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Was there any update here? Ive been in the same situation for 2 months now, I thought it went away for almost 2 weeks but its back with a vengeance.
What has helped me a lot is:
-leaving the bed if you’re not sleepy
-Hiding all clocks during your sleep window
-keep your sleep window strict, never sleep in or go to bed early
Hopeful Update:
Implementing simple techniques such as a strict time window of 8 hours (11 to 7 as usual) and HIDING ALL CLOCKS, I put my alarm in my closet, so I hear it but don’t see it. I also swiftly get out of bed if I feel antsy.
Even over just 2 days my sleep is improving, no more nightly panic sessions after checking the time, and my sleep anxiety is also very quickly going away.
Last night I woke up in the middle of the night, tried to fall right back asleep but felt arousal so left my bed. At first, I was confused because I felt like I had slept the whole night but It was way too dark out still so I was nowhere near my alarm time, but soon the tiredness hit me when the arousal went down. I then got back in bed after some time using the bathroom/laying on the couch in another room writing down my dreams, and I fell back to sleep!
I would estimate I was up (time in bed + out of bed) for maybe an hour based on how I feel this morning, which is still 7 hours! Not ideal but the best sleep I’ve had for a whole week. Waking up to the sound of my alarm rather than waiting for it awake in bed was sooo good..
I’m still not sure physically/psychologically is going on. Like I said I’m very certain I was all but sleeping through the night 2 weeks ago, so I know I’m still anatomically capable of it. (on 100mg trazadone which last few days I’m tapering down to 50mg) But honestly idk if it was the trazadone that “cured” me because my insomnia flaired up again even as I’m still on it.
I’m aware waking up is natural and part of sleep cycles, have I merely conditioned my brain to be hypervigilant of these wakeups? I still don’t know why when I wake up at night, I’m conscious for it, rather than waking up, rolling over, and going back to sleep only to forget about it, at least for one of these wakeups. I swear I used to sleep like a log for 8 hours.
My apnea theory too seems suspect to me as well as I never wake up with headaches or gasping, I was simply awake, lying in bed. So I don’t know if its my mild OSA, and it would seem weird for mild OSA to wake you up at the exact same time (when I was still looking a clocks)
So all in all, Id say I’m still making progress, I hope that by simply not caring about nightly wakeups, and accepting them, I can re-train my subconscious mind to not trigger my arousal system when I wake up and see a black dark window.
I forgot to mention, would it be best to undergo CBTi or simply not do anything at this point? Its been on and off for 2 months yes, but I notice it only gets really bad when I dive deep into the world of chronic insomnia and make myself anxious about it.
During that one and a half week or so, I felt fine! I felt good! And I dont know if it actually was the trazadone or me truely forgetting about my insomnia.
Because when I wake up in the middle of the night, obviously first I should not panic, second should I like get out of bed If I cant go right back to sleep and do something like make tea and journal? I hope this doesn’t count as a “preventative measure” which can worsen insomnia, but Ive also heard its not good to lay if bed sleepless.
