Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Lots of “links”, “associations”, “mays”, “mights”, “coulds” etc! However, not one study has found chronic insomnia causes any health problem whatsoever.
Also worth considering is that many of these studies don’t involve people with insomnia — some don’t involve human beings at all and many look at sleep duration independently of insomnia presence and might also involve sleep deprivation (the deliberate reduction of sleep opportunity).
We might expect there to be a higher risk of cancer in people who live in houses with ashtrays. Does that mean ashtrays cause cancer? 🙂
—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.
One of the most common issues I hear related to insomnia and fatigue is a sense of experiencing “brain fog” — which I think implies mental fatigue rather than physical fatigue.
Of course, everyone is different and I am yet to meet someone with insomnia who doesn’t experience fatigue in some form or another and to some degree! Perhaps that’s true of most human beings, regardless of whether they have insomnia or not!
—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.
In terms of realistic goals, I think that comes down to the controllability of the goals we set ourselves.
If your experience suggests that you cannot directly or permanently control how you sleep or how you feel when you wake, it might be worth considering whether that’s an appropriate (and actionable) goal.
It’s certainly something you can work toward, but perhaps it’s not something you can *make* happen — and trying to control what cannot be controlled has the potential to create some struggle.
What you might want to explore is why this is a goal. If you woke up feeling great every morning for the rest of your life, what would you be doing differently? What would you then be doing that you are not doing now? Is there an opportunity to move toward that, even if you don’t feel great when you wake in the morning?
Since you are working with a therapist it would probably be best to explore these issues with them — and I wish you all the best 🙂
—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 and welcome to the forum! Yes, sometimes our brains can wake us up — the brain is always active, even when we are asleep, working hard at its job of keeping us safe.
There’s nothing we can do to stop our brain from waking us up if it chooses to do that. What can make things more difficult is trying to control the brain — trying to get it to stop waking us up, trying to make sleep happen, trying to get rid of wakefulness when it shows up, or otherwise battling with our thoughts and feelings.
Trying to control the mind (and sleep itself!) requires immense effort and attention — and exerting such effort and attention might not create the best conditions for sleep, right?
With this in mind, I wonder whether allowing your mind to do what it’s going to do anyway might help you move away from struggling during the night? And, perhaps with less struggle, things might start to feel a bit easier, and conditions for sleep might get a bit better, too?
—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 anxiety is natural and normal, Birdie! Can you think of any other times when anxiety has shown up before (and maybe during and maybe even after) doing things that are important?
Anxiety related to a job interview? Anxiety related to being a parent? Anxiety related to meeting new people?
How did you respond to that anxiety? Did you cancel the job interview? Did you give your kids away? Did you stop socializing and lock yourself in an isolation unit?
If not, why?
Was it because you recognized that doing things that matter involves the presence of difficult thoughts and feelings such as anxiety?
If so, perhaps what’s really important here is doing things that matter, even if they come with anxiety. Perhaps what really matters is traveling, meeting your cousins, adding good stuff to your life — even if that generates anxiety and even if there might be some difficult nights that come with it?
Sleep you cannot control. Anxiety you cannot control. Going on an adventure that will enrich your life, even in the presence of difficult stuff you cannot control, is completely within your control.
I hope there’s something 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.
Hello Sam!
What made you decide on a sleep window of 2:00 AM to 8:00 AM and what is your goal with that sleep window? If it was working, what would be happening?
I think it’s OK to go to bed earlier if you are finding it hard to stay awake. If you then find you lose that sleepiness when you go to bed, that doesn’t mean any kind of “failure” has happened — it just means that you have temporarily lost that sense of sleepiness.
This can happen if the brain has learned to associate the bed with struggle — so it fires up to protect you from the battle that it thinks is to come.
You can’t change what your mind thinks or feels (at least nor permanently anyway) — but you can train it that your bed isn’t a place for ongoing struggle. That your bed is a place for rest rather than a battleground. That you are safe when you are in bed, even if you are awake. That it doesn’t need to be quite so alert to “protect” you from nighttime wakefulness!
