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Steve, I have been sort of lucky with the xanax. I only take the smallest dose which is .25mg and sometimes even just 1/2 that and it always works for me. As you mention, I am concerned about benzo addiction so I have only used it intermittedly and thought I was ok. As you can see from my previous post to GSDmom, I think my part time use has caught up to me too!
GSdMom. I improved quite a bit from last summer which I remember was a nightmare for both of us. However, while I slept better, I was never “cured”. Every night was a battle and too many nights I resorted to taking a pill after waking up and I kind of stumbled through 2019. Earlier this year, my sleep started regressing again and I started experienced pretty severe sleep maintenance insomnia. I would only sleep 3-4 hours a night unless I took a xanax when I woke up and then I slept a full 6-7 hours. I have started suspected that the problem was the xanax and that my brain was associating the ability to fall back to sleep with needing a pill. I have resolved to not doing that anymore and had a string of really bad 2-3 hour nights earlier this week. Last night I slept better so I have my fingers crossed.
I am really glad you are doing better!!!
GSDmom, I see you are taking ambien while practicing ACT. I have done the same and I think it may be the biggest contributor to my latest setback. Using a pill when you know you are going to have a bad nights sleep is a great crutch but I fear my brain has not learned to do it itself anymore. I have been using Xanax 1-2 nights a week but am think I need to stop that practice if I ever hope to get long term better.
Has anyone else here had a similar experience with meds while practicing ACT?
Hi Martin. Things have gotten a bit worse for me. I am still religiously doing sleep restriction with a 5 hour window but am now only sleeping 2-3 hours per night. This has been going on for so long now that I do make an exception 1-2 nights a week and I take a Xanax when I wake up and then get 5-6 hours on those night. I think that proves that this whole thing is anxiety related for me.
Do you think it is possible that I am sabotaging my overall progress when I “treat” myself to a xanax every so often or is it ok? I am so tired, so often, I am not sure I could bear have only 3 hours sleep every night so the Xanax is a bit of a sanity saver for me.
Hi Martin. Thanks for the reply. Your site and videos have been so helpful!!
I can’t think of any specific trigger. My sleep just started degrading for about a week almost 2 months ago and now I am stuck in the current state.
When I was sleeping well, I was falling asleep at around 10:30 and sleeping till 5:30-6am. Now I am getting 3-4 hours. I feel ok during the day but I start getting excessively sleepy at about 8pm. A few nights, I allowed myself to fall asleep early, I still only get 3-4 hours and then that is it. Most nights I struggle and manage to stay awake to the start of my sleep window at 11pm, but still only sleep till 2 or 3 am.
Very frustrating but I am sticking to the program as best I can!
I also want to mention that my sleep drive is huge at 11pm. I struggle incredibly to stay awake till that time and when I go to bed, I fall asleep in less than 5 minutes, sometimes less than 1 minute. This tells me my brain strongly associates my bed with sleep and SC is not needed.
However when I wake up and then lie in bed totally calmly, it is almost impossible to fall back asleep. I still do SC when I rarely get anxious, but mostly I lie in bed. The next day I am mostly ok but tired and I start getting exhausted at around 9pm….then struggle mightily until to the start of my SR window.I just can’t figure out anything to do differently and am hoping time cures all…..again any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Deb, I think ACT as a tool has actually been around longer than CBT-I. Personally, I believe it it most effect as an alternative for Stimulus Control and used in conjunction with SR. It is certainly more difficult because SC and SR are very prescriptive and ACT is all in your head.
Mac0908, I developed a hyperawareness of body sensations like breathing during the night with my insomnia, I used ACT tools like welcoming and imagining a space within myself for my “awareness” to coexist. This has helped ease my frustrations and much of the hyperawareness then also subsided. This was a huge help to keeping myself in bed and sleep longer.
Steve – have you ever tried Xanax for your anxiety? It is a miracle worker but has to be used sparingly. I have found that on a very difficult night, taking a low dose Xanax 4-5 hours before bedtime is very effective to eliminating sleep onset anxiety.
I have not posted in awhile but thought I would give an update on my struggle with insomnia. I too have read the Guy Meadows book and am a big believer in ACT. ACT as a tool has helped me tremendously in dealing with my OCD issues and many think Insomnia is just another OCD anxiety based condition. My sleep today is much better than it was. I now consistently get 5 hours most nights and some nights have even slept 7+ hours which was unheard of before. I attribute much of this success to being able to reduce my anxiety using ACT techniques and now lying in bed longer without getting extremely frustrated like I used to. This has enabled me to fall asleep more often, even though I still have too many awakenings and light sleep during the night.
While I have seen much improvement, my sleep is still too inconsistent to consider myself “cured”. I think the problem is that I have been real lax with sleep restriction and while I am sleeping longer, my body has still not adopted to a consistent schedule. So this week, I have once again started with a 6 hour sleep restriction window along with using ACT when I am awake in bed(which effectively replaces the despised Stimulus Control). I think I was not ready to eliminate SR which hurt my sleep drive and led to inconsistent sleep.
Hopefully combining the two tools will make my sleep stronger and more consistent like a normal sleeper! I am actually surprised ACT has not been formally taught and included as a tool within CBT-I, along with breathing exercises and progressive muscle relaxation for reducing anxiety.
Borgesbi, is it possible that you are having all these awakenings after sleeping 5 hours that you are just not that tired anymore? Sleeping from 9:30 to 6:30 is a 9 hour window and I do not know many adults that can sleep that long without waking up several times.
Deb, correct me if I am wrong but there really is nothing incompatible between ACT and CBT-I. Practicing acceptance techniques to reduce sleep anxiety can be used in conjunction with SC. The beauty of combining both therapies is that as you get better and better at accepting your situation, you are going to be less frustrated and thus have less need to implement SC. I also see SR as compatible and actually while you can be successful without it, you are much more likely to shorten insomnia’s duration by spending less time awake in bed.
My concern with going back and forth between both therapies is the possibility the insomniac is not ready to fully accept the bad nights. In that case, they are better off remaining consistent with CBT-I and incorporating ACT, than going back and forth.
Deb, I agree being relaxed is a huge factor too. My only point was that it is unlikely for our bodies to go from sleeping 3-5 hours for months to 7-8 hours over night just because we are now relaxed. Our bodies need to get reconditioned to sleeping longer.
Glad you slept 8+ hours. An inspiration for all of us!
Steve, one more thought. The fact you can fall asleep pretty easily at the beginning of the night is a blessing. I am sure there are many folk here who would consider that alone to be a major success! I firmly believe you (and I) are having a hard time falling back to sleep at 3-4am because our bodies are now used to having very little sleep. It will just take time to slowly build back the sleep drive so I expect to have mixed results getting back to sleep for the time being. I am just grateful to get the consistent 4-5 hours early in the night and have faith that the rest will return over time.
Steve. Congrats. Sounds like you had a pretty good night and you are in a similar place to where I am too. I have been averaging 4.5-5 hours for the past week. I know I would like to sleep more right now but it is probably just not realistic. It takes time to rebuild your sleep drive after dealing with insomnia for many many months. Increasing my total average sleep time by 15 minutes per week is my goal, so I hope to average 5.5-6 hours in a month.
It is a slow process!
Deb, were you taking an SSRI too? I know you had mentioned you were taking an anti-depressant. I have been on Zoloft for 2 months and it fully stopped my sleep anxiety. I am not yet sleeping consistently well but am improving slowly every week. I plan to get off Zoloft as soon as my sleep stabilizes. If you are no longer taking meds, did you have any issue getting off?
