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Hello Jolanta and welcome! It sounds as though you are already taking meaningful action that will help you move closer to where you want to be!
I would typically suggest starting with a consistent out of bed time that can act as your morning “anchor”.
As for choosing a specific time, I would suggest going with a time that feels achievable and realistic, and is aligned with the kind of life you want to live.
—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 it’s impossible to answer with absolute certainty since so much can influence how we feel.
Perhaps the real insight here is this — how you feel isn’t entirely dependent on how you sleep. You can sleep poorly and then feel pretty good and you can sleep pretty good and then feel pretty crappy.
And, perhaps what matters most is how you respond to how you feel because how you choose to respond can determine how much power and influence those feelings have — and how long they stick around, too.
We’ll be exploring this in a lot more detail 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.
Difficult nights from time to time are natural and normal — just as difficult days from time to time are natural and normal. What matters is how you respond to them.
The frustration and worry that’s showing up in response is natural and normal, too. It’s simply a symptom of your brain doing its job and looking out for you.
With all this in mind, how do you plan to move 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.
I know this is a bit late but, for future reference, I don’t usually suggest making any changes or accommodations based on the beginning or end of daylight savings since doing so can bring more focus and attention on sleep and give it more power and influence over our actions.
Losing (or gaining) an hour of sleep on one night probably has very little effect on the body — we probably experience more prolonged symptoms when we travel and cross multiple time zones.
When the clocks go back (we gain an extra hour), we might want to simply be aware that we might wake a bit earlier in the morning and/or we might not get sleepy until a bit later the next night.
When the clocks go forward (we lose an hour), if you feel sleepy enough for sleep earlier than normal on the night of the clock change then you might allow yourself to go to bed a bit earlier due to the hour of reduced sleep opportunity.
Otherwise, I would simply recommend going to bed as normal and getting out of bed at the same time as usual in the morning to help minimize any influence the clock change can have on subsequent nights.
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.
Welcome to the forum! What makes you think your experience is weird or unusual?
—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 @Jbock77! As you can see from the response from @MBInsomnia25, you aren’t alone!
It’s natural that you think about your current situation — that’s your brain doing its job and looking out for you.
Your experience probably tells you that thoughts are largely out of your control and the more you try to fight or avoid certain thoughts, the more difficult they can become. If that’s the case, what might an alternative way of dealing with them look like, do you think?
On the other hand, reading about this and searching about it are actions — and you can always control your actions.
So, if you feel that ongoing reading and searching isn’t helpful, might be putting more focus on sleep, and might be pulling you away from doing other things that help you live the life you want to live, what might some alternative ways of using that time involve? What might some more workable and productive actions be?
—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.
Ah yes, the early work start means your chosen sleep window makes a lot more sense to me now 🙂
Since your brain’s job is to look out for you, it’s going to generate difficult thoughts, feelings, and stories. What tends to create a struggle is when we try to fight or avoid those thoughts, feelings, and stories. When we try to control them (or our brain).
How might things be different if those thoughts and feelings could flow, could come and go, without having any power or influence over you?
Do you plan on (or have you been) playing around with thanking your brain for all those thoughts and feelings when they show up, rather than trying to fight or avoid them? Could acknowledging (with kindness) rather than battling help you move closer to a place where they don’t jerk you around quite so much when they show up?
We’ll be exploring all this in a lot more detail as the course progresses, but hopefully there’s something useful here in the meantime!
—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 your progress with us! You are putting the knowledge into action — and committed, meaningful, and workable action is what counts, particularly when things are difficult.
Your strength of self-reflection has taught you just how easy (and unhelpful) it is to live life on autopilot and to allow our thoughts and feelings to control our actions in ways that don’t reflect who we are or who we want to be.
You are clearly gaining skill in refocusing your attention when your brain generates difficult or distracting thoughts so you can do what matters, regardless of what your brain might be saying or doing!
And, let’s not forget your ongoing practice of self-kindness. Being mean to ourselves rarely makes things any better or easier! The fact you are being kinder to yourself means you aren’t adding more difficulty on top of the difficult stuff that shows up!
Action is a great way to judge success/measure progress — and is far more helpful compared to judging success or progress based on the appearance (or disappearance) of things that are out of our control!
I wish you all the best as you continue to practice what you’ve been learning!
—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 sounds as though you are getting in the practice and building skill in experiencing wakefulness and difficult thoughts and feelings with less struggle, @Lshelton!
You are clearly better able to remain present (and bring yourself back to the present) when all this difficult stuff shows up and you are refocusing your attention and committing to actions that matter to you.
That’s true insomnia independence!
—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 have six months of access to the course, starting from the day you originally enrolled. And, when the six months is up you can always renew access on a monthly basis for a nominal charge — so, no time pressure; you can take your 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.
Thanks for sharing! Completely up to you what you want to do — what are the pros and cons of celebrating and journaling great nights of sleep? And, upon reflection of those pros and cons, what feels like the right thing to do?
—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 sounds as though you know what you want to do, Christina! The hard part is putting it into action with committed and ongoing practice! You’ve got this! 💪
—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 am yet to meet anyone who can permanently delete difficult feelings like anger, sadness, and fear so they never show up again — and, for as long as we try to fight or avoid those feelings, we might be more likely to struggle with them as they consume more of our energy, focus, and attention. Has that been your experience?
Your desires are totally natural, valid, and normal! Of course you want to go back to the way things were (what would you be doing more of if that happened?), and of course you want to be “normal” (although I still don’t know what normal is!).
And there’s no sugar coating that difficult days are difficult and that you don’t like experiencing heart palpitations, racing thoughts, or feeling defeated or hopeless. Nobody would!
When things feel difficult that’s because they are difficult so I would encourage you to be kind to yourself. None of this is your fault. Sleep, what you think, and how you feel are all things out of your direct control. You can only control how you choose to respond to all those things.
On that note, how did you respond to that particularly awful night and what were you trying to achieve with 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.
It feels great when things are going well, right? And when things are going well we have less opportunity (and maybe even less motivation) to continue practicing and developing skill in responding to difficulties with less struggle.
So, the return of difficulty is a huge opportunity to continue practicing and continue building skill through workable and committed action.
Progress is never linear. There are always ups and downs. There are times when it feels we are doing great and there are times when it feels like we are doing terribly and we should give up. There are periods (often long periods) of struggle.
That’s all normal.
What matters is how we respond. Do we give up and get pulled away from the life we want to live or do we continue on a path that keeps us moving toward the life we want to live?
I would also add that there’s no such thing as failure. That’s because, no matter what, there’s always something to be learned.
What did you learn from taking the Ambien for the 3rd time in your life — and how will you use that to continue moving closer to where you want to be?
—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.
There’s nothing unusual with waking 11 times during the night. Waking during the night is a normal part of sleep, so this isn’t really covered during the course outside of the sleep education components already covered in Week 1.
One potential concern with multiple nighttime awakenings would be sleep apnea — and, if you took a sleep study, this would have been diagnosed (or not) at that time. Did you receive any such diagnosis of sleep apnea or share your concerns about those awakenings with your medical team?
—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.
