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Referring to anxiety as “the” anxiety, rather than “my” anxiety is giving you the opportunity to separate yourself from your thoughts and feelings. You are not your thoughts and feelings. They show up and you are aware of their presence.
As for sleep anxiety versus any other kind of anxiety, I think there’s a reminder there that anxiety is going to show up for as long as we are human beings. Sleep anxiety, job anxiety, weather anxiety, relationship anxiety, stepping on a lego brick in the dark anxiety….
And, if one “type” of anxiety seems to be a problem in our life, perhaps that’s because of all our attempts to fight or avoid the anxiety end up backfiring and giving it more power and influence (especially if it relates to things out of our control).
We can apply for jobs, but that’s no guarantee that we’ll get a job. We can propose to our partner but that’s no guarantee they’ll say yes. We can put the lego bricks away, but that’s no guarantee the cat won’t grab one and plant it in the corridor at night 😉
Perhaps what matters most here is how we respond to the presence of any kind of anxiety. Whether (or not) our action-based responses move us closer to the life we want to live or pull us away from the life we want to live.
Thanks for the thought-provoking post — and thank you, @casserieev, for sharing your wisdom and insights as a graduate 🙂
—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 great question!
The intent behind the AWAKE exercise is to help you build skill in experiencing being awake and all the thoughts and feelings that might show up with it, with less struggle. As you build that skill, you get to be more of an observer of all that stuff (rather than an opponent). You also get to practice being kind to yourself when things feel difficult. You also give yourself more options when it comes to how you respond — alternatives to battling.
When there’s less struggle, when being awake doesn’t draw you into a battle, when you aren’t trying to fight or avoid certain thoughts and feelings, conditions for sleep improve. Sleep has the opportunity to take care of itself and become effortless. You conserve your energy and attention so there’s more available to be used each day to live the life you want to live.
As for the second A in AWAKE (Allow) this is about giving everything you’ve acknowledged permission to be present. You might, for example, visualize each thought as a cloud and watch it in the sky. You might imagine each thought as a cartoon character with a certain appearance or voice. It might be doing interesting or amusing things. You might imagine each thought as a word on a piece of paper or computer screen and play around with the shape of the letters, the size, the colors. Perhaps the thoughts have sounds?
There’s no right or wrong way to practice this — I encourage you to play around with it 🙂
—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.
Everyone is different — people who struggle with insomnia typically report feeling tired rather than sleepy. Tiredness is more to do with feeling worn out (endless battling is exhausting). Sleepiness is more to do with finding it hard to stay awake.
If you don’t feel tired or sleepy during the day, that’s not unusual either. Ultimately, insomnia comes from your brain keeping you alert to protect you what it believes is the danger/threat of insomnia.
Depending on how powerful your protection system is (also known as the arousal system) it can suppress all feelings of tiredness and sleepiness as it does its job of trying to keep you safe.
At the end of the day, sleep can still happen whether you feel tired or not and whether you feel sleepy or not. Feeling sleepy is a good predictor that conditions for sleep are good — but there are still no guarantees.
—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 the expert on you, @Hokin90!
When you don’t set an alarm, in what other ways — if any — are things better? And, in what ways does not setting an alarm help you live the kind of life you want to live?
As you reflect on these questions, what do you feel is the best way forward (and why)?
—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! Your decision on how to move forward might come down to this — how does going to bed from 8-1 get you closer to where you want to be and does that choice of routine reflect who you are and the 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.
Hello @agnesharon and welcome! What you are going through feels difficult because it is difficult. And, it also sounds as though you might be a bit hard on yourself from time to time.
When sleep doesn’t go according to plan, you feel disappointment and that’s understandable! And, when a better night happens, you might credit any medication you took rather than your natural ability to sleep! I encourage you to acknowledge, celebrate, and give yourself credit for each and every “win” on the journey you are taking!
It’s also great to see you acknowledging so many insights. You control the action of taking sleeping pills (or not), you control the action of meeting up with an old friend (or not). You control the action of being kind to yourself (or not).
Although you might not have direct and permanent control over how you sleep, what you think, or how you feel, you have all the power because you always have full control over your actions.
—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 question — and there’s nothing specific that you *should* be noticing. What, if anything, are you looking for as you continue to commit to implementing a sleep window?
—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.
Clients of the live coaching course option tend not to post much in the public forum, unfortunately.
Clients of the self-coaching and, to a lesser extent, the email coaching option do post from time to time and they can be identified with the “✓ Client” tag below their usernames. You can find a lot of them in the Insomnia Success Stories forum.
If the investment required for the live coaching option of the course is difficult for you, I wouldn’t recommend enrolling in that option.
The self coaching option and the email coaching access option require less of an investment and you can get started right away (as of today, the waiting period for the live coaching option is roughly five weeks).
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, nibbler 😉
There might be as many potential triggers for a panic attack as there are people in the world. Trying to avoid all potential triggers can make things more difficult as we can so easily end up focused on avoidance (and withdrawal) and that can make it harder to live the life we want to live. And, when it comes to sleep, that’s something that isn’t even under our direct control.
With all this in mind, perhaps what’s most important here is how we choose to respond to the stuff that’s out of our control — the anxiety, the frustration, the wakefulness when we want to be asleep.
Do we try to fight and avoid (and where does that get us) or do we practice building skill in experiencing all that stuff with less struggle? If all that stuff was able to show up and was more like water off a duck’s back, how might things 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.
Endurance training like you mentioned is going to be taxing on the body, as you already know! We can sleep well before intense exercise and we can sleep poorly before intense exercise. We can also sleep well after intense exercise and we can sleep poorly after intense exercise.
Does your experience tell you that sleep is under your direct control — that you can make the exact amount and type of sleep you want to happen through effort?
If not, perhaps the ongoing use of a sleep aid might be what’s increasing (or maintaining) the struggle — rather than the idea of coming off it?
—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.
Best guesses are all that’s needed 🙂
—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, Sudu — and thanks for the great question!
I would suggest reflecting on the sleep window every week or two. If you find that you are regularly filling it with sleep or any wakefulness during the sleep window is restful wakefulness rather than a struggle and a battle, then you might start your sleep window 15-30 minutes earlier and reflect again in a week or two.
I hope this helps — there’s also more information on the sleep restriction resource page.
—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 outside of your sleep window would probably be considered a nap.
—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 it comes to sleep, there are no action-based requirements — sleep happens when we’ve been awake for long enough and it happens best when we remove all effort to make it happen 🙂
Whether or not the action you shared was “right” can only really be answered by you, since you are the expert on yourself!
Something that might help you reflect is this — is going to bed at 8:45 PM aligned with the kind of life you want to live? If so, how can it be a problem? If not, perhaps that might be pulling you away from 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.
Thanks for sharing! I wish you all the best for the future 🙂
—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.
