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, I'm wondering if medation might be the key to me finding better sleep. I try and keep a strict sleeping schedule and good sleep hygiene. Ive been following CBT off and on for quite some while but things always seem to inturupt it. I usually have no troblem falling asleep, its the staying asleep and going back to sleep that keeps me from getting a good nights rest. My body seems to always wake at 530am and i usually don't get up until 630-7, that extra hour would do me all the wonders in the world but i can never seem to get it. I do have a racing mind mostly about worry of not getting back to sleep. I think anxiety is the main drive for my insomnia. If my mind would settle then i would be okay. I've tried hypnosis with my docotor and that seemed to help a little. Just wondering if anyone is in the same kind of boat and found something that really helped, being meditation videos or anything of that sort. Ive also tried the sleep restriction but that caused me a lot of anxiety when i was only giving myself 5 hours of bed time. My bed time right now is usually 1230-630/7, I'll usually do 10 mins of meditation before I try and fall asleep. I would also like to note that i sleep perfectly on the weekends, solid sleep every Friday and Saturday night with no worries at all no matter if i wake or not. My doctor pointed out that that was a good sign of anxiety creeping in on the week day nights becasue of the thoughts of having to get up for work. anyways any help of any kind would be great! Thanks
Yes meditation might help, but that's more of general approach to toning down the stress and anxiety. It might be better for you to focus more specifically on some stress management and methods to control anxiety.
Those methods are contained in CBT sleep training, specifically cognitive restructuring. Using those cognitive methods might help you a lot. If you were to work specifically on those negative thoughts that fuel your insomnia it might help you tone down the racing mind.
As for those early morning wakeups, welcome to the club. Very common. What I do is just accept rest if not actual sleep. Try some deep breathing and muscle relaxation. And don't worry about it if you just rest and don't actually sleep for that last hour or so. You'll be fine.
And by letting go the worry, you might find yourself drifting off to dreamland a little easier.