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Hello Sarah. On an average night, how many hours of sleep would you say you get? What time do you get into bed at night, and what time do you get out of bed in the morning to start your 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.
Have you given any of the techniques used in CBT-I a try, Ting?
—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’re not sure whether or not you’re asleep, try sitting up in bed. If you are able to sit up in bed, you are awake. If you are unable to do so, you are asleep.
—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 symptoms are very common! It sounds as though you are waking in the early hours (which is completely normal and usually happens between sleep cycles) but as soon as you wake, you begin to worry about being awake.
Unfortunately, as soon as we worry about being awake (or sleep in general), we activate the arousal system and this immediately makes sleep more difficult. I would suggest removing the clocks from your bedroom as a first step. This will help prevent you from worrying about being awake by looking at the clock and becoming concerned that you need to be up soon to get ready for work. It will also reduce your natural inclination to ‘try’ to sleep (as soon as we try to sleep, we make sleep more difficult).
As next steps, I would encourage you to make sure you are giving yourself an appropriate sleep schedule, and that you get out of bed when you can’t sleep.
Has your wife ever told you that you snore or that there are pauses in your breathing during the night? Have you had an overnight sleep study?
—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 Wayne. Unfortunately, DSPS isn’t our specialty here.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine suggests that bright light of at least 2,500 lux for two to three hours in the morning can help shift the sleep schedule to a more ‘socially acceptable’ schedule. Evening use of melatonin can also help — and some studies show that regular exercise and increased social interaction can help shift the circadian rhythm to the desired time (but the evidence is not as strong compared to that of bright light therapy and melatonin).
Unfortunately, I suspect this is nothing you haven’t already heard before.
—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 Jeff and welcome to the forum.
I’m a big fan of Dr. Jacobs’ work. In fact, I use a couple of his core beliefs in my insomnia coaching course — the half hour-half hour rule and the idea that we can generally get by with a minimum of five-and-a-half hours of ‘core sleep’ each night.
The thing about the half hour-half hour rule is it takes time to work, and it only works when practiced every single night, throughout the night. As soon as you skip a day (or stay in bed after getting in and out of bed three or four times during the night), you basically reset your ‘progress counter’ back to day one. So, stick with it!
In my course, I start by getting clients on an appropriate sleep schedule to help minimize the amount of time they spend awake during the night. I then introduce the half hour-half hour rule about a week later. Are you combining the half hour-half hour rule with an appropriate sleep schedule?
—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.
Which CBT-I techniques have you tried, Davy (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.
Sleep restriction is an awful name. I don’t use it in my course because the term implies that it means less sleep. However, when implemented correctly, sleep restriction rarely leads to less time asleep! Instead, it reduces the amount of time spent in bed to more closely match the amount of time spent asleep.
The idea behind this is that by spending more time in bed asleep (rather than awake) you will learn to associate the bed with sleep rather than wakefulness. Over time, this makes the bed a strong trigger for sleep. In addition, by spending less time in bed awake, you will spend less time tossing and turning, feeling frustrated, and worrying about sleep — all of which make sleep more difficult.
—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.
Hi Chris — just thought I’d chime in here. If you average nightly sleep duration (averaged out over a week) is less than five hours, then you shouldn’t really be allotting more than around five-and-a-half hours for sleep. You should also be combining sleep restriction with stimulus control so you aren’t spending too much time in bed simply lying awake.
Remember that restricting the amount of time you allot for sleep is only temporary, and should be increased as your sleep improves over time.
Since you have epilepsy, you should only observe sleep restriction and stimulus control techniques with the approval of 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.
Here’s the thing about thoughts that intrude upon our sleep — we can’t force them away! As soon as we try to stop thinking about something, we’ll think about it! In addition, this is not a constructive use of time and effort because we are giving our minds a task (to stop thinking about something). We don’t want to be giving our mind a task when we are trying to sleep!
