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Are both you and your wife going through a course of CBT for 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.
Unless it’s suspected that you have sleep apnea, a sleep study is unlikely to be particularly helpful. You may want to discuss this with your doctor.
CBT-I is effective for sleep maintenance insomnia as well as sleep-onset insomnia because chronic insomnia is typically perpetuated by sleep drive disruption, circadian rhythm disruption, and/or arousal. CBT-I addresses all three of these factors.
When you wake during the night (which is actually quite normal), what do you think is stopping you from being able to fall back to sleep? If you no longer feel sleepy, it’s possible that you may have simply got enough sleep.
Fatigue is different to sleepiness and is not necessarily a symptom of insufficient sleep. You might find this video helpful:
Daytime fatigue is caused by more than just a bad night of sleep
It sounds as though you are doing a lot of things right, but I can’t offer much more specific advice without knowing a lot more about your history and current sleep pattern.
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, Meg. Do you tend to wake with a jerking movement and feel suddenly wide awake, or do you wake and still feel calm and relaxed and you’re able to fall back to sleep again quite quickly?
—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.
Most people with chronic insomnia have great sleep hygiene! Sleep hygiene is known not to fix chronic insomnia.
When you followed a sleep window of midnight to 6:00 AM for five weeks, did you make sure you didn’t go to bed before midnight, not nap during the day, always get out of bed by 6:00 AM, and always get out of bed during the night when you couldn’t sleep, every single day (without fail) for those five weeks?
If so, how long ago did you try these techniques, and were you being regularly supported by a therapist or coach? Was it explained to you why these techniques can be so helpful or were you expected to simply blindly follow those directions? I think a key to success is understanding why individual CBT-I techniques can be so helpful (and how they work) and having adequate support and guidance throughout implementation.
—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 am sorry to hear about your struggles with sleep. The good news is, nothing you have shared in your post sounds unusual and follows quite a similar pattern to how insomnia usually develops.
Since you have always been a night owl and experience anxiety and depression, you may be a bit more predisposed to sleep disruption compared to others. When this sleep disruption occurs, you may also be a bit more likely to worry about it or become concerned about it. This, in turn, can make sleep more difficult.
In addition to the sleep-related worry, we can also try to compensate for sleep disruption by doing things like spending more time in bed, researching sleep and insomnia, canceling plans with friends, trying to conserve energy, etc — and all these behaviors actually perpetuate the problem.
Since you are now out of school for the summer, it’s not surprising that you have noticed your sleep has become worse. When we are less active and not following a schedule, sleep can become more difficult — so, again, nothing really unusual is happening here.
I doubt a sleep study would show anything unless your doctor suspects you have sleep apnea. It might be a good idea to avoid using the Fitbit to measure your sleep because they are notoriously inaccurate when used by people with insomnia and they are unable to accurately measure sleep stages since they do not measure brainwave patterns. Looking at the Fitbit data can increase sleep-related worry and could be making your sleep more difficult.
I would suggest looking into CBT-I techniques since these will help address the perpetuating factors of insomnia and help you improve your 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.
Welcome to the forum, Mrivers322, and I am so sorry to hear that it seems the only “solutions” you have been offered for your insomnia have been medications and supplements. Have you been diagnosed with a medical condition other than chronic insomnia?
The best treatment for chronic insomnia is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). I know you have tried a lot of things to improve your sleep. Is CBT-I something you have tried?
—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 great question @jivangilad. It really doesn’t matter too much what you do when you are out of bed practicing stimulus control during the night. Lying down is perfectly fine as long as you don’t fall asleep when out of bed.
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, Mim. @gsdmom asks a great question — if you can recognize a potential cause of your sleep disruption that began four weeks ago, we can work on getting 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. I am not surprised to hear that you are experiencing fatigue when you work 12 hours per day and only have one or two hours for yourself each day. Do your friends at work also work 12 hours every day?
Needing 10 to 11 hours of sleep is very unusual and may be a contributing factor to your fatigue. How do you feel you sleep? Do you wake in the morning feeling refreshed?
—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, JR. Can you tell us a bit more about your anxiety? What, exactly, are you anxious about? When we can identify the cause of the anxiety, we can start working on reducing the power of that anxiety and improving 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.
Sorry to hear about your struggles with sleep, Hev. When you wake during the night, what do you think is stopping you from falling 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.
Your experience is quite common and usually occurs because your sleep confidence is still quite fragile. So, when you have a bad night (which is normal and to be expected) you are more likely to worry about that bad night and spend a lot of time thinking about it — this activates the arousal system and can make sleep more difficult on subsequent nights.
The good news here, Ron, is that your sleep recovered in response to the techniques you implemented before, so there’s no reason why it won’t recover again. If you continue implementing what you know has helped you in the past, it’s quite likely that your sleep will get back on track sooner rather than later.
You might find these videos helpful:
What to do if your sleep improved after (or during) CBT-I but you think your insomnia has returned
What to do if sleep restriction for insomnia stops working
What to do when you still have some bad nights of sleep during/after a course of CBT for 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.
Welcome to the forum, and sorry to hear about your recent struggle with sleep. It’s quite likely that your sleep will recover by itself if you avoid trying to control sleep or compensate for your recent sleep disruption.
It’s completely normal for sleep to be disrupted when we are being treated for a health issue since this can be quite stressful and can involve new experiences. However, it is very easy to worry about this sleep disruption (which makes sleep more difficult) and compensate for poor sleep by doing things like researching sleep, trying to sleep, spending more time in bed, etc — and this can perpetuate the problem.
If you’ve only been experiencing this disruption for a couple of weeks then I would suggest trying to continue with your normal sleep routine and your normal daytime routine. It’s quite likely that, by doing this, your sleep will soon recover by itself.
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.
Thanks for sharing, Ron. I think it’s important to bear in mind that no relaxation exercise can make us sleep, because the only thing that generates sleep is our own body.
Relaxation exercises can help us relax, and this can make sleep easier — but if we make sleep the goal of relaxation we can encounter a problem because we can self-monitor for sleep when relaxing (making sleep less likely) or, if sleep occurs in the short-term then sleep issues return, we can think that the relaxation technique is no longer “working” and then scramble to look for a new solution!
Another good resource for relaxation techniques is Darmouth College. Here’s a link:
https://students.dartmouth.edu/wellness-center/wellness-mindfulness/relaxation-downloads
—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, LCF.
Can you tell us a bit more about the sleep restriction therapy you tried? How many hours of sleep were you getting and what was your prescribed earliest bedtime and latest out of bed time?
—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.
