Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hello Sarah, and welcome to the forum.
Your story is very familiar and certainly not unusual. You exhibit almost all of the classic perpetuating factors behind insomnia and this helps explain why you have been struggling for so long.
Strategies such as no longer traveling, no longer going out of town, no longer sleeping elsewhere (or allowing anyone to sleep at your place), obsessively thinking about sleep, and having an excessively rigid sleep routine (that doesn’t even help all that much), are all behaviors that — while understandable — are actually making it harder for you to get your sleep back on track.
You mentioned that you have tried two rounds of CBT-I in the past, without success. Can you tell us a bit more about that? What kind of strategies and techniques did you implement, and why do you think they didn’t work 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.
I’m so happy to hear that you are going through CBT-I — I have no doubt that you will find this very helpful and that your sleep will improve.
Although it’s not usually helpful to compare your progress to others, most people will experience improvements in their sleep within a couple of months.
When it comes to tips for staying busy and awake during the day, what did you do before you experienced 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.
I’m so sorry to hear about your struggles with sleep — please be assured that you are capable of sleep, that you have not lost your ability to sleep, and that you can improve your sleep.
Have you tried implementing CBT-I techniques to help 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.
Welcome to the forum, Susan. I am sorry to hear about all the stress you are under and I am not surprised that your sleep has been disrupted by everything that is going on.
I think that you would find it very helpful to start implementing CBT for insomnia techniques to help get your sleep back on track. You could start by simply allotting an appropriate amount of time for sleep and following a consistent sleep schedule.
Although daytime fatigue can make it harder to remain active, when we stay inactive we can actually make fatigue worse. So, I would encourage you to try being as active as possible during the day and avoid compensating for any bad nights of sleep since this can perpetuate the problem.
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 current issues with sleep. How long has this been going on for? Have you spoken to your doctor about the racing heart and night sweats?
I would suggest seeking medical advice for these symptoms. If your doctor cannot pinpoint any cause or explanation for them, they could be a symptom of hyperarousal.
Physiological arousal is often a perpetuating factor behind insomnia. Taking steps to address this heightened level of arousal will usually help improve your sleep and the symptoms you are experiencing.
Have you tried implementing CBT-I techniques, or discussed them with your doctor?
—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, what do you mean by “tired”? It is so easy to confuse tiredness with sleepiness — but the two are very different! If we go to bed when we are tired rather than sleepy, we are going to find it hard to fall asleep.
Here’s a short video about this: How to know if you are fatigued rather than sleepy (and why it matters).
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?
—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 quite common for sleep to become a bit more disrupted upon retirement, often because more time becomes available for sleep and more time becomes available for rest and relaxation! Without the obligation to get up for work, and without the daily routine that employment provides, sleep can suffer.
Ambien, melatonin, and valerian Root are not effective long-term treatment options for chronic insomnia. I think that you would find it very helpful to implement cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques to help get your sleep back on track.
When do you currently go to bed at night, when do you get out of bed to start your day in the morning, and roughly how many hours of sleep do you get on a typical night? Are you taking daytime naps?
—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 Wendy!
Often, when we don’t get the amount of sleep that we strive for, we can monitor for the effects of curtailed sleep (even subconsciously). So, if we get six-and-a-half hours instead of seven hours, we might notice higher levels of fatigue or even some niggles and aches and pains that we would never have otherwise noticed.
In other words, every time we aren’t satisfied with the sleep we get, we notice negative consequences — but every time we are satisfied with our sleep duration, we don’t notice any negative consequences and so we feel great!
Deep sleep is the most restorative stage of sleep — and we get pretty much all of our deep sleep in the first third of the night. So, even if we only manage two or three hours of sleep, we are almost certainly getting all of the most restorative stage of sleep.
Of course, this isn’t to say that we’d all feel great after just two or three hours of sleep — but the sleep we get after this point has less of an effect on how we feel during the day than we usually think. This helps explain why some people can do just fine on as little as five or six hours of sleep every night.
