emotions) you can, once again, “re-learn” that sleep and the bed can be relaxing and enjoyable.
In addition, since what you have experienced and described is so common among people with insomnia, and the overwhelming majority of people with insomnia enjoy significant improvements if they implement cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques, there is no reason to believe that you cannot get your sleep back on track.
Indeed, you know from experience that you can improve your sleep since you have managed to do this in the past.
Since you are a client, I would suggest that you contact me directly with any specific concerns or worries you have as we work together. That way, I will be able to respond to you significantly faster, and we can discuss things on a more personal level.
—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 not surprised that you are in good health despite having insomnia — because there is no evidence that chronic insomnia causes any health problem whatsoever!
I’m glad to hear that you managed to get off the temazepam. That is no small feat, so please be sure to give yourself credit for the effort that no doubt took.
As you have experienced for yourself, supplements (including CBD oil) are not an effective treatment for chronic insomnia.
Have you looked into cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques?
—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’m really sorry to hear about the sleep issues you have been facing for so long, and that your therapist isn’t helping you implement CBT-I techniques — many CBT therapists aren’t actually trained in sleep. When it comes to insomnia, looking for the “I” at the end of “CBT” is very important (I’d also recommend listening to Episode 7 of the Insomnia Coach Podcast for more about this).
Although harder, it is possible to implement CBT-I techniques in a self-directed way — I would suggest that you start by allotting an appropriate amount of time for sleep (based on average nightly sleep duration taken over at least one or two weeks) to help build a bit of consistency and hopefully help you recognize some sleepiness cues.
Also, try to remain active during the day. Inactivity can actually perpetuate insomnia and intensify feelings of fatigue.
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.
