Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hello Nik!
It’s great to hear that you are trying to go about your days as best as you can! It’s also great to hear that when it gets dark you are practicing acknowledging all the thoughts and feelings that your brain is generating as it does its job of looking out for you — and that you are practicing allowing those thoughts and feelings to come and go as they choose, rather than donning a suit of armor and going to war with them.
It sounds as though once you get into bed, that all goes out the window somewhat and you seem to fall back into the struggle again. And, that’s understandable since being in bed can be associated with so much struggle — it can almost feel like a bit of a habit.
Have you tried responding to the anxiety you described when you get into bed in a similar way to how you respond before you get into bed? Do you think the AWAKE exercise might help with that? If checking the time once you are in bed doesn’t seem to be helpful, perhaps that’s an action that you might want to move away from, too?
If you don’t usually get close to nine hours of sleep at night, perhaps allotting nine hours for sleep (going to bed at 10:00 PM and getting out of bed at 7:00 AM) might be setting you up for a bit of a struggle. You might want to revisit the Week 1 content about creating a sleep window, if you think a change there might be 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.
Ups and downs are totally normal, Vids! Just as we all have difficult days from time to time, we all have difficult nights from time to time as well!
Since we cannot control how we sleep and since we cannot directly or permanently control what we think or how we feel, perhaps the best way to manage this is to continue to focus attention on what we can control — how we respond to this difficult stuff.
Do we fall back into the old struggle and get pulled away from doing things that matter to us? Or, do we acknowledge what’s happening, acknowledge what we are thinking and feeling, be kind to ourselves, and continue to do things that keep us moving toward the life we want to live — even when things are difficult?
Do we choose to continue to practice a more workable way forward, or do we choose to fall back into the struggle?
Also important to consider is that even if we notice we’ve fallen back into the old struggle, it’s never too late to change direction!
—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.
Sounds like a plan, Bruce!
—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 not unusual at all — whenever we explore (or make) changes, that problem solving mind is going to be more active as it does its job of looking out for us!
—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 correct — new material is released each week so there’s a minimum amount of time for some practice, before moving 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.
Do you think experimenting with the AWAKE exercise might help you build some skill in experiencing wakefulness and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that can come with it with less struggle?
—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 stuff — that new response you described definitely sounds more workable!
—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! I am yet to meet someone who describes their sleep as perfect every night — just as I am yet to meet someone who describes their days as perfect every day!
I think what truly matters is how we respond to difficult nights (and days). I am not sure how easy it is to permanently change our thoughts but we can always change how we respond to them!
What would you say are the most helpful insights you picked up from the course and/or the most helpful changes you made?
—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 not convinced that screens have a big effect on sleep. Of course, all the typical sleep hygiene stuff out there implies that they are a nuclear missile for sleep — complete destruction as soon as the dreaded “blue light” becomes visible.
I think the influence is a bit overblown. People with chronic insomnia typically find sleep difficult because of all their efforts to make sleep happen rather than because they’re using screens. And, if screens were the problem, eliminating them would delete insomnia from existence!
I believe that screens are more likely to be an issue when they are used in a way that reduces the opportunity for adequate sleep to happen (a behavior not usually seen in people with insomnia who typically create excessive opportunity for sleep to happen).
So, for example, a teenager scrolling on their phones at night until 3 or 4 in the morning instead of giving sleep the opportunity to happen. A workaholic who checks emails throughout the night. In those cases, screens can definitely be disruptive to sleep!
I don’t think people are going to experience much sleep disturbance from using a screen during the day or using a screen to watch a movie at night or from using their phones at night.
With that being said, I do think there are definite benefits to less screen time and more outdoors time — I just don’t see them as being a big barrier or obstacle 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.
Thanks for sharing! As I mentioned before, you are the expert on you!
If you feel your approach is workable, involves controlling what can be controlled (actions rather than thoughts/feelings/sleep), and keeps you moving toward the life you want to live and the person you want to be, then it’s the right approach 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.
What you are experiencing is difficult, Bruce.
It sounds as though you are (understandably!) engaged in some efforts to fight or avoid certain thoughts and feelings (“it’s too frustrating to stay in bed”) and that might, in turn, be creating some struggle.
Is your current strategy proving to be effective or workable? Is it getting rid of frustration? Is it getting you closer to where you want to be?
If not, do you think it might be worth experimenting with a different approach? An approach that involves practicing and developing new skills that can help you experience difficult thoughts and feelings (and nighttime wakefulness itself) with less of a struggle?
If you do feel that a new approach might be helpful, what do you think that would look like, based on what we’ve covered in the course so far?
—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 can all feel quite mysterious but it’s not unusual at all and it’s something many people with insomnia experience (and can struggle with).
Our brain’s main job is to protect us and look out for us. So, whenever it thinks there is a threat, it’s going to fire up and engage systems to prepare us to run away from that threat or fight that threat.
Without this mechanism, none of us would be alive today since our ancestors would have fallen asleep when a saber-tooth tiger was stalking around in their cave looking for a tasty human to eat!
If we’ve struggled with insomnia for a while, our brain can believe that wakefulness is a threat. It’s no different to a saber-tooth tiger, as far as the brain is concerned. It’s really cautious and protective so, if there’s any doubt, it will assume anything you struggle with is a threat to your wellbeing and it will try to protect you from that thing.
This means that we can be more likely to notice and experience sleepiness arriving in the evening, before bedtime — a time not usually associated with a struggle. In other words, at this time, the brain sees no threat.
Then, when it’s time for bed (or when we get into bed) that sleepiness can seem to disappear as the brain now fires up to protect us from the threat of wakefulness that has been created by our ongoing struggle with wakefulness at this time.
As you probably know from experience, we can’t really control what the brain chooses to do — we can’t permanently get rid of certain thoughts and feelings — and we can’t directly or permanently control sleep (we can’t make it happen upon command).
What we can do is move away from the struggle. We can practice experiencing wakefulness with less struggle. We can commit to doing things that matter to us each day, even after difficult nights.
The more we do that, the more we can train the brain that wakefulness isn’t a threat it needs to be quite so alert to protect us from at night!
We’ll be exploring this in a lot more detail as the course progresses, but I hope 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.
Thanks for the update, Neal!
Whenever someone tells me they’re sleeping well enough or good enough, it suggests that they’ve made a lot of progress moving away from trying to make a certain amount/type of sleep happen. And, as you know from experience, the less we chase after sleep, the less likely we are to struggle with it!
As you mentioned, there are still some difficult patches of sleep every now and then (just as all human beings have difficult days every now and again) — thanks for sharing that they’re showing up less frequently! Are you finding that your life is less influenced by how you sleep, too? Do you feel you’ve regained some “independence” from sleep?
It does often take some time for a new approach to “sink in”, right? I like to think of everything the course armed you with as skills — and all skills take time and practice!
—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’s perfectly fine to implement techniques such as sleep restriction when taking medication — but it’s probably a good idea to discuss this with your doctor, just so they know what’s going 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.
Have you looked into ACT for insomnia or CBT for insomnia as alternatives to medication?
—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.
