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It’s no surprise that you developed such a strong level of sleep-related anxiety after being admitted to the ER! I am so sorry to hear that happened to you.
To be honest, I am not surprised that the medicinal marijuana stopped “working” — because there’s not really any evidence that it’s an effective treatment for chronic insomnia.
Furthermore, whenever we rely on an external sleep aid (whether it’s marijuana, alcohol, a supplement, or even prescription medication) we can believe that it’s that sleep aid that is somehow generating sleep — when the only thing that is capable of generating sleep is our own internal biological sleep drive. In other words, these things are not long-term solutions.
If you are currently averaging around six hours of sleep at night, I think you would likely find it helpful to allot no more than around six-and-a-half hours for sleep. This will reduce the amount of time you spend awake during the night — and, as you spend more time in bed asleep rather than awake, you will probably feel less worry and anxiety about sleep. This, in turn, will likely lead to further improvements in your 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.
With all that stress in your life, it’s little wonder that your sleep is disrupted. Have you discussed cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques with your doctor? This might be a good option for you to consider — especially since one of the early goals is to consolidate sleep and make it a bit more consistent and predictable (so, fewer roller-coaster nights of lots of sleep then minimal sleep, and so on).
—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 average person will fall asleep within around 10-30 minutes of getting into bed — so, taking around 30 minutes to fall asleep isn’t unusual or something to be concerned about.
If you are currently averaging around four-and-a-half hours of sleep, you might find it helpful to reduce your sleep window to around five-and-a-half hours to reduce the amount of time you spend awake during the night.
As you start to spend more time asleep during the night, and less time awake, you can then look to extend your sleep window in response to your improved 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.
@mrzonk — Have you discussed cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) with your doctor to see if they think it would be an appropriate option for 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.
This is certainly something you could try — see it as an experiment and see how you get on! I think you’ll find this video helpful: “Do you have to follow cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques forever?“.
—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 Lora and welcome to the forum and thanks for the great question!
Ultimately, if you want consistent sleep, then it’s important to observe a consistent sleep window. It’s also important to recognize that it takes time to adjust to a sleep window and that it’s completely normal for sleep to get worse in the short-term as you adapt to the new window.
As long as you are consistent and committed (you don’t go to bed before the start of your sleep window and you make no attempt to sleep once your sleep window ends) you will start to feel sleepy and your sleep will improve. It’s important to give yourself enough time to get these results, though — and not to give up prematurely!
You are looking to make long term improvements to your sleep, and that might involve a bit of short term sacrifice and struggle — but you will notice improvements if you stay committed.
You might find this video helpful: “What to do when you feel sleepy early in the evening but don’t feel sleepy when it’s time for bed“.
—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 are happy to sleep only in your recliner for the long term, then there’s nothing wrong with doing that. If, however, you want to be sleeping in your own bed for the long term, then it’s usually a good idea to make sure that your own bed is the only place you sleep.
Do you feel sleepy enough for sleep when you go to bed? When do you normally go to bed, when do you get out of bed (or your recliner!) to start your day, and roughly how many hours of sleep do you get on a typical night?
As @Sleep_less pointed out, getting your husband to talk to his doctor about the snoring may also be helpful for both of 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.
Hello Steve. Instead of looking for far-fetched ideas, have you looked for evidence-based techniques for chronic insomnia (specifically cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia)?
You mentioned that you are epileptic so it’s important not to pursue CBT-I techniques unless you are cleared by your doctor — however, I think it’s a discussion worth having since there is overwhelming evidence to support the effectiveness of CBT-I for people 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.
Are you still sleeping for 11-12 hours each night? That is a considerable amount of sleep to be getting on a nightly basis.
—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.
From a sleep architecture standpoint, it’s extremely rare for anyone to miss out on sufficient deep sleep for an extended period of time. That’s because the body prioritizes deep sleep, and we get virtually all of our deep sleep in the first third of the night. So, even if you only get two or three hours of sleep you are almost certainly getting enough deep sleep.
It’s also important to recognize that how we feel during the day is far less connected to sleep than we often think. Fatigue is a primary complaint among people with insomnia — yet fatigue is caused by much more than just insufficient sleep (for example, the mental fatigue associated with sleep effort, sleep research, sleep-related worry, and daytime inactivity).
—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 know we have spoken about your situation, but for others who might stumble across this post, it’s important not to feel annoyed at yourself or try to fight any anxious thoughts you might be having.
Instead, it can be very helpful to identify the thoughts that are causing anxiety (because thoughts are just thoughts — it is our response to thoughts that can lead to anxiety, not the thoughts themselves).
When you are able to identify the thought(s), you can then evaluate their accuracy. When we do this, we can often see that the thought wasn’t as accurate as it first seemed — and this can reduce the intensity of our response to that thought.
Implementing behavioral CBT-I techniques also helps build sleep drive to consolidate sleep and helps us recondition ourselves to see the bed as a place for sleep rather than wakefulness. In effect, this leads to the bed becoming a strong trigger for 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.
You might find it helpful to keep a sleep diary for a week or two — record when you go to bed at night and when you get out of bed to start your day, along with an estimate of how many hours of sleep you’re getting. Then, make sure the amount of time you allot for sleep is quite close to the amount of sleep you’re getting.
When you have an appropriate sleep window, you can try slightly advancing (starting and ending it earlier) the sleep window — perhaps by 15-30 minutes each week until you start to feel more comfortable with your sleep schedule.
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.
CBT-I techniques are hard in the short term. No doubt about it. However, implementing them will lead to long term improvements in your sleep. The alternative is to continue as you are now, perhaps with no end in sight.
If the idea of getting out of bed when you find it hard to sleep is too difficult to contemplate at the current time, you can always start by implementing a regular and appropriate sleep window, based on your current average nightly sleep duration. As you start to see improvements in your sleep, you can then add stimulus control — the process of getting out of bed when you are struggling to 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.
Hello Poppy, and welcome to the forum. Can you tell us a bit more about your sleep at the current time? When do you normally go to bed at night, when do you get out of bed in the morning to start your day, and how much sleep do you get on a typical night?
When you go to bed, do you find it quite easy to fall asleep? Do you wake a lot during the 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. If you are struggling to sleep at night, it’s usually a good idea to avoid sleeping during the day (unless needed for safety) so sleep drive can continue building through the day to help you sleep at night.
You mentioned that you typically go to bed at 7:00 PM. When do you normally 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.
