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If you are currently going to bed at 1:00 AM and getting out of bed at 10:00 AM, you are allotting nine hours for sleep. If you are currently getting between three and five hours of sleep, then allotting nine hours of sleep is only going to lead to between four and six hours of wakefulness during the night.
I think that you would find it very helpful to start allotting an amount of time for sleep that is much closer to your average nightly sleep duration. You might want to try allotting between five-and-a-half and six hours of sleep for a couple of weeks and see how you get on.
Observing a regular sleep window that more closely matches your average nightly sleep duration will help build sleep drive, reduce the amount of time you spend awake during the night, consolidate your sleep, and improve sleep quality.
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.
So many people struggle with sleep after having a baby! How old is your daughter? Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do about any nighttime awakenings caused by your daughter, but there are definitely things you can do to increase the likelihood of sleep when your sleep isn’t being interrupted by your baby.
—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 Gert. Given your circumstances, it’s not surprising that you are struggling with sleep. You mentioned that you tried sleep restriction and CBT. What was your chosen sleep window when you were implementing sleep restriction, and how long did you stick with it before deciding it wasn’t helpful? What other CBT-I techniques were you implementing?
—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 of all, melatonin supplements aren’t going to mess with your body’s natural ability to produce the hormone. Any supplemental melatonin you take after the body has already released its own melatonin to signal for sleep is completely ignored by the body.
It’s quite normal to experience sleep disruption before exams and important dates. Sometimes it can be helpful at times like that to make sure you only go to bed when you feel sleepy enough for 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.
Sorry to hear about your struggle with sleep and the frustration this is causing you. When do you normally go to bed at night and when do you get out of bed to start your day in the morning?
—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’d find it helpful to observe an appropriate sleep window that more closely matches your average nightly sleep duration. Then, try to make sure you are always out of bed by the end of your sleep window. If your chosen sleep window ends at 6:00 AM, for example, then you would want to be getting out of bed by 6:00 AM 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.
Welcome to the forum. The good news is, you can get back to the point of no longer thinking or worrying about sleep — we just need to work on getting that sleep confidence back!
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 a typical night?
Do you tend to have more difficulty falling asleep at the start of the night, or sleeping through 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 — unfortunately, I am not surprised that all the things you listed in your post didn’t work. That’s because there is no evidence that any of those things are effective treatments for chronic insomnia.
Have you looked into CBT for insomnia (CBT-I)? There is overwhelming evidence to support CBT-I as an effective long-term treatment for 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.
Welcome to the forum and I’m sorry to hear about your sleep difficulties.
First of all, it’s important to highlight the fact that neither melatonin nor lorazepam are generating sleep for you. Nothing can generate sleep apart from our own biological sleep drive — so the four-and-a-half hours you got after taking melatonin, and the nine hours you got after taking lorazepam was sleep generated by you and not whatever you took.
Supplements and medications can help us get over whatever the initial obstacle to sleep might be (often high levels of arousal/anxiety/worry) and that can make it easier to sleep — but they are incapable of generating sleep. Any sleep we get is being generated by our own body.
Many people experience a string of poor nights followed by a “recovery” night — and this is a sign that sleep drive is working as it should be. We can only stay awake for so long before sleep drive becomes so strong, we simply cannot stay awake.
The key to evening out these highs and lows is often the implementation of a consistent (and appropriate) sleep window. This helps build sleep drive (and sleepiness), leads to less time awake during the night, consolidates sleep, and improves sleep quality. It’s also helpful to get out of bed whenever you find yourself struggling with sleep.
As suggested by gsdmom, I think you would find cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques very helpful if you are ready to make the changes necessary to improve your sleep for the long term. The techniques can be challenging in the short term, but they almost always lead to significantly better sleep for the long term.
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 Amberlynne and I am sorry to hear about your ongoing struggle with sleep. Have you looked into (or tried implementing) cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques? They are far more effective for insomnia over the long-term than sleeping pills.
—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 AnnMarie and welcome to the forum. If CBT-I techniques worked for you in the past, they can work for you again!
If and when you wake sometime between 3:00 AM and 4:00 AM, why do you think you find it hard to fall asleep? Are you consistently getting out of bed to start your day by the end of your sleep window and avoiding sleep before the start of your sleep window?
What kind of activities do you pursue during the day? Are you keeping active?
—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. Let’s get to the bottom of this!
When do you normally go to bed at night, when do you get out of bed in the morning (great to hear you are observing a consistent out of bed time, by the way!), and roughly how many hours of sleep would you say you are getting on a typical/average night?
Do you tend to have more difficulty with falling asleep at the start of the night, or waking during the night and finding it hard to fall back to sleep (or both)?
You mentioned that you tried sleep restriction in the past. Can you tell us a bit more about that? How long did you try sleep restriction for, and what was the start time and end time of your chosen sleep window?
—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 Mona and welcome to the forum. I have yet to come across someone with chronic insomnia who doesn’t experience rumination of thoughts and sleep-related fear and worry. This is completely common and when it occurs just prior to bedtime, it’s usually an indicator of conditioned arousal.
In other words, because you have experienced so many nights of struggle, you have learned to associate bedtime with unpleasantness — so when it’s time for bed, your body starts to worry about the upcoming night and this can lead to symptoms similar to the sensations we associate with the body’s “fight or flight” response.
The good news is, you can address this conditioned arousal by implementing cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques. You aren’t alone, and you do not need to live with your insomnia or sleep-related worries.
—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 additional information.
Since you currently seem to average around six hours of sleep, I think you would find it very helpful to allot a bit less time for sleep. This should lead to less time awake during the night, more consolidated sleep, and better sleep quality.
If you are currently in bed and switching the lights off at around 11:00 PM, and you get out of bed at 7:45 AM, you are allotting almost nine hours for sleep.
Since your current average sleep duration is around six hours, you can see that — by allotting around nine hours for sleep — you are almost guaranteeing yourself around three hours of wakefulness during the night.
I think you would find it helpful to allot an amount of time for sleep that more closely matches your current sleep “capability”. Starting with a sleep window of around six-and-a-half hours might be more appropriate and a good starting point.
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.
I really appreciate the kind words — 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.
