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I’ve only been on the antidepressant for a week and it takes 2-3 weeks to kick in. But my anxiety is already ramping down because I have confidence in this method and in Martin. And my sleep was much better the last two nights. I seem to take to SR well. When I did it before, I averaged 5 good nights out of 7 right from the get go.
An antidepressant might help. I’m on one now because my anxiety got so high.
I think you have hang in there Dragon. You’re only in your second week. Sometimes things get worse before they get better. You may want to hire Martin to help you. He can give you more support and advice than we can here. He can let you if what you’re going through is normal, how to deal with it, and how to keep going.
So since you’ve been doing so well, then this is just a setback, which you will get over. Here’s Martin’s instructions on how to deal with a relapse:
- Accept that sleep disturbances will still occur
- See your relapses as due to identifiable causes such as stress and not as evidence of the return of insomnia
- Follow the strategies that were helpful to you before
- Don’t compensate for lost sleep – such as taking naps or going to bed earlier
- Sleep conditioning – get out of bed when you can’t sleep
- Follow a regular sleep window
Sorry you’re having a rough time, Mac. Did you change anything at all like your sleeping schedule?
Now that I’m back on SR I’m reminded again about how sometimes less is more. In other words, sometimes it’s better to have a tighter sleep window. Although you think you’ll have less sleep, you actually end up getting more sleep and better sleep. Today is my fourth day and after a rough start I’m already seeing results. Slept 6.25 hours last night.
You may want to reduce your sleep window to the number of hours you’re actually averaging sleeping. So for example, if you’re averaging 6 hours of sleep but are in bed for 8 hours, reduce it to 6 hours. Then when it becomes stable and you’re regularly sleeping through the whole night and not waking up early, then you can gradually increase it. As always, keep the sleep and wake time consistent. I don’t think you can afford to have a lot of flexibility until you’ve achieved stability.
Just my two cents.
Yeah I doze off too sometimes as I’m sitting on the couch reading. Then I just shake my head and wake myself up again.
It’s also hard staying up that late because I hear my husband snoring in the next room and wish I could be in bed too!
Good luck!
Make sure to follow the guidelines STRICTLY. You don’t want to give yourself a too big sleep window – just a half hour plus your average number of hours of sleep. And you want to make sure you’re going to bed and getting up at the same time no matter how bad your sleep is. Don’t relax around either of these. It’s not worth it.
Last night I was so exhausted – the worst exhaustion that I have ever felt in my entire life. It felt like it was crushing me. But somehow I managed to keep myself up until the beginning of my sleep window at 12:00. I know SR works and when your sleep has stabilized within the smaller window, then you can increase it and it will become stable there as well. That’s what you’re aiming for – stability.
No you’re fine. You didn’t mention doing SC so I thought you were leaving it out. Just follow the guidelines on this website for doing SC and SR and you should be fine.
I’m starting all over again because I got totally off course and my sleep was a mess again. I started three nights ago. Yes, it’s not easy. I knew it would be difficult so I hired Martin again to help me. Make sure you implement SC as well as SR. My first night I didn’t sleep at all, getting up at least twice or more to do SC. The second night I got up twice and slept just 2 hours. So this weekend I was a complete zombie. Too bad, because the weather was beautiful. Last night was better, with 5 hours. I only got up once. Of course it helped that my sleep drive was high because I was super-exhausted. I imagine there will be ups and downs with a gradual curve upward. My guess is that by 2 weeks you’ll see some improvement if you’re doing things right. That’s another reason I hired Martin. I wanted to make sure I was doing things right. I tried to do SC on my own before and it was a mess. It’s worth it to me to pay for help if it will finally get me out of this nightmare.
How were the first week or two for you? Were you really able to get up every half hour? How many times average would you get up each night? When did things start to get better?
I meant the sleep school. I met with the doctor there, the only one there who is doing therapy and only on Thursdays, which is pretty pathetic.
Sounds like a good idea to write a book. I think there needs to be more discussion on how insomnia is a real mental health issue, just like depression, and you can’t just “chill out” or “relax” or just deal with your anxiety and it will go away. I’ve been frustrated talking to a couple counselors here who really don’t get it at all. One told me I need to take a bath and drink some warm milk before I go to bed. Another thinks I just need to deal with my anxiety through medication. I think only if you’ve experienced it or been close to someone and seen their misery up close (like my husband) you really can’t get it.
Thanks, Delv. Yes it makes sense. By the way, I’ve given up on ACT. It was too hard to implement without any guidance. I actually met with their sleep doctor online last week. It was good, but then there was no other appointment available for 3 weeks. That’s way too long when you’re trying to learn something new and it’s confusing and tricky. You can get way off course in 3 weeks, which is what happened to me. They only have one sleep doctor and she meets with people only on Thursdays. That’s so inadequate when you got a bunch of people needing help. They said on their website that Guy is training therapists now, but there’s no link to any of them on the site. And when I emailed them about it, asking for a list of therapists, they completely ignored me.
Unfortunately, I reached a really low point and was despairing. I got an emergency prescription of Ambien because I was so desperate for sleep. My husband begged me to get on an antidepressant because my moods have been so severe when I couldn’t sleep. I started on one a few days ago, although it takes a few weeks to kick in. Then I remembered that I could always go back to CBT-I. So I contacted Martin yesterday and will start working with him to hopefully get back on track. My sleep is a mess. Sorry I can’t report more positively about ACT. It was a great idea that I really believed in, but just impossible to implement. Also, that Sleep Clinic is completely useless.
Delv – I have a question for you. You seem to be doing better. For awhile there you seemed to be stuck, having 3 days a week or so with just a few hours of sleep. What do you think made the difference that now your sleep is improving? Have you done something different? Thanks, Deb
