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Welcome and thanks for the great question!
First, it’s important to emphasize that the sleep window isn’t intended to make a certain amount or type of sleep happen. So, I would usually caution against setting or modifying a sleep window based on what kind of sleep you might want to happen.
When it comes to choosing when your sleep window ends, I’d suggest considering your own experience (some people naturally wake earlier than others) and the kind of life you live (or want to live).
Does this help?
—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.
Anxiety can be very difficult to deal with, no doubt about it.
You’ve been responding by watching TV, reading, and listening to meditations. If those things worked, what would be different?
Your awareness that you can function the next day with little or no sleep is a powerful insight that can be used to help you move away from putting pressure on yourself to “perform” sleep or put effort into making it happen (something your experience seems to tell you only makes it more difficult).
What does “getting over this hurdle” mean to you? How will you know when you have gotten over this hurdle?
—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.
Ultimately, you can do what you like with the sleep window — you are the expert on yourself! A consistent sleep window can create better conditions for more consistent sleep if that’s important to you — but it can’t make a certain amount or type of sleep happen.
As @sophiehummer mentioned, the sleep window is usually applied to every day of the week (including weekends).
If you choose to sleep in later on weekends, you will probably not need as much sleep on following nights and so you might get less sleep on following nights. Whether or not that’s a problem for you can only be answered by 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.
You fall asleep so easily when there is no effort to make sleep happen. When you go to bed, that changes. There’s effort. There’s pressure. And, as a result, it becomes more difficult.
It sounds like it’s not so much the sleep window that’s creating a problem for you — it’s the effort that’s going into trying to make sleep happen. The pressure to “perform” sleep even though your experience tells you that sleep is out of your direct control.
What’s the opportunity here?
—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.
It feels good to be free of ongoing and endless sleep tracking — something that only puts more focus and attention on sleep!
As you guessed, there’s no need to pay attention to sleep efficiency. You can adjust the length of your sleep window based upon your own reflection of how the previous week or two has gone.
If there’s been a lot of ongoing wakefulness and a lot of struggle, you have the option to tighten the sleep window (allot less time for sleep). If there’s been little wakefulness and not much struggle, you have the option to extend the sleep window (allot more time for sleep). If you feel comfortable with your current sleep window, you also have the option to keep it as it is (make no changes at all)!
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.
You are giving yourself options!
When doing a body scan helps, what changes?
When you decide to get out of bed, what do you do instead and what is your goal?
—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 your experience and your insights.
You are no longer putting pressure on yourself to make a certain amount or type of sleep happen. Not only does that improve conditions for sleep, it is also an act of self-kindness.
You are approaching sleep with more flexibility, allowing yourself the opportunity to nap for 30 to 40 minutes in the afternoon if that feels right to you.
You remind yourself that sleep always happens in the end and that you do not need to do anything to make sleep happen. Sleep isn’t something you do — it’s something that happens.
You now know that you never lost your natural ability to sleep. You can sleep, and you do sleep — and sleep wants to take care of itself. With your learnings, your insights, and your actions, you are now experiencing effortless sleep, whatever that might look like.
—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 course 🙂
It sounds like you found sleep restriction helpful in the past, so perhaps there’s an opportunity to implement a sleep window again.
Generally speaking, sleep doesn’t care if we drink a cup of coffee in the morning — but everyone is different and you are the expert on you.
Sleep also doesn’t care what supplements or OTC sleep aids we might take. None of them are needed for sleep to happen, and none of them can generate sleep.
As for ongoing and endless sleep-related research, that has the potential to create some additional difficulty since it can reinforce the idea that being awake at night is a threat that your brain needs to be alert to protect you from.
It might also be an action that consumes time that might have otherwise been spent doing things more aligned with who you are and the life you want to live, thereby giving sleep and insomnia more power and influence over your life.
Is there anything useful here?
—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 aboard, @susantej and thanks for stepping up and offering some pointers, @MPerea!
Experiencing several difficult nights in a row is hard. Your strengths of resilience and determination have helped keep you active even though you feel tired and even though continuing to do things that matter is not easy when you are so tired.
Tell us about a time when you overcame a challenge or adversity. What skills and strengths did you draw on? What did you learn from the experience? How might you use that experience to help you continue moving forward?
—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.
When anxiety shows up it can be really intense, @mdice7. So, you choose to get up and pace around your house. What benefits come with that action?
—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 growth mindset means you know that growth and learning is always happening and is always possible. And, evidence exists in your success at weaning off medication and the insight you just shared.
The concept that thoughts don’t stop sleep from happening (and therefore don’t require any effort to fight, avoid or control) was powerful and liberating for you!
How might things be different if thoughts just came and went and didn’t require you to do anything with them?
—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 course and the forum!
The sleep window cannot make a certain amount or type of sleep happen. It’s more of a tool to help you move away from chasing after sleep — something that only makes it more difficult.
Waking is a normal part of sleep. Your experience tells you that you can fall asleep (and that means you can also fall back to sleep). So, something seems to be getting in the way when that doesn’t happen.
How do you usually respond when you aren’t falling asleep and what have you been learning from that response?
—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, @anthonye!
Your actions are now a better reflection of who you are and the life you want to live. They serve you and move you closer to where you want to be, compared to in the past when they might have been more likely to serve sleep and insomnia and pull you away from the life you want to live.
You are also being kinder to yourself, not demanding perfection (an impossible goal!). As you let go of the struggle that comes from trying to control what your experience tells you is out of your control, you’re freeing yourself from an ongoing struggle.
You are noticing a growing sense of calm and you are freeing up energy (and attention) to do more of what matters.
—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 your best guide, Pam — and it seems to tell you that the more effort you put into sleep and the more you try to fight, avoid, or control your thoughts and feelings, the more you struggle and the more difficult all that stuff becomes.
If that’s the case, perhaps the way forward might involve moving away from trying to control what seems to be out of your control? Being aware of the intent (and workability) of your actions and making changes to your actions, if/when appropriate.
Unfortunately I don’t have all the answers for you — you are the expert on yourself! Hopefully there might be something useful here, though.
—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 Pam. You aren’t alone.
Battling is an action — so it’s something you get to choose to do (or not do). It can also be a symptom of putting effort into trying to make something happen.
It’s so easy to get drawn into a battle. And yet, you have the superpower of awareness and — therefore — the ability to withdraw from the battle whenever you notice it happening.
From reading your posts it sounds as though there might still be some effort directed toward either making sleep happen or (perhaps more likely from what I am reading) in trying to fight or avoid certain thoughts and feelings.
Perhaps that might be the source of ongoing battle, struggle, and difficulty.
—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.