If you regularly managed between seven and eight hours of sleep in the past, then you may well be able to manage that again — as long as you don’t strive to get a certain amount of sleep! As soon as we try to get a certain amount of sleep, we make sleep more difficult because sleep is an autonomous process that we can’t directly control.
I would suggest that you start by observing a sleep window that’s aligned with your current average nightly sleep duration to help consolidate your sleep, and go from there.
I hope this helps — good luck!
—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 issues with sleep. When you wake before the end of your sleep window, what makes you decide whether or not to get out of bed? Do you ever go to bed before the start of your sleep window, or nap during the 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.
Hello Karen! Unfortunately, this isn’t my area of expertise (and I suspect that none of our forum members have expertise in this area, either). I would suggest talking to your child’s pediatrician about your concerns.
Good luck!
—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, Aaron. It sounds as though work-related stress is disrupting your sleep and, I suspect, that you have some worry that insufficient sleep might impair your work performance and put your job (and livelihood) at risk. Does this sound accurate?
Ideally, anything you can do to reduce your work stress will no doubt help your sleep improve. Another way you can reduce the power of your arousal system (the system responsible for making it harder for you to fall back to sleep when you wake) is to make sure you are allotting an appropriate amount of time for sleep and getting out of bed when you are finding it hard to sleep.
When we allot too much time for sleep and stay in bed “trying” to sleep, we make sleep more difficult and this perpetuates insomnia.
When do you normally go to bed at night, when do you get out of bed to start your day in the morning, 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.
I don’t think that there are more people out there with insomnia, but I think that more people with insomnia are finding this forum!
Everyone who posts here will get a response — even if that response comes only from me. However, I am only one person so sometimes it takes me a while to write a response since I have to prioritize my time so I am always available for my clients.
Of course, it’s also great to see other members here contribute and respond to others, even if it’s just to lend a sympathetic ear — and I would love to see more of this!
—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 sharing these kind words, Phil. I know that sometimes my answers to questions can be a bit frustrating because I am so keen to ensure that every client implements CBT-I techniques correctly to help ensure their success.
In addition, without that person looking over your shoulder to keep you accountable, it can be hard to stay consistent with CBT-I techniques when you are first learning them!
As you know, the results you are enjoying are down to your own efforts. I am merely the guide (and, of course, your #1 cheerleader!). Keep going and your sleep will continue to improve — I look forward to another positive update when you reach the one-year anniversary of your graduation!
—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, Gail — glad to hear you are coming off the sleeping pills. Sleeping pills are not an effective long-term solution for chronic insomnia. Instead of looking for an alternative medication, I highly recommend you look into cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques.
CBT-I is recommended as the first-line treatment for chronic insomnia by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the American College of Physicians, and the British Association for Psychopharmacology. Furthermore, since CBT-I techniques are skills-based, they remain with you for life — so, should sleep issues ever return in the future, you will know exactly what to do to get your sleep back on track.
CBT-I works because it addresses the root cause of most cases of insomnia — incorrect and/or inappropriate sleep-related thoughts and behaviors. When we get rid of the perpetuating factors behind insomnia, sleep improves — and it improves 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 Cam37. Welcome to the forum, and let me reassure you that you aren’t alone, that you don’t have to live with insomnia, that your sleep system isn’t “broken”, and that you have not lost the ability to sleep.
It’s normal to feel anxious about the effects of insomnia because the media bombards us with terrifying headlines. Yet, not one single study has found that chronic insomnia causes any health problem whatsoever (if you are still concerned about this, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of Dr Daniel Erichsen’s short book “Why We Don’t Sleep“).
Can you tell us a bit more about your current sleep pattern? When do you normally go to bed at night, and when do you normally get out of bed to start your day? Do you typically find it hard to fall asleep at the start of the night, or stay asleep throughout 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.
