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How you doing this morning Mac? How is everyone else doing? Still in a rut and it was a tough night last night. It was a very fitful sleep and once again, I am very tired today. Can’t wait till the good sleeps return.
I think a lot of us are heading in that direction Mac. I can see me doing some form of SRT for life as well. I don’t think I will ever be “cured”. I am just hoping at some point, I can get back to enough sleep where I feel refreshed most nights instead of really tired and exhausted. But that is a long time coming, I know. Boy, I wish I could go back to the time this all started. I wonder if I could change things? I certainly would have approached the surgery differently. I have to tell you, I thought for sure I would sleep better last night as I had some really great news that relieved a lot of my anxiety and stress that I had been having. In just a small moment, it was all lifted from my shoulders. But when it came time to sleep, I still got the crappy 3 hours.
I do wonder how everyone else is doing on here? This thread has really gone quiet in the last week.
So I see there have been few posts in this thread the last few days. That’s actually good news, I guess, as people don’t tend to post when things are going well for them. I am glad things are going well for a lot of you. I, however, am on my fifth night of poor sleep and I feel really lousy this morning. I know some of you have had this happen to you where you get a week of good sleep and then a week of bad, so I am not really complaining that much. And I know that every night is a new night not dependent on other nights as well as the fact that we can’t control our sleep. I know all of that. But I sure wish I could get back into the groove again where I was getting 5 hours a night rather than 3 or 3 and a half. Getting up for this SR is really rough although very necessary. The problem with doing SR is that my SW is so small, if I have to get up twice, I am almost destined to get a maximum of 3 hours sleep total for the night and I feel rotten after that. The only things better about my sleep now than before I started SR is that I fall asleep faster and my sleep is more consolidated. But I am still getting a lot less sleep than before I started SR.
Hang in there Mac. I know it’s tough but you have had, and you will have, better sleeps in the coming days. I just know what you mean about going to bed even if you aren’t exhausted because you have to be up early. A lot of times, I never feel exhausted no matter how long I stay up. So, in order to get some sleep, I’ll go to bed. Last night I was really tired but once I started reading my book, the tiredness seemed to disappear. I am also having an additional problem I don’t know if you encounter. We have had a horrible start to the Summer and it is just beginning to warm up here. I can’t open a window because of the pollen outside so I use a fan. But last night, the fan made the room too cool if I turned it on and the room was too warm if I left it off. This might continue to be a problem over the Summer. Not sure what to do about it yet. Anyway, you have the tools to use to get back good sleep. It might take awhile but you’ll get it back.
And in the end, if we don’t, we can always buy those light glasses the poster on this site.bought on E-Bay.
Sounds like you did quite well since you started SR in earnest. I listed my positives the other day in order to motivate me through these rough patches.
1 – Usually fall asleep within 15 minutes of going to bed.
2 – The sleep I do get is more consolidated.
3_ I don’t take supplements any more to get me to sleep. Although, I do have Sleepy Time tea every now and then but not to put me to sleep. I learned I like the taste of it.
Thought my last post went through but I guess it didn’t. Hang in the Mac. You have the tools to get back on track soon. I know it’s rough having a bad night after having a string of good nights. And I know what you mean about not feeling that sleep drive. I hardly ever feel it and I could stay up all night and still have trouble feeling it. So, since I have to be up early as well, I go to bed anyway hoping I’ll get the sleep. You’ll be back on track soon. And keep using the tools and you may eventually get rid of the insomnia and become normal again. I know that is what’s really bothering you. Thinking you’ll have to do SR forever. Just hang in there. Better nights will come. Maybe we should invest in that pair of “light glasses” that poster told us about in the forum.
Wait a minute. I see my last post is awaiting moderation. You may not see it for awhile.
Borgesbi – I remember my first night of insomnia. Well, at least the waking up part. It was about three weeks after my surgery and I was sleeping in bed. I never had any problems up until that point. All of a sudden, after about four hours of sleep, i just woke up and felt strange. From that point on, I never slept right again. I always wondered if the surgery did something to me physically that came to a head that night. All of the doctors tell me no, it was the anxiety that caused the insomnia but I still wonder. Doesn’t really matter I guess because if the surgery did do something to me, it can’t be undone. I have to try the CBT-i method.
Another poor sleep by the way. But I did get out of of bed to do SC but didn’t matter as I couldn’t get back to sleep. This rough patch has been going on for about four or five days now. Just have to keep to the process. I know better sleeps will come.
I see a poster in the forum is trying to dupe us and sell us light glasses to cure our insomnia. It’s obviously a scam. I wish Martin could delete posts like that. It’s bad enough we have to suffer the effects of insomnia without being made to suffer people who are just trying to con us.
Hi Borgesbi. I know what you mean about the mental fatigue. I got rid of that mostly when I started getting 5.0 hours sleep but after getting a couple nights of poor sleep now, it is back. It’s tough to concentrate when that happens as well as stay awake. I also know how tough it is to start SC again after you didn’t have to do it for awhile. One positive that mostly remains is my ability to fall asleep. I do some stretching exercises after I get into bed and then start concentrating on my breathing, counting every breath. If I lose track because my mind wanders, I just start over. I usually am asleep in 10 or 15 minutes now. Sometime I wake up shortly after I got to sleep but it never lasts long as I usually fall right back to sleep quickly. I expect bad nights to happen. I just wish I was at the point where I had a couple good nights followed by a bad night or two rather than a week of good nights followed by a week of bad nights. But, good sleep will come and when it does, I find my sleep anxiety decreases dramatically. I forget now, are you the one who took that course from the professor down in Virginia? VCU I think?
