Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
There’s a lot of people here doing the therapy on their own. Read Martin’s stuff here and The Sleep Book. Martin also has a free course here and lots of free videos. Also Sasha Steven’s book The Effortless Sleep Method is good. Then put it into practice, tell us how you’re doing and get feedback on the forum.
Hi Sleepless. We’ve all been there and insomnia is horrible. It’s caused by anxiety though, so pills will not help you. You become conditioned to associate going to bed with anxiety. So you need therapy specifically for insomnia that will break the conditioning. There are two types of therapy. One is called cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and Martin Reed, the founder of this website explains it here. Another is based on a therapy called ACT and was developed by Dr. Guy Meadows. You can find information about this on his website, The Sleep School. Also, he has a book, The Sleep Book, that explains it very well. Many of us on the ACT for Insomnia thread read the book and are having good results. Some people get faster results with CBT-I though.
Please get help for this. You don’t have to continue to suffer. I had insomnia for 10 months but now have recovered. I was miserable and very low, so I was so relieved to find therapy that worked.
Hi Pixor. We’ve all been there and insomnia is horrible. It’s caused by anxiety, so pills and remedies will not help you. You become conditioned to associate going to bed with anxiety. So you need therapy specifically for insomnia that will break the conditioning. There are two types of therapy. One is called cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and Martin Reed, the founder of this website explains it here. Another is based on a therapy called ACT and was developed by Dr. Guy Meadows. You can find information about this on his website, The Sleep School. Also, he has a book, The Sleep Book, that explains it very well. Many of us on the ACT for Insomnia thread read the book and are having good results. Some people get faster results with CBT-I though.
Please get help for this. Many times it does not go away on its own and can even get worse. I had it for 10 months but now have recovered. I was miserable and very low, so I was very relieved to find therapy that worked.
Sorry you’re struggling, Marie. We’ve all been there and insomnia is horrible. It’s caused by anxiety though, so pills will not help you. You become conditioned to associate going to bed with anxiety. So you need therapy specifically for insomnia that will break the conditioning. There are two types of therapy. One is called cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and Martin Reed, the founder of this website explains it here. Another is based on a therapy called ACT and was developed by Dr. Guy Meadows. You can find information about this on his website, The Sleep School. Also, he has a book, The Sleep Book, that explains it very well. Many of us on the ACT for Insomnia thread read the book and are having good results. Some people get faster results with CBT-I though.
Please get help for this. Many times it does not go away on its own and can even get worse. I had it for 10 months but now have recovered. I was miserable and very low like you are now, so I was so relieved to find therapy that worked.
Sorry you’re struggling, Dylan. We’ve all been there and insomnia is horrible. It’s caused by anxiety though, so pills will not help you. You become conditioned to associate going to bed with anxiety. So you need therapy specifically for insomnia. There are two types of therapy. One is called cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and Martin Reed, the founder of this website explains it here. Another is based on a therapy called ACT and was developed by Dr. Guy Meadows. You can find information about this on his website, The Sleep School. Also, he has a book, The Sleep Book, that explains it very well.
Please get help for this. Many times it does not go away on its own and can even get worse. I had it for 10 months but now am cured. It was miserable, so I was so relieved to find therapy that worked.
Awww….too bad you didn’t sleep well. But it sounds like you had fun with friends! I’ve been sleeping good all week. Hopefully over time, doing something like this won’t throw you off completely as you get back to sleeping like a normal person. Was just wondering, since in general you’re going to bed earlier, are you getting more hours of sleep? Do you still wake up too early?
Gdsmom – that’s great that you have turned a corner this month! I hope your sleep gets better and better.
Karen – that’s great that you’re trusting yourself more and more to sleep, and that your trip helped in this way. I’ll be doing some traveling during Thanksgiving and Christmas, so this also will be a challenge for me. Last time I traveled, about a month ago, I reverted back to sleeping pills (I was also in the middle of my relapse at that time.) If I can sleep well, or least relatively well, this will give me more confidence in my ability to sleep in different situations.
Steve – how are you doing?
Burn – haven’t heard from you for awhile. How are you?
I go to bed between 10:30 and 11:00 and get up between 7:00 and 7:30. Last night I wasn’t that tired so I wondered if I might not fall asleep and have to get up after a half hour to read until I was more tired. But I fell asleep within a half hour. This is how it was before the insomnia. I didn’t have to be really tired, but just the normal amount of tiredness.
