Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
That panic and the racing thoughts can be really difficult — especially in the middle of the night when it’s often harder to refocus our attention and to respond to them in a more workable way (if our current response doesn’t seem to be working for us).
What does “overcoming” racing thoughts mean to you? If you were to overcome them, what would be different?
Have you picked up any ideas from the course so far on how to respond to the panic and racing thoughts in a way that might help move you away from an ongoing struggle with those things?
—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.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience, Rosanne! Many people experience sleep disruption when they have something planned the next day — so you aren’t alone there! What matters is that you still went ahead and did something important and meaningful. You went skiing, independently of how you slept.
What was it like to practice accepting, welcoming, and making space for difficult thoughts and feelings to show up at night? How is that different to what your approach might have been in the past and which approach feels more workable/useful (the approach you described or the approach you took in the past)?
—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 about your struggles, Packer Fan. It’s clear that you are committed to what you are learning and your approach of absorbing each lesson slowly shows a thoughtful and dedicated mindset.
It’s quite normal for sleep patterns to fluctuate, especially with changes in environment like traveling. Remember, progress isn’t always linear, and it’s okay to have ups and downs. Difficult nights are a part of life, just like difficult days are a part of life. It’s how we respond that matters.
Your perseverance and willingness to explore a different approach to all this difficult stuff are key strengths that will help support you as you continue to move forward
Since struggle and additional difficulty can often come from our attempts to control things that our experience tells us cannot be controlled, I would invite you to answer the following questions:
1. When you switched to another bedroom, what was your goal?
2. When you try to think of good things and praise yourself as a good person, what is your goal?
3. When you get out of bed after tossing and turning in order to listen to a podcast or read, what is your goal?
4. Before sleep felt like a struggle or an issue, did you need to be on the other end of the bed and have a ceiling fan blow on you to make sleep happen? If not, what might that mean?Finally, what does your current “Action Plan” look like? As a reminder, the suggested Action Plan from the end of Week 3 was:
1. Practice the NOW exercise whenever you find your daytime thoughts and feelings pulling you away from the present moment in an unhelpful way.
2. Commit to doing one or two kind or enjoyable things whenever you are finding things difficult during the day.
3. Every evening, continue to reflect on three good things that happened that day and why they happened, if you’ve been finding that useful.
4. Consider implementing a buffer zone before your sleep window begins and use that time for activities you enjoy.
5. Continue with a sleep window if you feel that’s useful — give yourself an earliest possible bedtime, stop checking the time when it begins, only go to bed when sleepy enough for sleep, and get out of bed by the end of your sleep window each day.
6. Continue to practice the AWAKE exercise whenever you find yourself struggling with nighttime wakefulness.
Are you practicing any of those?
—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.
Glad to hear you are mostly recovered from COVID and that you’ve found it helpful to allot less time for sleep, Sheena!
Catching up on sleep is one of those things that can trip us up — because then we can start putting pressure on ourselves to sleep and put more effort into sleep. And, when we do that, sleep can start to become more difficult, more elusive, and create more struggle.
Thanks to your own curiosity and willingness to experiment with a new approach, it sounds as though you have started to move away from chasing after sleep and putting effort into sleep and you have started to reduce the power and influence sleep has over your life by committing to meaningful actions (such as going to work) independently of how you sleep.
You are off to a flying start and I wish you all the best as you continue to work through the course!
—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.
That sounds a lot more appealing compared to tossing and turning, battling with wakefulness! Why do you leave the bedroom to read? Is that more appealing compared to reading in bed?
—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.
Thank you for sharing! You clearly have strengths in self-reflection and awareness — powerful skills that will no doubt continue to support you on your journey.
Remember that waking during the night is a normal part of sleep — that can be something that’s easy to forget!