I usually don’t have to do SC two nights in a row. But if I have to do it again tonight, I will get up. I never lay in bed more than one night without practicing SC. I think part of it last night was I was so tired, I was hoping I’d go to sleep. When I read my book before my SW began, it took me forever to read the chapter as I kept losing my place because I was too tired to read. That hasn’t happened to me in a long time so I thought I would sleep well. I didn’t. Yes, I am better off than I was in January and February before I started CBT-i. Just could do without the roller coaster weeks as I’m sure others could as well.
I’m sure many of you can relate to this as I’ve seen your posts, so how can I do so good one week and then fall apart the next week and have so much lousy sleep? Last week I was ready to crack the 5.0 hour sleep barrier and this week it seems all I can do is 4.0 or less. I probably should have done SC last night but I was so tired, I just lay in bed. The anxiety about sleep is beginning to build again. When I was getting 5.0 hours, the anxiety was considerably less.
How are the rest of you doing? I haven’t heard from some of you in awhile.
That’s good advice Delv. I did extend my SW by 15 minutes and I’m now wondering if that was a bad thing. I, however, don’t wake up at the same time every morning. That’s one of my problems. Another problem I have is that when I have to do SC, I find that sometimes it’s better to just get up and out of bed for the morning as there is so little time before my alarm rings, it’s not worth going back to bed. This is bad on the weekends. During the weekdays, I can get ready for work but on weekends, I am still very tired and what I’ll do is just spend time resting in a chair. Even if my SW ends I find myself just resting in a chair as I am too tired to get up and do activities. I don’t think I fall back to sleep after my SW but maybe I do. I don’t know. The important thing though, I think, is that I am out of bed at the end of my SW.
Mac – Do you have to do SC anymore or do you just lay in bed on a bad night?
Mac – I know what you mean. I am starting to think I will be on SR for the rest of my life but at least you can say that it works most of the time for you. I haven’t seen that many results from it yet although I know it is still early. I’m just disappointed I haven’t taken to it more quickly. I can’t imagine going through the rest of my life like this.
Deb – Glad things are working out for you. Hope it continues and you see more improvement.
Hi everyone. Well, I was having a great week with four nights of 5.o hours of sleep and two with 4.5 hours. I was going to increase my SW by 30 minutes but Martin advised me not to so I only increased it by 15 minutes since my SE did reach 86%. However, my sleep still took a turn for the worse and over the last three nights I got 4.5 (and not a very good 4.5), a 3.5 and 4.0 last night. I need at least 5 to feel decent.
Borgebi – We seem to be in the same boat. I am in my 6th week of SR and I cannot seem to get beyond 5,0 hours of sleep. Did Martin ever answer you? I have several questions into him myself. Almost every night I seem to be going to bed and thinking that my insomnia is kicked and then I continue to wake up early. Yesterday I was so tired but dragged myself out to the circus that was performing in a neighboring town. When I got home, I sat in a chair and again, napped for 10 minutes. I try not to nap but as soon as I sit in that chair, I fall asleep. At any rate, the 10 minutes probably destroyed my sleep drive as when I awoke, I was nowhere near as tired. I did get to bed at 11:30 and promptly fell asleep in 15 minutes but awoke after about 4 hours. I might have been in and out of Stage 1 sleep for awhile but ended up getting out of bed 15 minutes early to start the day because I couldn’t get back to sleep and started tossing and turning. If I don’t have anxiety while laying there, I sometimes stay in bed hoping to pick up some light sleep rather than do SC, but once I start tossing and turning, I get up for the day or get up to do SC.
I joined a dating service again because I want to meet someone but when I experience bad weekends like this last one, I wonder how I am going to have the energy to date. Anyway, that’s my tale of woe for the weekend. I hope to get back to 5 hour or more sleeps this week. Good luck to the rest of you.
So how is everyone doing this morning? Time for a check-in I guess. I had a relatively good night last night. I could barely keep my eyes open while watching TV last night so I switched to a book and that helped. As I said yesterday, I was going to increase my SW by 15 minutes last night but since I was so tired, I ended up increasing it by 30. So instead of a 5.5 hour SW, I planned on a 6.0 hour SW. There was good news and bad news with that. The bad news was that I awoke at 4:30 in the morning and while I tried to get back to sleep, I couldn’t after a half hour so I just got up for the day 15 minutes early. So instead of increasing my SW by 30 minutes, I effectively only increased it by 15 minutes to 5.75 hours. But I am going to stick to that 6.0 hour SW tonight. The good news is that while I didn’t increase my sleep any, I did get another 5.0 hour sleep last night. And better yet, it was all in one block as I don’t remember waking up at during the night last night. That means while I still have trouble focusing my eyes this morning, I am not exhausted either. So, my SE for the week is 85.5%. If you discount the one bad night I had, it’s 88.5%. I also got 4 nights of 5 hours of sleep, two of 4.5 hours and one bad night of 3.5 hours. This is the end of my 5th week of SR. I am hoping to maintain the gains I made but also to increase on the 5.0 hours of sleep that I have been getting. I really would like to get up to 6 hours soon but I know that’s going to take awhile. And I also know there will be setbacks along the way. But I am committed to keep working on this.
