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I monitor my sleep using a Fitbit sleep tracker. I am aware that these trackers are not an accurate reflection of sleep quality or duration however given my issue is primarily sleep maintenance, I find it somewhat helpful in monitoring the relative number of restless events per night. It is somewhat an indirect way of monitoring whether I seem to be improving or not. Regarding your second question, I was visiting a sleep center where I was being seen by both a sleep specialist and and clinical psychologist. The sleep specialist was willing to prescribe whatever hypnotic I wanted but that’s where his help ended. Insurance rejected my sleep study due to my age and a home study was inconclusive. This isn’t surprising given I don’t have sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome however I was hoping to learn whether I am getting REM sleep or wether my excessive restlessness was keeping me in the lighter stages of sleep thus contributing to my overall fatigue and insomnia. The sleep specialist referred me to the clinical psychologist who had me start to fill out a sleep diary, told me to get out of bed when I’m not able to sleep, talked about sleep hygiene, wind down routine, and relaxation techniques. Over the 6 sessions there was very little information about how to change the way I think about sleep or the lack of it. To me, this is clearly a mental affliction for the most part, so making physical routine changes will not solve the under lying issues. Additionally, getting out of bed in generally is not effective for me because I do fall asleep but I wake up every 30 min – 45 minutes. Reading has helped with winding down in the evening and I have pushed my bedtime to later start some light sleep conditioning rather than formal sleep restriction.
Other than the techniques I mentioned, is there anything else I should consider implementing? Additionally the psychologist did not want me reading CBT-I books because she didn’t want me over-thinking things.