Hi Mac – it sounds like you’re doing well! From my own experience with doing ACT, I found that when I started to worry about my sleep, then it didn’t get better. That’s what happened in March when I first started ACT and was worried about the light sleep I was experiencing. I thought I needed to do something about it like SRT to try to “fix it” and then I would sleep deeper. But this only made things worse. Once I understood that light sleep was normal, then I relaxed and got better.
I know that your natural tendency also like me is to want to “do something about it.” But I suggest that you try to relax about it and accept that it’s just a normal part of the process to have some bad nights, just like I accepted that light sleep was normal. Then you won’t spiral downward, but will eventually get back into a good cycle. I know that this is easier said than done, but just remind yourself that panicking and worrying will not help, and accepting whatever happens will help. You’re trying to retrain your brain to associate sleep with relaxation and peace, not conflict.
If it helps, try using the “welcoming” technique of welcoming those worrisome and panicky thoughts, and befriend them and have sympathy for them. They’re only trying to protect you from more suffering. Be gentle with them and with yourself. It’s natural to have those feelings, but don’t let them dominate you. Befriend them and then they will naturally go away by themselves. I’ve done this and it works. Hope this helps.
Sounds like you’re on the right track, Mac, towards getting better. Just keep relaxing and letting go and over time your brain will settle down and it will be easier to sleep.
Although I consider myself recovered because I’m sleeping well every night, I still have some anxiety when I go to bed which I let go of and then sleep fine. So I figure it takes a long time to totally heal. We were “sick” for so long that it’s hard to trust and be completely carefree about sleep like we were before the insomnia.
Hi Jonathan – that’s how ACT was for me. I had a lot of light sleep and felt “ok” the next day. Over time the sleep lengthened and deepened. Now I sleep like a normal person for the most part. Sometimes I might have a little anxiety when I first lay down but I let it go and then sleep all night.
Dazzio – good luck with SRT!
Yes travel can throw things off as well as other things (and “beings”). Last night I realized that I still have some sleep anxiety, but nothing like before. I had slept REALLY well the night before (probably too much.) So when I went to bed I wasn’t very tired. I got up after a half hour. Usually if I’m not tired and stay up till 12 or even 1:00 I don’t get anxious because I know can sleep in until 7:30 or even later, which allows me plenty of sleep. But I had grandkids over and I knew they would wake me up at 6:30. Well the clock was approaching 12:30 and I started to worry, so I took an Ambien. That’s the first I’ve taken in 3 weeks. I’m sure I’ll get back on track tonight though.
Pam – glad the last 3 nights have been good for you. It could well be because of your acceptance. One thing I’ve realized, especially since my relapse, is that ACT has taught me how to “let go” like normal sleepers and fall asleep. People used to tell me to “just let go” when I was struggling with insomnia. I got annoyed hearing that because I knew that it was true but I just couldn’t seem to do it. It was like telling a severely depressed person to “cheer up.” Nice thing to aim for, but not so easy to do. Anyway, ACT gave me a method to re-learn how to “let go.” The first step towards letting go was acceptance. Now I can let go easily again for the most part.
Mac – how is ACT going for you?
Hi AnnMarie – I understand exactly what you’re going through because I had insomnia for 10 very difficult months. I was depressed and at times feeling hopeless too. If CBT-I isn’t working for you, there’s another therapy called ACT, which I used and am now free of insomnia. Check out the book, The Sleep Book, by Dr. Guy Meadows. This therapy focuses on reducing anxiety so that we naturally begin to fall asleep, just like we did before the insomnia. There’s a thread here called, ACT for Insomnia, that you can visit and get help implementing this.
Nikki – There’s help for you. Insomnia is an anxiety-related disorder and most sleep doctors don’t understand it or know how to treat it. Other doctors just give you pills which don’t help and many times just make things worse over time. There are two different types of therapy for this. One is CBT-I (cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia) which Martin, the host of this website explains. The other is called ACT. To understand ACT, read The Sleep Book by Dr. Guy Meadows and/or go to his website. Some of us on the thread here, ACT for Insomnia, are using this method. My insomnia started in Oct 2018. I first tried CBT-I and made a lot of improvement. Then I changed to ACT and am now completely cured.