When you go to bed and feel awake, how do you respond and does that response feel workable to you?
PS: Can you remember a time when sleep didn’t feel like a struggle or a concern? A time when you slept pretty well? Did you use blue light blockers then?
—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 really difficult. Thank you for sharing.
It sounds as though you are putting quite a lot of pressure on yourself to make sleep happen and perhaps to control what you think and how you feel, too.
This makes sense since you want to sleep and you don’t want to experience difficult thoughts and feelings because they don’t feel good and they feel like a barrier to sleep happening, right?
Does your own experience tell you that putting more effort into sleep makes sleep more likely to happen? Does effort to sleep and effort to get rid of wakefulness make sleep happen upon command and permanently get rid of wakefulness upon command?
Does your own experience tell you that it’s possible to permanently delete difficult thoughts and feelings from your mind so they never come back ever again?
If your answer to these questions is no, perhaps that might suggest that sleep and the thoughts and feelings your mind generates as it does its job of looking out for you is something that’s out of your control?
And, if so, perhaps trying to control what cannot be controlled might be setting you up for a bit of a struggle — a struggle that can make all of this difficult stuff even more difficult?
—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 OK to worry — you’re a human being not a robot, right?
If you felt as though you were moving forward instead of backwards, what would 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.
Welcome to the forum! Since you quit coffee it sounds as though we can rule that out as the cause of the struggle you’re experiencing!
Can you tell us a bit more about your sleep at the current time? Can you describe an average or a typical night with us, including the time of night when you usually go to bed and the time of day when you usually get out of bed to start your day in the morning?
—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.
As we get older we typically generate less sleep (and less deep sleep, too). That doesn’t mean we’re destined to struggle with sleep as we get older, just that sleep changes as we get older.
—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 thanks for sharing that insight with us! How do you feel you might be able to move away from trying too hard?
—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.
If you feel comfortable when you wake during the night, perhaps there’s no need to do anything? Perhaps you can rest instead of trying to make sleep happen and allow sleep to show up if it chooses to do so, until your normal out of bed time?
As for the naps — totally up to you. You might want to consider that sleeping during the day might make sleep at night more difficult.
—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 Mia!
You’re right that anxiety and sadness can be all consuming — it’s good to hear that you are committing to doing things that matter to you, even when it is present. That’s often a more workable way of responding compared to going to war and using all your energy and attention in an effort to fight or avoid those feelings (since they always end up coming back anyway, right?).
A sleep window can help reduce the amount of time available for nighttime wakefulness and help with sleep consolidation if you are spending a lot more time in bed compared to the amount of sleep you usually generate.
From my experience working with clients, the sleep window can often be most useful as a tool that helps us move away from chasing after sleep. It’s a lot harder to chase after sleep if we have an earliest possible bedtime, a consistent out of bed time in the morning, and aren’t napping (or attempting to nap) during the day.
Something that might also be helpful is exploring how you respond to those awakenings when they happen. Are you trying to fight or avoid them? Are you putting effort into sleep when you wake at night? If so, that might be creating some struggle that has the potential to make things more difficult.
I hope there’s something 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.
It sounds as though trying to control your sleep in this way isn’t proving to be helpful, SA324. Are you able to remember a time when sleep wasn’t a concern? How did you manage to sleep right through until 7:00 AM in those days? Any insights there?
—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 fear is completely understandable! And, at the same time, it’s not possible to “forget” how to sleep. Sleep always happens when we’ve been awake for long enough 🙂
What can make things more difficult is trying to get involved in the process. Trying to make sleep happen. Trying to get rid of wakefulness. Trying to fight, avoid, or otherwise control what we’re thinking or feeling. Since we can’t control any of that stuff, the more we try the more we can set ourselves up for a struggle that makes everything more difficult.
Instead of trying to manage your thoughts or trying to change them, do you think there might be any value in practicing allowing them to exist? Acknowledging their presence and allowing them to come and go as they choose (even though you might wish they didn’t exist)? Do you feel that might help you struggle with them a bit less?
—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.
