Insomnia Support Group
Insomnia is a symptom, rather than a disease, and is characterized by inadequate quantity or quality of sleep. People with insomnia complain of difficulty falling or staying asleep, which results in significant impairment of daytime functioning. Insomnia is categorized as transient (shorter than one week), short-term (one to three weeks) or chronic (longer than three...
Hello!
Let me start by saying insomnia sucks.
When you are dead tired and you need rest from your own thoughts and problems, you just CAN'T get that break!
I usually don't have problems falling asleep for the first time. I go to bed, but i wake up after 3 -4 hours..and it is then that my mind starts racing.
I think if i just felt relaxed i would be able to doze off..
It all starts with a quick thought that I might not go to sleep again..Then I get really anxious..My heart is pounding. And I really CAN'T go back to sleep..Because of this I feel really guilty. I feel really guilty because I can't stop my mind from having that initial thought of fear...
Right now I am going through some rough times..and i'm stressed out and i just wish i could sleep it off....I just don't have any energy left for going forward ..
I guess I just needed a little encouragement..because i just can't come up with any anymore right now..
Let me start by saying insomnia sucks.
When you are dead tired and you need rest from your own thoughts and problems, you just CAN'T get that break!
I usually don't have problems falling asleep for the first time. I go to bed, but i wake up after 3 -4 hours..and it is then that my mind starts racing.
I think if i just felt relaxed i would be able to doze off..
It all starts with a quick thought that I might not go to sleep again..Then I get really anxious..My heart is pounding. And I really CAN'T go back to sleep..Because of this I feel really guilty. I feel really guilty because I can't stop my mind from having that initial thought of fear...
Right now I am going through some rough times..and i'm stressed out and i just wish i could sleep it off....I just don't have any energy left for going forward ..
I guess I just needed a little encouragement..because i just can't come up with any anymore right now..
I don't really have any advice. I just wanted to tell you I am in the same situation, except I can't sleep at all, and I am going crazy from it. I can relate to everything you wrote.
Sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes, people allow more time for sleep than they actually need. Sometimes people buy into this myth about 8 hours. In other words, they think if I don't get a rock solid 8 hours of sleep I'll be a wreck tomorrow. That's nonsense.
There's nothing written in stone that says 8 hours is right for your or anyone else. If, for instance, you only need 6 or 7 hours, but you allow 8, you may find yourself tossing and turning in frustration and possibly guilt for an hour or two. That's not necessarily insomnia. That's just allowing too much time in bed.
Stress is also a very common culprit. Chronic, unremitting stress can and will affect sleep. If you have problems sleeping, there's a good chance you could be chronically stressed.
Rest assured there are simple and effective ways to both turn down the stress levels in your life, and fine-tune your own sleep timing to best fit your own sleep situation.
The best way to do this I think is to first make a commitment to help yourself. Commiserating only gets you so far, and isn't true help.
Then get a check-up to determine if there's any underlying medical issues disrupting your sleep. Those, if any, must be addressed with a healthcare professional.
But the majority of insomniacs do not have an underlying medical problem disrupting their sleep. It's more often than not just some combination of bad sleep habits and excessive worry about the idea of sleep.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia is one effective way to treat this. You learn how to address both the negative thoughts and incorporate good sleep habits. You can learn CBT through books, online sleep training programs, counselors, and so on.
Rest assured there's help out there. That's exactly what I did, used CBT to treat my insomnia, and now I sleep much better.