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Hi Mac,
Glad you had a nice vacation and have had some good 7-hour nights of sleep! Yes, I’ve switched from CBT with SR and SC to Guy Meadow’s ACT. When I started reading his book a month ago it just made so much more intuitive sense to me than CBT, so I made the switch after finishing my 8 weeks of CBT.
I’ve done it now for 10 nights and have numbered most of them here, so you don’t have to read through the whole thread to see how it’s going. Start on page 2 of this thread. It was scary to start because you have to stay in bed and face all your fears and whatever shows up in the night. Also you have to accept the fact that may not even sleep at all the first few nights or so. So it takes a big leap of faith to jump into this process. But I believe that just like CBT, if you don’t do it whole-heartedly, you won’t get the results you want.
I decided to chronicle how it’s going here because some of you seemed to have plateaued with CBT, not making progress toward your goal of regularly getting full nights of sleep like you did before the insomnia. Maybe if it works for me, it might work for you, too. Of course if it doesn’t, then you can disregard all my mumbo jumbo!
I’m sure you can find information on mindfulness and mediation on YouTube. Also I would look for some support with mindfulness and mediation where you live. Look for people who are practicing this where you live locally and practice together with them, especially since you seem to give up on things easily. Support will help you to keep going and to feel like you’re not so alone. Suicide is not the answer, and if you can find supportive people to talk to your troubles with, you will begin to feel more hopeful about your life.
Welcome to the club. You’ve got insomnia like the rest of us here. It may take some time to turn it around. Pills are not the answer. Here’s two books to read, each with a different approach to healing insomnia, which will not go away by itself.
“The Effortless Sleep Method” by Sasha Stephens
“The Sleep Book” by Dr. Guy Meadows
Read them and see which approach appeals to you. Or hire Martin, the founder of this website.
Yes, I’m keeping track of it. That’s good that you were relaxed and not worrying when you woke up early.
You would think I would sleep deeply because of the tiredness, but it doesn’t seem to work that way. I think that’s because on an unconscious level, I’m still not feeling completely safe in bed. It’s sort of like a soldier who comes home from battle. Even though he knows he’s finally safe, on an unconscious level he can’t completely relax. It takes awhile for the whole mind/body system to realize on a deeper level that he’s finally safe. So the insomnia is like a battle I’ve been going through for 5 months. So I can’t expect for my unconscious to believe overnight that I’m finally safe and can completely relax. It will take time.
Frozen – it’s sounds like it’s time for you to start practicing some mindfulness and meditation. You can’t turn off your brain, but you can learn to calm it down. You’re caught up in all the negative and fearful thoughts running through your mind, believing everything they’re telling you. But your thoughts are only thoughts – they are NOT YOU. They can’t hurt you. Through mindfulness and meditation, you will begin to create some separation between YOU and your thoughts, by learning to “observe” your thoughts and emotions. Then it will be easier to let them go and feel calmer.
Day 11 of ACT. Slept most of the night, but not deeply. Remember dreaming a lot. Woke up this morning tired again. Oh well. Feels like a repeat of the first few days of last week, but the tiredness isn’t as bad. Think I’m still on guard for a bad night. Got to learn to relax and trust again. Probably just takes time.
That doesn’t sound like enough sleep. How much were you sleeping before the insomnia struck? I would aim for that as my goal if I were you. And 5-10% improvement doesn’t sound good. Something is not working.
Day 10 of ACT. Had an “ok” night. Did not fall asleep for some time, maybe an hour or even two. Have no idea how long. But eventually did fall asleep. But then woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t fall asleep for awhile. Woke up this morning tired, but not too bad. The good part is that I didn’t have any worries or anxious thoughts all night. Maybe I already dealt with a lot of those boogie men last week when for the first time I was willing to stay in bed all night and accept whatever happened, including being willing to be awake all night.
Did some mindfulness practice last night before I went to bed. Felt peaceful before I went to bed, which was very nice. I wanted to be prepared in case I started to have a bad night again like 2 nights ago. Wanted to nip it in the bud, if possible, through mindfulness. I’m going to start doing the mindfulness exercises in the book 3 times a day, morning, afternoon and evening, like Guy suggests. This should help make the mindfulness at night easier as well.
Will continue to go the course of “giving up the struggle” with my insomnia, mindfulness, and acceptance of whatever happens. Hopefully over time, it will smooth the way for sleep to emerge naturally, instead of myself getting in the way by “trying to fall asleep.”
I live in northern Alabama which can get very nice this time of the year. Our springtime starts early. All the trees around here are budding already. Today it’s in the upper 60s. Going to a nearby park to take a walk. But the summers are hot and humid!
Just wondering, do you think you’re gradually getting better over time? Or do you think you’ve plateaued?
Day 9 of ACT. Was totally exhausted all day yesterday. But the worst was the apprehension I felt all day about the coming night. I hate feeling controlled by fear! Anyway, decided I needed to regroup after the episode of “struggling” again to sleep the night before and go back to acceptance of whatever happens at night. Went to bed early at 10:15 because I could no longer keep my eyes open. Took awhile to settle down (30-45 minutes) – you know how it is when you’re overtired, it’s hard to relax. But then slept until 8:00 this morning. I’m lucky because I have my own business and make my own schedule. So I can sleep in when I want to. Feel good today. Basically over the cold/flu bug as well. Also, the sun is shining today. We’ve had so much rain here lately it’s been depressing. There’s been some flooding in some parts too.
Had a bad night. Delv – you jinxed me! Got caught up in the struggle when I couldn’t sleep and got overwhelmed by it. Need to learn how to create some space between the struggle and myself by trying to “observe” it rather than get caught up in it. Back to mindfulness practice.
Good to hear from you, Mac. Glad you had a vacation and got some rest at least. I’m chronicling my journey of implementing ACT on another thread, ‘Sleep Restriction or ACT for Insomnia.” Join us there.
This cold/flu bug isn’t too bad fortunately. Just don’t have much energy. It’s a beautiful day here in the 60s and I would take a walk if I felt better. May still do it.
I’m not afraid of having a bad night because this method has helped me look at fear directly in its face. I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing, accepting whatever happens in the night, good or bad. Then anxiety cannot get its grip on me again, spiraling into insomnia.
Day 7 of ACT. Was wiped out because of this darn cold/flu bug and fell asleep on the couch after dinner. Usually been going to bed with my husband around 10:30-11:00, but decided stay up till 11:30 even though I was already tired by 11:00. The old fear of not being tired enough crept in. When I hit the sack, a little worry was there but disappeared soon. Fell asleep within a half hour and slept solid all night – maybe 8.5 hours. Bit by bit the fear and worry is lessening and the sleep is getting better.
