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Hello merbear1 — your experience could also be a heightened response to the normal bodily changes associated with sleep. More on that in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owKbQJOHezs
—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 an easy one to answer. CBT-I is an effective treatment for chronic insomnia. It is not intended to be used to treat any other type of sleep disorder and so it is unlikely to be an effective treatment for any sleep disorder other than 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.
Do you feel sleepy enough for sleep when you go to bed at 11:00 PM? When do you get out of bed to start the day in the mornings? Are you keeping a consistent morning ‘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.
Have you been tested for sleep apnea? Frequent nighttime awakenings, very loud snoring, and finding it relatively easy to fall back to sleep after waking are symptoms more typically associated with sleep apnea than 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.
An alarm clock is helpful to ensure we always get out of bed by the same time every day but the clock really tends to be more of an enemy at night. It’s best not to check the clock during the night since this only usually leads to worry and anxiety and this makes sleep more difficult. I covered this in a short YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHZSyhGZteU
—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.
These are known contraindications — but they are very conservative. In other words, someone with epilepsy, parasomnias, or sleep disordered breathing should only pursue sleep restriction under the direction of their doctor but I don’t know of any reports of ill-effects experienced by such individuals when going through sleep restriction. That’s not to say they don’t exist, but in my opinion, they are likely very rare.
—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.
Unfortunately, I don’t know of any studies that have compared the effectiveness of stimulus control techniques when implemented based solely on the estimated time someone has been in or out of bed compared to getting in or out of bed based solely on how awake or sleepy you feel.
I would suggest starting by estimating roughly half an hour when you are out of bed before returning to bed and repeating the process. If, after a couple of weeks of consistent implementation you aren’t noticing that you are finding it any easier to fall back to sleep when you wake during the night, shift your strategy to one of not going back to bed until you feel sleepy enough for sleep again.
Regarding your question about a “normal” number of nighttime awakenings — I sought advice on this from a couple of sleep experts who have a lot of experience looking at overnight sleep lab data and working with patients in a sleep setting. As suspected, they reported that there is no established normal here — but they did share some observational data that sounds realistic to me.
First, recognize that there’s a difference between an arousal and an awakening. An arousal is “an abrupt shift in EEG frequency for at least three seconds, preceded by at least 10 seconds of sleep”.
For arousals, 10 per hour would not be unusual.
An awakening is defined as something like 30 to 60 seconds of wakefulness. If we’re going to remember an awakening, these are the ones we’re most likely to remember (most people without any sleep complaints don’t even remember these because they pay no attention to them). In this case, 10 to 15 awakenings during the night would be pretty typical.
I will add that it’s important to note that these “normal” awakenings are awakenings that are expected and are part of sleep — they don’t cover awakenings caused by apneas (pauses in breathing that may require medical intervention).
I hope this helps, and thanks for the great questions!
—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.
Some posts get held for moderation quite randomly! My apologies for the delay 🙂
—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 excellent advice but unfortunately often easier said than done! Anyone interested in pursuing this approach can look into ACT for insomnia and the book “The Sleep Book: How to Sleep Well Every Night” by
Guy Meadows.—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.
How long do these awakenings typically last, Martin?
—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, Michaell. Are you currently following any kind of sleep schedule, or “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.
Welcome to the forum, Paul. First of all, those two good nights of sleep last week prove that there is nothing wrong with your sleep system and that you are capable of sleep. So, please bear this in mind!
It sounds as though you have developed some worry about sleep, and unfortunately this makes sleep more difficult. The good news is, there are a number of steps you can take to improve your sleep.
First of all, can you describe a typical night? When do you normally go to bed at night, when do you get out of bed 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.
If your sleep is being disrupted exclusively because of the medication you are on, behavioral techniques such as stimulus control (getting out of bed when unable to sleep) may not be as helpful as we would otherwise expect.
When did you start taking the medication and how long are you expected to be taking it for? Is sleep disruption a known side-effect of the medication?
—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, Be2Slow — and I am really sorry to hear about your ongoing struggles with sleep.
First of all, if you are going to bed around 11:00 PM but not getting out of bed until around 8:00 AM, this is something you can address right away.
Ideally, the amount of time between when you go to bed at night and when you get out of bed in the morning should be very close to your typical nightly sleep duration. This helps build sleep drive and leads to more consolidated sleep — which can really help address those feelings of daytime fatigue.
Here’s a video about the “sleep window”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUO4bmoD5XI
Another technique is to either get out of bed when you can’t sleep and only go back to bed when you feel sleepy enough for sleep (stimulus control), or to sit up in bed when you can’t sleep and read a book until you feel sleepy again, then lie back down and repeat the process (countercontrol).
Here’s a video about stimulus control:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ndAEIjZ7IA
Here’s a video about countercontrol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G00ZESFVMDI
Have you tried 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.
Welcome to the forum, aiva. Did any of your sleep specialists or psychologists mention or suggest cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I)?
CBT-I techniques are particularly helpful at combatting conditioned arousal — not just because of the behavioral techniques that are used, but also because of the sleep education you receive which can really help address any incorrect or inappropriate sleep-related thoughts and beliefs.
—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.
