Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Well, I wish you luck. You seem to be doing okay with it now. My biggest problem now is that I fall asleep unintentionally when I sit down in a chair in the evening and I’m sure that is killing my sleep drive. Last night I fell asleep twice. Once for around twenty minutes and another time during my wind down time for a half an hour. When I woke up, my SW was starting. I’m sure that’s why I only slept 4 and a half hours last night. I probably could have logged more. However, I am slowly improving. In the last six days, I have had three 5 hour sleeps and two 4.5 hour sleeps. I have had only one 3.5 hour sleep which I consider a bad night now. (When I first started SR, a 3.5 hour sleep would have been considered good for me.) So my SE for the last 6 days has been 89% and if you take away the bad night, it’s 85%. Martin said since I am unintentionally napping, that if I feel sleepy during my wind down time, I can go to bed and see what happens. Based on my SE for the last 6 nights, I am going to increase my SW 15 minutes and go to bed and see what happens. I need to get over 5 hours of sleep as under that doesn’t help me at all. I am now getting migraines and some vertigo from the lack of sleep, and my dry eye syndrome is worsening as I am still getting less sleep than before I started SR. I know that can be normal so I’m not worried yet but I would like to try for more than five hours. Hopefully, the extra 15 minutes and not napping will give me more sleep in the beginning of my SW. I never feel sleepy but I am falling asleep before my SW so I must be sleepy. And when I do go to bed at beginning of my SW, I am falling asleep within 15 minutes. This is a much slower process than I thought it would be but I am sticking with it. Any encouragement would be greatly appreciated.
So Deb, what is the difference between what you did with SR and SC and what ACT is having you do? I did ACT as well but it never did anything for me. What is ACT making you do different in this case than when you tried t before?
Well, I can tell you Mac that my eyes do burn in the evening and I do have to keep re-reading some passages in the book I’m reading. But I don’t know if the burning is due to the dry eye syndrome or sleepiness and the re-reading of the passages is due to sleepiness or just failure to comprehend things because of the insomnia. I do know that I usually fall asleep within 15 minutes after getting into bed. I never really did that even before I had insomnia.
Thanks Mac. the trouble is, I NEVER feel that tired. So I believe you may be right. I am all over the place. Maybe once I stop these naps I will feel like that because I believe the naps are cutting into my sleep drive.
Don’t worry about being negative Mac. It’s okay to vent here. I already know it’s going to take a long time to kick this. Besides, I also know you have a lot of good nights. What I wouldn’t give for a 7.0 hour sleep! Right now though, I’m just battling the dry eye syndrome that this insomnia has left me with.
I guess it’s time for everyone to check in and tell how they are doing. I myself am doing a little better. In the last 6 nights, I have gotten three 5.0 hour nights, two 4.5 hour nights and a very bad night of 3.5 where I was a zombie the next day. The problem for me is that I am still getting less sleep than before I started SR. And the lack of sleep is starting to hurt me as I am getting more migraines and unable to focus my eyes. I have been unintentionally nodding off before my SW as well. I am so tired I sit in a chair in the evening and next thing you know, I am out for 15 or 20 minutes. Martin told me if I feel sleepy during my wind down time, I can go to bed to see what happens. But I can’t tell when I am sleepy. I guess I must be if I am nodding off. Last night I finished up watching the hockey game on TV and sat in the chair. This was during my wind down time and I unexpectedly fell asleep for a half hour. I woke up at the start of my SW. I am going to do two things starting tonight. The first is that I am going to try to see if I feel sleepy during my wind down time and then go to bed. But I am also going to increase my SW by 15 minutes starting tonight. Over the last 6 days, I have an SE of 85%. If you take the bad night of sleep out, I have an SE of 89%. While I am not sleeping through to my alarm, I hope the slightly longer SW will give me a little more sleep at the beginning of the night. So, overall, I am slowly improving, but very slowly. At least I got a couple of 5 hour nights in. I should mention that tonight is the end of my 5th week of SR. It is the end of the third week of working with Martin , so five weeks of SR in total. This is just going so slow for me. I really thought by the end of my 5th week, I would have an SW of 6.0 hours.
How is everybody else doing?
Sorry to hear it Mac. But at least you are having many more good nights than bad nights. But I know how disappointing it is to have to deal with the bad nights. Just keep going as you are and hopefully the bad nights will get even less.
I find that happens sometimes to me as well. I am very sleepy but stay up to my SW and when I do, I am no longer that sleepy and I have a poor night. Martin told me from now on, if I feel sleepy anytime during my wind-down time, which starts one hour before my SW, then just go to bed and see what happens.
