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Day 20 of ACT Was super-exhausted yesterday, the worst I’ve ever been. Had planned to visit a friend and take a walk but couldn’t imagine driving. Probably wasn’t safe to either. Was a beautiful day too. Hate to waste these days like this. Tried to nap a couple times but couldn’t relax enough to fall asleep. By the evening, felt like I weighed a ton. Was so exhausted to the point of tears. When going to bed I couldn’t stand the thought of lying awake in bed. Knew I was too tired to practice any of the skills. Felt as if I got even an iota more tired, I would burst from the seams. So I had a drink and fell asleep right away. Unfortunately, again did not have a restful night of sleep. Woke up tired. Not sure if it was due to the drink, the over-exhaustion, the cumulative days of little sleep, or the underlying anxiety of struggling with this for over 5 months now. Maybe all of the above.
Sounds like you’re off to a good start, Steve. I have no problem with waking up too early, just going to sleep.
Day 20 of ACT Had a rough night, not falling asleep until sometime after 4:00 and only getting 2-3 hours of sleep. I’m a zombie today. To be brutally honest, I did this to myself. I haven’t been able to let go of my crutch of my white Russian before going to bed. But two nights ago when I offered one to my husband, he said no and when I asked him why, he said that he doesn’t sleep deeply when he has something to drink before bed. I never noticed any problem with this for myself. When I did SR before, most of the time I had one and slept fine. But lately with this batch of shallow sleep, I figured if there’s any possibility that this is contributing to it, I better give it up. Also, I really don’t like the idea of being dependent on something to help me sleep. I want to fall to sleep naturally like I alway did before.
Anyway, it’s been hard to give up my security blanket. But I finally did it the night before last. That night I couldn’t fall asleep for at least for a couple hours. And last night it was over 4 hours. This is especially hard after recently having days of falling asleep within 15 minutes. But I knew this would probably happen. Hopefully it’s just a blip and things will get better soon as I get used to going without it. And I really hope that when I do sleep, it will be deep and refreshing sleep instead of waking up after 8 hours and feeling like a dog.
ACT requires a huge leap of faith. We have to completely surrender in order for it to work. Actually that’s what regular sleeper do every night, but we take it for granted because that’s how it always was. But to get back to that place requires placing total trust in “letting go.”
Maybe yes, maybe no. I did SR for 8 weeks and always felt like I was keeping the anxiety/fear at bay. On average I would sleep well 5 days a week and have 2 bad nights. On the 5 good nights I felt I was keeping the fear at bay and through exhaustion (and a white Russian) I would fall asleep fairly quickly. But the fear was always there lurking in the corner of my mind and I would hope that I’d fall asleep before the fear crept in to ruin my night. The other 2 days it managed to get in and take over. I hated being controlled by fear so that’s why I became so interested in ACT.
Yes, that’s right, Dragon. The idea is that the anxiety is reduced first and then over time better sleep will emerge naturally. I already feel more natural in bed like I used to. Before it felt like I had forgotten how to fall asleep. Now I’ve remembered and it feels more normal/natural even if I have to lay there in bed for awhile before I fall asleep.
Yes I do feel like I’m making progress with ACT. It’s been 3 months since I started any therapy but just under 3 weeks of ACT. So that’s where I’m measuring my progress. My anxiety has gone way down. It only shot up the other day when thinking about doing SR. Otherwise, for the most part, the fear of going to bed is gone.
<b></b>Day 19 of ACT Yesterday was a zombie all day after sleeping maybe 2-3 hours the night before. Had to take a late afternoon nap to make it through the evening. But I had no anxiety at all about going to bed. I’m getting used to accepting whatever happens and not worrying. Couldn’t fall asleep for quite a while though – maybe a couple hours – but just laid there until I finally did fall asleep. Didn’t struggle with the fact that I couldn’t sleep. My guess is maybe I got 5 hours of sleep. Not well rested today, but decent. Much better than being a zombie like yesterday.
CBT-I and ACT have the same goal but work towards that goal from different directions. CBT-I works from the outside to the inside, while ACT works from the inside to the outside. With CBT an external structure is put into place which increases the chance of sleeping well which then reduces anxiety of over time. ACT works by decreasing anxiety which then results in sleeping well over time.
Steve – you can find information on sleep restriction therapy right here on this website under Resources.
I’m fine with you being brutally honest. But it doesn’t change my opinion of ACT. To each his own.
Through ACT I’ve definitely got some tools to help with the anxiety which has gone down a lot. But if I can’t get some decent sleep even when I sleep all night, I won’t know what to do.
Yes, it’s so draining to keep trying. Last night when I couldn’t sleep and felt horrible I thought to myself, if I were a “normal” person I could just say to myself, “Well tomorrow’s another day and I’ll feel better about things in the morning.” But the problem is the next morning I’m too exhausted to feel any better!!
Day 18 of ACT Jinxed myself by saying I haven’t had a bad night in awhile. Had one last night. But what caused it this time was different. After I made that decision two days ago to go back to SR, there was some anxiety about it but I was able to keep it at bay. Well last night it caught up with me big time. Only slept a few hours and am wiped out today. Oh well. Haven’t had a decent night of sleep in 9 days. Always tired. Hate this. I wondered like you too, Mac, if I’m ever going to get better, although I haven’t had to deal with this as long as you.
I felt like I had made so much progress, finally being able to fall asleep fairly quickly like a normal person and sleep through the night. Only problem was that the sleep was shallow and I was waking up tired. But I was getting more and more relaxed about sleeping. What helped was that I wasn’t worried about when I would have to get up, because I was waking at a decent time. But the old worry came back when I went to bed at 12:00 – “I’ve only got 6.5 hours of sleep. What if I can’t sleep for awhile and then end up getting a lot less sleep than 6.5 hours?” The worries took over and of course then, I couldn’t sleep.
I think I’m not ready for 6.5 hours. I noticed in the book that Guy works with clients where they’re at. If they have too much anxiety about doing something like SR (he advocates what he calls a “gentle” version of SR of shortening one’s sleep by 30-60 minutes to create some sleep drive) or staying in bed all night, then he would just have them practice mindfulness and welcoming of their anxiety until they were ready. And then he’d have them gradually work up to something. His philosophy is that there is no point in doing something that creates more anxiety, which only makes the insomnia worse. So I need to work on my anxiety about SR and then figure out what to do next.
