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Congratulations, Lynnbet!
I definitely did use CBT-I and such in the initial stages. My iron grip on the techniques relaxed as the course progressed, and as I realized that an iron grip about anything sleep-related is exactly what needed to be avoided in general.
I don’t remember exactly when I stopped panicking about sleep, but I didn’t necessarily start sleeping better right away once that happened. It was a very gradual process for the first couple of months. It felt painfully gradual.
And then I had the luck of a big change in life circumstance that really helped me kick it. I moved for work. That job involved a lot more physical labor. I still had a few difficult nights the first week or so that I got there, but after that, I was pretty much sleeping through the night an amount that felt good to me regularly. Of course every once in awhile there’s still a difficult night, but it’s no longer every single night that’s difficult. It’s much more manageable this way.
I’d also felt very stuck in life due to a number of other life circumstances, and I think that emotional burden was contributing to the insomnia. But who knows? And I moved back after the season of that work was done back to my old bed and I still slept fine.
Learning to accept and also not take seriously panicky thoughts about sleep was important for me. Letting myself feel uncomfortable emotions instead of fearing them.
Good luck to you!
Thank you, Chee2308! Congratulations to you, as well!
I found the sleep restriction/window to be very helpful at first, but gradually I didn’t need it anymore.
I have found that not fixating on problems in general has helped a lot of them to ease in my life. I used to think that if I wasn’t worrying (generally excessively) about a problem, I’d never solve it. But relaxing about things, while initially very difficult, was the route that worked for me.
Hi jklanc, I just wanted to reply because I am having a somewhat similar experience! I have found that the more relaxed my attitude is about sleep, the closer to my desired wake up time I have been able to get to. I used to wake up well before my wake up time, and sometimes I still do, but I’ve learned to stop panicking/overthinking when that happens, for the most part. Shifting my attitude about the wake-up time stuff has been really helpful for me, because I stopped trying; and then it sort of started happening on its own a bit. It’s not close to what I would like yet (my sleep window is currently 5 hours and I know from past experience that 7ish is where I am often feeling my best) and I have a long ways to go; but I’m okay with that now. I wish you luck in this journey!
