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Hi Mac – I’m doing well, usually falling asleep between 10-20 minutes. Back to normal. Sorry about your bad nights. One of my relapses also started when I got too hot one night. I’ve found that we’re still recovering or our recovery is still fragile, we have to avoid things that might keep us up or wake us at night, even though before it was no problem.
Sounds like good advice for Manfred. Manfred – ACT is not just about meditating. If I were you I would re-read the sections on Mindfulness and Welcoming. These are both techniques to calm anxiety. If medication helps, go ahead with that too. Somehow you have to deal with the anxiety directly or it will keep coming back. Mac – it sounds like you’re getting a handle on that. You accept that some rough nights will come and then just let them run their course until you get calmer again. Maybe this would help you too Manfred.
Steve – you’ve dealt with a lot of anxiety also. Any advice for Manfred? Maybe you could share how you practiced ACT and calmed down your anxiety.
Glad that you’re sleeping better Steve. After a few nights of not falling asleep for an hour or more I’ve been sleeping normally again, falling asleep within 20 minutes. So it really is just about accepting and moving on. Then our mind calms down and we sleep better.
You may want to try a different approach based on the book, The Sleep Book by Dr. Guy Meadows. It’s works on the anxiety related to sleep and teaches you how to relax so that you naturally fall asleep. Insomnia is caused by trying too hard to sleep and worrying about sleeping. This method helps you let go of that. I had insomnia for 10 months and it worked for me. I didn’t like getting up when I couldn’t sleep and staying awake until I was dead tired. This method was more natural.
Yay!! So glad you’re continuing to sleep well, Mac. Yes it takes awhile to completely get over this anxiety. Maybe we never really get entirely over it. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t sleep well. I’ve had a few nights recently where it’s taken me an hour or more to fall asleep. But at least it’s not many hours like it was before. Luckily, I’m always ok the next day. I know it’s anxiety related – just a little fear there in the back of my mind.
Hopefully when you do have to go back into the office you’ll have gained enough confidence so that you only have just a temporary setback. And maybe you can think about changing your schedule to an hour to bed earlier since you’ll have to get up an hour earlier. People who have to work nights or crazy hours do this all the time.
Keep up the good sleep!
Hi Big Zee – Chronic insomnia is a mental condition so prescriptions are not the permanent answer. There are two therapies that do work. Both work by retraining the brain to stop associating going to bed with anxiety, which is what chronic insomnia is all about – anxiety related to sleeping. One therapy is called CBT-I (cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia) which Martin, the creator of this website, teaches. He’s got lots of great resources here. The other is called ACT and the best resource for this is “The Sleep Book” by Dr. Guy Meadows, which is very readable and easy to understand. Its focus is on learning to give up the struggle to sleep (i.e., trying all different things like pills, natural remedies, soothing music, special curtains, etc.) and then to relax, so that sleep comes naturally. It teaches you how to do this and how to let go of the struggle. I’ve tried both therapies but prefer ACT, which is gentler and felt more intuitive to me. But it’s also trickier, because you have to learn how to change your thinking about insomnia and then quiet down your mind. CBT-I focuses more on specific behavioral techniques. If you want to try CBT-I, Martin is a great coach to work with. If you want to try ACT, read the book and then check out the “ACT for Insomnia” thread here.
Yes we all understand you and have been there.
Chronic insomnia is a mental condition so natural remedies and prescriptions are not the permanent answer. There are two therapies that work. Both work by retraining the brain to stop associating going to bed with anxiety, which is what chronic insomnia is all about – anxiety related to sleeping. One therapy is called CBT-I (cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia) which Martin, the creator of this website, teaches. He’s got lots of great resources here. The other is called ACT and the best resource for this is “The Sleep Book” by Dr. Guy Meadows which is very readable and easy to understand. Its focus is on learning to give up the struggle to sleep (i.e., trying all different things like pills, natural remedies, soothing music, special curtains, etc.) and then to relax, so that sleep comes naturally. It teaches you how to do this and how to let go of the struggle. I’ve tried both therapies but prefer ACT, which is gentler and felt more intuitive to me. But it’s also trickier, because you have to learn how to change your thinking about insomnia and then quiet down your mind. CBT-I focuses more on specific behavioral techniques. If you want to try CBT-I Martin is a great coach to work with.
Mac – I’m sleeping well since the last relapse. It’s been about two weeks now of normal sleep. Glad you’re sleeping better and getting 7 hours a night. That’s great!
Gdsmom – your intern experience sounds like mine. I was working at an inpatient mental hospital and my supervisor never supervised me. So I just did things on my own, like one day doing kitten therapy in the geriatric ward after I found a little kitten all alone crying outside. The older people loved holding and snuggling with the purring and furry little guy. A nurse told me that was the happiest she had seen some of her patients in a long time.
That must be hard to be in New York. Things are closed here too, except essential businesses like the grocery stores. I live 5 minutes from a nice nature preserve, so my husband and I go there to take walks. We’re actually doing this more than usual and enjoying this spring, which has been one of the benefits of staying home. We’re also working on some projects around the house. So for us, it hasn’t been too bad.
I know what you mean about how if you just think something could possibly mess with your sleep, then that little worry can keep you awake, and so it’s best to avoid that for now. That’s what happened to me in my last relapse. I took an evening nap after a little too much to drink at dinner. I worried about not sleeping because of the nap although in the past this would not have been a problem, and then that set things off.
Sorry you had a bad night, Mac. I don’t think it was the phone. Hope it gets better again soon.
Chronic insomnia is a mental condition so prescriptions are not the permanent answer. What is needed is therapy to retrain the brain to stop associating going to bed with anxiety. The two therapies for this are CBT-I, which Martin teaches here and ACT. Martin has a lot of great resources here for CBT-I. The best resource for ACT is “The Sleep Book” by Dr. Guy Meadows, which is very readable and easy to understand. Its focus is on learning to give up the struggle to sleep (i.e., trying all different things like pills, natural remedies, soothing music, special curtains, etc.) and then learning to relax, so that sleep comes naturally. It teaches you how to do this and how to let go of the struggle. I’ve tried both therapies but prefer ACT, which is gentler and felt more intuitive to me. But it’s also trickier, because you have to learn how to change your thinking about insomnia and then quiet your mind.