Relaxation techniques can help reduce the power of the thoughts that intrude upon sleep. However, relaxation is a skill and it takes quite a lot of practice (I recommend practicing relaxation during the day for a couple of weeks before trying it at night). Remember, too, that the ultimate goal of relaxation is relaxation — not sleep!
With practice, you will learn to accept intrusive thoughts as they enter your mind, but they will have far less power over you and will have far less of a damaging effect on 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.
Hello Davy and welcome to the forum.
What do you think is stopping you from sleeping at night? Do you try to observe a regular sleep schedule? Do you feel sleepy and tired when you get into bed at 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.
Do you have a regular sleep schedule? Is there any pattern when it comes to the nights of good sleep and nights of bad 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, erilsch. I have actually worked with quite a few mothers with babies. It certainly makes things a bit more difficult, but it is still absolutely possible to improve your sleep without relying on sleeping pills.
Although we can’t prevent you from waking up when your baby wakes during the night (although there are some baby sleep management techniques you can try), you can still practice all the components of CBT-I — including sleep restriction and stimulus control.
One quick question — you mentioned that you go to bed as early as possible in a bid to get as much sleep as you can. Do you feel sleepy when you go to bed early? If not, you may be setting yourself up for a bad night. That’s because if you go to bed before you feel sleepy you will likely spend more time awake in bed and the more time you spend awake in bed, the more time you will probably spend worrying about sleep. This makes sleep more difficult.
Try to make sure you only go to bed when you feel sleepy and ready for sleep. When looking at the sleep restriction protocol, consider your nightly sleep duration averaged out over at least one week before determining what the best amount of time you allot for sleep should be. You can always add time onto this to accommodate the time it takes you to soothe your baby.
So, let’s say that averaged out over a week, you get five hours of sleep each night. And, averaged out over a week, your baby needs you for about half an hour during each night. In this case, I would suggest allotting six hours for sleep (the minimum five-and-a-half hours plus half an hour to attend to your baby).
You are capable of sleep without pills. You just need to train your mind to reassociate the bed with sleep so that when you wake during the night you can settle back to sleep. This takes a lot of practice and commitment.
—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 Hppositve and let me say first of all, that the cause of your insomnia is not particularly unusual. Many cases of insomnia are triggered by a specific event or series of events (in your case, the mistaken resignation). Sleep disruption at times like this is completely normal and happens to most people.
Unfortunately, what can then happen, is once the stressful event passes — in your case, getting the new job — sleep problems remain. This normally happens because as soon as we are affected by sleep issues, we begin to pay more attention to our sleep than ever before.
This increased level of attention activates the body’s arousal system, which makes sleep more difficult. As sleep becomes even more difficult, we become even more worried about sleep. We then try new behaviors such as spending more time in bed or canceling plans due to sleep. This combination of worries and behaviors related to sleep continue to make sleep worse — and this creates a vicious cycle of ever-worsening sleep and ever-increasing sleep-related worries.
Fortunately, these can all be addressed using a combination of cognitive and behavioral techniques. There’s more good news, too — since you have only been experiencing sleep issues for less than three months, you will find it easier to improve your sleep using CBT-I (and results will occur more quickly) compared to someone who has been living with insomnia for longer.
I am sure you will find the CBT course to be helpful. Is it a CBT course specifically designed for insomnia? It’s important to make sure you are taking a CBT-I course because it contains components specific to sleep that a generalized course of CBT may not include.
Finally, I would encourage you to try going in to work. I have outlined the reasons why in this post.
I hope this is helpful.
—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 Chris and welcome to the forum. You certainly seem to be keeping a very close track of the number of hours you spend awake and asleep. I would suggest that most people don’t keep such a close eye on the number of hours they have been awake over such a long period of time. Paying less attention to this may be helpful since it will likely lead to lower levels of anxiety towards your extended periods of wakefulness.
Did you talk to your doctor about cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia? Please note that some components (such as sleep restriction and stimulus control) should only be pursued with your doctor’s approval due to your epilepsy.
You may also want to take a look at this article I wrote for HealthCentral.com: The Relationship Between Epilepsy and Sleep Disorders
—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.