It’s been awhile since I posted on this thread although I have been monitoring it. Martin suggested for the time being that I avoid reading some of the threads on the forum as some of the messages wouldn’t help a person trying to beat insomnia. I agreed with him and so just monitor this thread and skip the other threads. Since everybody is checking in though as to how they are doing, I thought I’d write today. Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights were relatively good sleep nights for me as I slept 5, 4.5 and 5 hours om those nights. Last night though I regressed and only slept 3.5 hours. At least it was in one chunk. I kept thinking I might fall back to sleep so didn’t practice SC until 4:15 in the morning when I got up and sat in a chair for about 15 minutes. When I went back to bed, I still couldn’t sleep so I was stuck with the 3.5 hours of sleep for the night. Boy, what a difference that hour to an hour and a half make. I am back to being a zombie again this morning. Yesterday morning I felt really good and could concentrate on my work. It’s a lot harder today. I am hoping I can get back on track tonight. I miss those greater than 85% SE numbers. I see that a lot of you are beating insomnia by your recent posts. Congratulations and I hope you continue to do so.
Hi everyone. Still working with Martin and he had a suggestion. It seems I was falling asleep a lot before my SW began so Martin said that if I feel sleepy during my wind down time (up to an hour before my SW) then go to bed and see what happens. While I was following my SW religiously, I think I was maybe following it too religiously. Last night was a good night for me. The first 4 and a half hours was in one block followed by two 15 minute blocks so I had my first 5 hour sleep in a long time. But as we all know, every night is a new night. Anxiety is still a problem for me also but I am learning to deal with it. My problem is that due to lack of sleep, I tire easily and when I tire, anxiety comes on. And when anxiety comes on, I can’t sit still. I have to be moving or I get more nervous. I was able to take my motorcycle out for a long ride today as well as do some other things like mow the lawn so I am super tired tonight. Whatever gets me to sleep so my body can retrain itself to sleep in my bed.
Karen – Here is a list that Martin, this site’s creator, put up awhile back to help us think of things to do while we are waiting for our SW to open. Some of them could even be used if we awake and have to get up.
* Choose clothes that you can wear the next day
* Make your lunch
* Marinate or start to prepare food for dinner the following day and store it in the refrigerator
* Gather old bills and statements and shred them
* Organize collections: photos, old letters, wine, books, or other items
* Catch up on laundry or folding clothes
* Polish your shoes
* Iron or mend clothing
* Do some stretches
* Go for a walk
* Give yourself a pedicure, manicure, or facial
* Sweep or mop the kitchen floor while no one else is there to walk on it!
* Sort out junk mail
* Play solitaire (with cards)
* Call friends who live in other time zones
* Clean out the refrigerator
* Make a grocery shopping list for the week
* Create a detailed menu for dinners
* De-clutter your coffee table, dining room table, kitchen countertops or desk
* Create a list of activities that you’d enjoy doing on weekends and vacations
* Work on photo albums or scrapbooks
* Choose one or two drawers to clean out (in your desk, kitchen, bathroom)
* Organize collections of CDs or DVDs and choose some to donate or sell if you no longer enjoy themHi Karen. I hate to give you a standard answer of everyone is different but unfortunately that’s how it is. I am in my 4th week of SR and I have a 5.5 hour SW. My first week of SW I had about 2.5 hours of sleep each night average. The second week I had about a 3.5 hour average and the third week I got it up to about 4.7. But then I had a setback and the last three nights it’s been no sleep at all, 3.5 and last night 2.5. It’s just the way it is as your mind and body need time to rebuild it’s broken system. I know it will probably take me a couple months to get where I want to be. I wish it was sooner but that’s the nature of the beast. I know how tiring this SR can be but stay with it as change will come. I just can’t tell you when.
As for you falling asleep in the hour before your SW, that happens to me a lot as well. I find it helpful to move to the hard floor at the start of my wind down time as I keep falling asleep when I sit in a comfortable chair. The naps I end up taking really do a number on my sleep drive which is why you need to try to avoid them. Light cleaning is okay to do while you are waiting for your SW to start but I wouldn’t do it in the last 30 to 45 minutes of your wind down time. As for the meditation, that isn’t a problem.
Sorry to hear you have been having a rough time Delv. It looks like a couple of us are having a rough last couple of nights. I hope last night was better for you.
I have had three bad nights in a row. Sunday night I didn’t get any sleep, Monday night I got 3.5 and last night, I got 2.5. I don’t know what happened as I was doing well. I know setbacks are to be expected but it is a little disappointing as before Sunday, I thought for sure this week I would go above the 5 hour average sleep night. Like you Delv, I am trying to focus on the fact that I recently have had some good nights and they will come again. The only thing good I can say about last night was that the 2.5 hours was in one block. I got up three times to do SC and just stayed up the last time as I knew I wasn’t going to get back to sleep.
I think part of the problem last night was that I fell asleep very unexpectedly very close to the beginning of my SW. This was for about 20 to 30 minutes. When I got up, I just got ready for bed and then went right to it as my SW was starting. No doubt that destroyed some of my Sleep Drive. I think I am going to have to change my wind down routine so that the last 45 minutes or so, I am sitting on the floor instead of a comfortable chair. I am falling asleep too many times now and I don’t know how much damage I am doing to my Sleep Drive.
How is everybody else doing?
Hi Pam. You don’t need to log out because you are not a client like Deb and I are. Besides the place that Deb told you about, you can also find testimonials under the free course info under Resources as well. Just keep scrolling down until you come across them.