I have a few questions for you to explore your reflection in a bit more detail:
1. When you get out of bed to do a calming activity, what is your goal?
2. When you practice observing your thoughts without judgement, what is your goal?
3. If you were getting the exact amount and type of sleep you want to be getting, how would your life be different?—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 Andre and thank you so much for sharing! Getting off prescription sleep medication after more than five years is a huge achievement — you have now proven to yourself that you do not need medication in order to generate sleep!
I appreciate you sharing that your “tipping point” was to accept that you cannot control sleep — that’s something that can be difficult to accept.
It sounds as though medication was one way you tried to control sleep in the past — are there any other behaviors/habits/actions you once engaged in in an attempt to control sleep that you have now moved away from? If so, what were they and how is your life different as a result?
—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.
That sounds difficult.
When difficult nights show up how do you respond to them? And, what problems does the return of difficult nights seem to create 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.
That’s a great question — and the answer might not be the same for everyone! How do you currently respond when you’re wide awake during your sleep window and how is that working 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.
Sorry to hear that, Sheena — have you fully recovered from COVID now? How have you been getting on with the sleep window since you posted?
—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.
Glad to hear things have been better since you worked through the course in 2020!
Sleep is more likely to be irregular if our sleep schedule is irregular — so a consistent out of bed time might help if you feel it’s important to create conditions for more consistent sleep.
With that being said, a sleep schedule isn’t intended to create a certain amount or type of sleep — it’s more helpful as a tool that can help us move away from chasing after sleep; something that can often make things more difficult.
In terms of making your sleep pattern regular, does your experience tell you that you can make a certain amount or type of sleep happen through effort? If not, how is trying to make that happen helping you?
Some other things that might be helpful to consider:
Have you ever got eight hours of sleep and found that you didn’t function perfectly — or does eight hours of sleep always guarantee a day of perfect workplace function, 100% of the time?
What if you get 7 hours and 58 minutes of sleep? Does that mean you are then guaranteed a day of less than perfection?
How is your pursuit of functioning perfectly at work working 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.
Guilt and shame can be really difficult feelings to deal with and often show up when we are being hard on ourselves. Are you continuing to struggle with those feelings? If so, how might you practice being a bit kinder to yourself, do you think?
It can be hard to understand the concept of letting go and accepting insomnia — and, without a clear understanding, it sure can be hard to put into practice! What is your current understanding of the concept and, if you have been trying to put that into practice, how have you been doing that?
—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! The key insights/tips you shared that really stood out to me were:
* When you close your eyes, don’t create any expectations for sleep
* Refocus attention away from trying to make sleep happen or trying to control your mind
* Engage in an alternative activity if you find yourself struggling during the night
* Don’t bother checking the time throughout the nightA common theme among guest discussions in the Insomnia Coach podcast seems to be that:
* The less effort we put into sleep,
* The more attention is moved away from sleep and toward engaging in actions that are important and that move us toward the life we want to live…… the less power and influence sleep tends to have.
It sounds as though the theme associated with your experience is quite similar!
—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 Ginge and welcome to the forum! When you find that sense of stress wearing off during the day, are you actively trying to get rid of the stress or does it just seem to go away by itself?
—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 of everything you are dealing with and going through. That all sounds really difficult.
It sounds as though you’ve sure tried a lot to fix your situation — nobody could accuse you of not taking this seriously and nobody could call you lazy, right?! You’re trying hard to problem solve and to fix the situation you find yourself in. That’s admirable.
Since you’ve tried so much and nothing seems to be working for you over the long term, what might that suggest in terms of the value of ongoing trying and ongoing effort to make a certain amount or type of sleep happen? When you think back to a year ago, did sleep require so much effort and trying and experimentation?
You mentioned that you miss living — do you feel as though your life is kind of on hold until you get this all figured out? If so, what might be the benefits of releasing that hold and doing things that matter right now — even while insomnia (and any difficult thoughts and feelings that often come with it) are still present?
There is always hope and there’s nothing unique or unusual in your experience — you definitely are not alone!
—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.
