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It’s probably best to discuss your concerns with your doctor. At the same time, I would suggest asking him or her whether they feel you would be a good candidate for cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.
Good luck, and let us know how you get 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.
This is hilarious — where did you find this?! If you wrote it yourself, let me know when your insomnia survival book is published!
—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 urge everyone to avoid changing their routine in order to accommodate insomnia whenever possible. That’s because when we change our life to accommodate sleep, we reinforce the idea that sleep can be controlled — when it can’t.
More importantly, though, is that when we change our lives because of poor sleep, we only ever give insomnia a bad outcome.
If we force ourselves to go into work after a bad night of sleep, the day may well feel more difficult — but, we may notice a few good moments during the day. If we call in sick and stay at home, we are guaranteed to have a bad day — because we will be inactive, spend more time thinking and worrying about sleep, we’ll be more inclined to nap and to spend more time in bed. These are all behaviors that make insomnia worse.
The best thing we can do is make as few changes to our lives as possible. Go out with friends. Go to work. Stay active (inactivity is a huge driver of fatigue — the worst symptom of insomnia). The more active you are, the less power you give insomnia, and the more opportunity you have to recognize that sleep may not be as important as you once thought.
When we live with insomnia for a long time, it’s very easy to blame every bad thing that happens in our lives and throughout the day on sleep — when, upon closer examination, we can often see that this isn’t always an accurate way of thinking.
—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 sorry to hear that you are finding it so difficult to fall back to sleep when you wake during the night. What do you think is stopping you from falling back to sleep when you wake?
—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, Barbie. What kind of ‘sleep deprivation’ program have you done? I am hoping you are not going to tell me that you tried sleep restriction (a core component of CBT-I) because that doesn’t involve depriving you of sleep (even though the terminology implies this).
Instead, it reduces the amount of time you spend in bed to more closely match the amount of time you spend asleep in order to consolidate sleep. This leads to better sleep quality and helps you relearn to associate the bed with sleep rather than wakefulness.
—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 Jcasey. Welcome to the forum and I am sorry to hear about the trouble you are having with sleep. The good news is, there are a few things I notice from your post that could be targeted to improve your sleep.
First of all, you mentioned that you are finding it difficult to nap during the day. This suggests you are trying to nap during the day. If you want to sleep at night, it’s best to avoid napping during the day since this reduces sleep drive.
It also sounds as though you sometimes go to bed before you are truly sleepy. In order to sleep well at night, it’s important you only go to bed when you feel sleepy enough for sleep.
Finally, it seems as though you have associated your bed with wakefulness and anxiety rather than sleep and relaxation — and this is to be expected when we consider the struggles you have faced when trying to sleep.
The best way to break this association and make the bed a strong trigger for sleep is to get out of bed when you can’t sleep. Then, when you feel sleepy again, get back into bed and repeat the process.
What kind of therapy has your doctor referred you to? I am hoping that it is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) because, from what you’ve said in your opening post, it sounds as though you’d be a great candidate and would respond very well to it.
—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 have high levels of arousal, it may well take longer than five days before you notice any change in your sleep. You wrote this post five days ago — are you still implementing sleep restriction and stimulus control? If so, it has been about ten days now. Any change or improvement yet?
—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.
Sleep is like breathing — we can suspend sleep (just as we can suspend breathing), but eventually, the body takes over and forces us to sleep (or breathe).
Chronic insomnia will not kill you. In fact, there is no evidence that chronic insomnia causes any health problem whatsoever. Yes, chronic insomnia feels awful and living with insomnia is not pleasant and it can make the day more difficult and have a very real negative effect on quality of life.
So, it’s important to take steps to get your sleep back on track. However, it’s not helpful to worry about insomnia leading to death — because it doesn’t. Your body will force you to sleep before there is any risk of you dying from sleep deprivation.
—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.
We are all here for you, Princess — let us know if you have any questions or concerns!
—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, Halex. Sorry to hear about your struggles with sleep. Do you have any idea why you seem to wake so often during the night? When you do wake, what do you think stops you from easily falling back to sleep?
Are you currently receiving medical treatment for dissociation? Have you discussed with your doctor whether you’d be a good candidate for CBT-I?
—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, Awake Again, and I am sorry to hear about your struggle with sleep.
It sounds as though you are implementing a lot of sleep hygiene techniques, which is good to see — but sleep hygiene is not going to cure chronic insomnia. Furthermore, exercising with the intention of tiring yourself out isn’t going to improve your sleep, either — because exercise leads to fatigue rather than sleepiness.
How long have you been having issues with sleep? Can you talk us through a typical night? When do you go to bed, when do you get out of bed, and roughly how many hours of sleep do you get?
—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.
Great question, Steve! The short answer is, you just use your best estimate.
When I have clients fill out sleep diaries, I stress the importance of not clock watching during the night. When filling out a sleep diary, you only need to check the clock twice. Once at night, to record when you went to bed — and once, in the morning, to record when you got out of bed to start the day.
Everything in between is just an estimate.
So, for example, if you know you went to bed at 10 PM, it took two hours to fall asleep, you woke a few times and spent roughly an hour awake during the night, then got out of bed at 6 AM, we can estimate that you got roughly five-and-a-half hours of sleep.
Although this may not seem all that accurate, research suggests that our recall when filling out sleep diaries is actually remarkably accurate — and, even if not, the way we estimate time tends not to change over time. So, sleep diaries are still a great way to measure and assess progress.
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 nighttime awakenings, MP. 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.
Welcome to the forum and I am so sorry to hear that your doctor simply dished out sleeping pills since these are not a long-term solution and they risk further entrenching insomnia by reinforcing the false idea that you are unable to sleep naturally.
I love your positivity and your attitude and I have no doubt that you will get your sleep back on track. Do keep in touch and keep us all updated with your progress.
—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 current struggle with sleep.
Do you find that you consistently wake after four to five hours of sleep regardless of when you go to bed at night and regardless of when you get out of bed to start your day in the morning?
When you wake during the night, what do you think is stopping you from falling back to sleep?
Melatonin isn’t going to have any effect on your sleep, so I think it’s safe to say that you can stop taking it (particularly since you’ve discovered for yourself that it’s not effective).
—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.
