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...
My body is a stubborn piece of crap and it'll be tired but it just flat out refuses to consistently go to bed when I want it. I was supposed to get up at 7 but turned off the alarm and reset it to 8 because you can guess what time I fell asleep. I get that you're supposed to get up the same every time no matter what but how is that possible? Pardon my language but how the fuck is it possible to get out of bed knowing you slept like complete crap and knowing you have a shit load to do the next day? It's not like most of us don't have a lot to do or that its just 1 night. I woke up the same time for 6 straight days, 3 were good sleep nights and 3 were terrible. But wow I just can't take it anymore. I can do all the CBT in the world but nothing is going to change if I continually sleep this poor.
My take is that we compensate. This is in fact what studies have consistently shown -- insomniacs perform comparably to good sleepers on cognitive tests, despite feeling like they are not. The difference is more in mood and perception, rather than actual performance.
So yes, you may have to drag yourself out of bed feeling horribly sleep deprived, but you in all likelihood will be just fine as the day goes on. And remember -- your payoff comes the following night when you will sleep better.
This is how your sleep system works. You are leveraging the law of prior wakefulness. This is how you take back control.
Make no mistake, following a structured sleep-wake schedule takes discipline. It's harder for some than others. But be confident this is way better than drugs that unnaturally force sleep, and an important component (along with other CBT methods) of your way out permanently from the vicious self-perpetuating cycle of insomnia.
My counselor is going to actually write a letter in case my primary care physician won't do it. If he won't do it he gave me a couple other names. So yes, he feels its came down to this. I'm at least going to call my PCP and tell him this stuff and see what he has to say. Hopefully I can get an appointment soon..
In the interim I'm going to do several things: 1-Buy near ear plugs(mine are broken so I just crumple tissue paper now. I don't know if this will really help but for $1 its worth it). 2-I'm going to order some eye shades(I've never used these but again, it's cheap and worth a shot). 3. Even though it's not specifically for sleep, I'm going to try using my amytripyline or however u spell it again and see if that helps. 4. I'm going to attempt to go to bed at 2 A.M and sleep until 7 A.M for a week or so. Nights like tonight where I sleep poorly, I never enter a deep sleep but if I don't attempt to go to bed until late, I've had some success in the past. I've just been trying to do the healthy thing and get the traditional 8 hours. But I'm going to try sleeping 2-7 for a week and see if its deep sleep at least and also note how tired I feel. Then I might try at a grandmas pace to go to bed earlier so I get what most consider to be healthy. 5. Of course getting that appointment with my doctor and explaining the situation.
Also, below this is specifically for you sleeptraining.
1. About the sleep;/wake thing, like I understand the importance of this and do my best to follow it but after repeatably sleeping poor and my body seemingly refusing to learn, I just can't can't take it sometimes.
2. I think my counselor has a similar thought process to your idea of CBT being a permanent solution to insomnia but at the stage of poor sleep I'm in, he doesn't feel it'll be effective.
3. My body doesn't seem to reward myself for getting up early despite poor sleep. I usually can take it a week or two but after it continually won't adjust, I just have to cave.
4. Mentally I might be close to normal but I'm not close physically. Its so obvious when I play basketball on a good nights sleep vs a bad nights sleep. I become a turnover king and can't do basic things like dribbling. I also can't lift as heavy, get more tired and etc.
5. Since I feel asleep driving last week, I'd say the problem is pretty severe and that its a very big question if I'm close to what I normally am mentally.
6. Frankly, I'm not happy for 2 main reasons. The first is obviously not feeling good from insomnia but the second part is just the frustration of laying down for over 20 minutes and still not being asleep. Although its been only a couple of sessions, I've already changed the way I think quite a bit. I went from thinking like "I hate this!" to "I dislike this because of (reason)". Todays morning post was the biggest outburt I've had for over a week. So I've changed mentally but I'd be lying to you if I said I was happy. I don't feel well and feel mentally frustrated not sleeping. Part of the whole problem is I would feel so much better if I could count on when I'm going to sleep. In other words I'd be happier if I only got 1 hour of sleep but was awake and doing whatever and that I could actually count on sleeping that hour.
If you or anyone else ever feels overwhelmed, then yes you should see a healthcare professional, and yes drug therapy may be part of your solution. There is no shame in that. It is a sign of strength that you are doing what's necessary to make this better. And if you fell asleep driving, then I agree that is critical. You do not want to be endangering yourself or others.
If I were you, in addition to drug therapy I would want to be sure I am also at the same time treating the true underlying reasons for my insomnia to the best of my ability, so that I am not creating a lifelong dependence on sleeping pills. I would ask what my treatment plan is, so I know about how long to expect to be on the drugs, and when the drug therapy will eventually end.
I would also want to know what exactly is my diagnosis? What does your counselor think the underlying causes are for your insomnia?
And at the risk of stating the obvious, be sure to also discuss this with your parents.
Good luck to you, please continue to keep us posted.
Are you using a light box or anything when you wake? Any progressive relaxation/ meditation / self hypnosis at night? Or dimming all the lights & cutting caffeine out many hours before "desired sleep time"? With this plan?
I have found that using 1 technique never works, its always some silly combination- like you are a combination lock but you have to crack the code... Had sleep issues since I was an infant! You can message me for ideas or just to vent! Pretty fed up with it myself!
Decided to let my body go to its natural schedule for awhile before trying to adjust again, I just needed to sleep again! Just to find that every day its different...trying to "fight back" threw me off of the 24 hour cycle into some mystery # of hours my body thinks a day should last!!
Grrr!