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I’m still not sure what I wrote to indicate that I’m doing too much or trying too hard to make sleep happen. I am only performing the CBT-I techniques. How is this doing too much???
Am I annoyed and frustrated? Sure. But I think that’s normal.
I just did my sleep efficiency scores for the first month. I started doing sleep restriction and stimulus control on 4/8.
Week 1: 58%
Week 2: 67%
Week 3: 56%
Week 4: 50%Not good at all.
The second week I was getting 5 hours (fragmented) sleep, then I slipped back to 3-4 hour nights in the last two weeks. I struggle with maintaining that bedtime of 11 pm. At nine or 9:30, I am fighting to stay awake and almost feel anxious fighting to stay awake. I can’t go out for a walk that late, friends aren’t around to talk to, don’t want to exercise cause that will keep me up. I try watching Youtube, but that doesn’t help either.
Any suggestions?
Hi Martin,
Thanks for your reply. I guess I’m slow or something, but I’m still confused as to your question. Did I say something in the last post to indicate that I was overly worried about sleep? Thought I was documenting my experience with these CBT-I techniques. I still have my usual daytime routine, but luckily, I don’t have to leave the house as I work from home. But I still try to work out most days.
So as far as an update goes, I started doing some CBT-I techniques on April 8th or technically April 9th since I started with a 12 am to 6 am sleep window. My sleep was slightly better with the 4.5 hours of fragmented sleep than my usual 2-3.5 hours.
There as a stretch of five days, I got 5 hours of sleep per night, though fragmented. Then my sleep got terrible again, and last night only got 2 hours and 48 minutes. Maybe my mistake was not adhering to the set bedtime.
After the first few attempts, I started getting INCREDIBLY SLEEPY AROUND 10 or 11, and it was REALLY hard to keep my eyes open. So I stopped fighting it and just started going to bed between 11:15-11:30. Last night, I gave in and went to bed at 11:03 after fighting to stay awake since 9:30.
But I nearly got 3 hours of sleep.
FRUSTRATING.
Wow, I didn’t expect a response from you, Martin.
As far as results go, I know it will take a few weeks, and I try to remind myself each night. It’s only been a few nights, and the execution isn’t perfect. I decided to implement a few techniques. I’m not sure of all the terminologies but:-Shortening sleep window (though I don’t always get out of bed at exactly 6 am-I, ‘ve slept past this time once or twice as sleep is still not elusive, so I don’t set an alarm; I just let my body wake up on its own)
-I get out of bed after 10-20 minutes and read, use my adult coloring book, and word search while listening to rainstorms on Youtube. I heard that I could also watch tv. But not sure that watching Youtube or something else on my phone would be a good idea, even with blue light-blocking glasses. But I try to resist looking at my phone (unless I want to change Youtube channels –and then I just listen to the audio anyway.)
-I have minimal contact with my phone after 11 or 11:30pm. I listen to podcasts or videos between 11 or 11:30 till my bedtime while reading, coloring, and word search while using an amber light reading light.
-I still take sleep supplements and continue to take L-theanine, and phosphatidylserine, a supplement my naturopathic doctor recommended to decrease the excess cortisol my body produces between 5 pm to 5 am.
This Saturday will make a week, and I’ll leave an update.
