Insomnia

[JohnA]

I've been working on my insomnia for years. I've tried many things: cutting caffeine, meditation, prescription drugs, etc.

The process of repeated trial and error has been arduous and I've often felt hopeless. It is ultimately worth it because I am gradually getting closer to sleeping normally.

What have your experiences been like? I'd really love to know.

[Matchy69]

Hi JohnA and welcome to the forums and making your first post.Their is a lot of us on here who suffer from sleep problems.You have seemed you have tried a lot of things.It can be a thing of trial and error.It is good that you are slowly getting back to sleeping normally and I hope you can get a good night's rest.For me a certain medication will work for me but I try not to use it to much and become dependent on it.I have had a study done on me at a sleep clinic and have been diagnosed with sleep Apnea. that is another thing you could consider doing is getting a referral to a sleep clinic from your GP.
Take care,
Mark.

[Unbeliever]

The most effective thing I have personally found for insomnia is actually... Having something happening the next day that you are enthusiastic to do. Preferably something exciting that you have to wake up early in the morning to do.

Which is obviously something that people with depression or who are going through a difficult time in their life often struggle to do.

Remember when you were a kid on Christmas Eve? What do most kids do?

They go to bed early. No arguments with their parents. No complaining or resistance to going to bed. They WANT to sleep early... Why? Because they know that "present opening time" will (from their point of view) come much sooner, if they go to sleep sooner. Like "fast forwarding" to the morning, a morning that they are excited and happy to get to as soon as possible. Even kids who are notoriously difficult to put to bed... on Christmas Eve are often no trouble at all.

I have struggled with insomnia for most of my life. And due to depression... "tomorrow" is rarely somewhere I am looking forward to. I don't think that this is a coincidence. I theorise that on a subconscious level I am "postponing tomorrow" by staying awake... and why I often finally fall asleep just when the sun is starting to come up, is because by that point only BY SLEEPING can I "postpone tomorrow" just a little bit more.

However, on those very rare occasions that I do have something happening the next day that I am actually looking forward to (meeting the woman I am secretly in love with in the morning, or visiting the sanctuary that the wombat I rescued years ago now lives, or going to somewhere I loved as a kid that I rarely get to visit anymore, or going to go on a vacation that I've always wanted to do, but never got around to etc etc).

I often "accidentally" fall asleep earlier and easier than any other "normal" day without even trying.

Observing this in myself. I believe that if you could somehow set up things that you know you love, enjoy, or makes you happy to happen early in the morning the next day... Everyday. Purposely set up something that is worth you "looking forward to"... that a large percentage of us insomniacs would cease to be insomniacs.

I'm not saying all, but most.

Without drugs, or any other strategy necessary. But simply by having a "tomorrow worth experiencing" in whatever way that is true for you.

[JohnA]

Hi Matchy69 thank you for welcoming me. I'm glad you found a routine that works for you!

[JohnA]

Hi Unbeliever, thank you for sharing. I enjoy your writing. I'm sorry to hear that you got hit with the double whammy of depression and insomnia. It's great to see that you've gotten the hang of understanding your mind and getting it to work how you want it to.

You've obviously thought long and hard about this (often at 2am I'm guessing). When I was reading about CBTI, I heard this idea briefly mentioned but it was never elaborated on. It makes so much more sense now. What process did you have to go through to figure this out? Was it directly inspired by things you heard from other people, or was it purely a process of discovery on your part?

I find it so strange that many people stumble on simple ways to drastically improve their insomnia but they have to go through a journey to get there.

[Unbeliever]

I don't remember specifically, it was a long time ago.

But yes, it was most likely something that came to me lying awake at night when I couldn't sleep. Or possibly in a morning when I did unexpectedly have a good nights sleep for no reason and wondered why, and realised that I had something to do that day that I was actually looking forward to. But honestly, I don't remember the circumstances.

However, once it did occur to me I started looking for similarities in other people I met over the years afterwards who also had sleeping difficulties. And as I suspected I did see a pattern in most cases. People that were mostly unhappy or stressed about the current situation or direction of their lives... and people who really did not have much going on outside of their work life (the work obsessed).

The number of times it fit was uncanny. Sure it could be argued that people who are deeply unhappy with their life, or majorly stressed about their life, or who spend most of their mental energy dedicated to work matter rather than personal matters could just not have an "off switch" and their obsessive thought processes will not let them sleep. And in theory that is also viable.

But I still think that it might be far more simple. That if tomorrow is somewhere you don't want to go, or have any enthusiasm to get to... or even worse are dreading arriving at. Then unless you have a magical piece of technology that can somehow "stop time", postponing arriving there is not only a reasonable reaction but it makes complete sense.

You don't exactly run towards the things you don't want to do, but have no choice about. You drag your feet reluctantly.

[Rosie_morgan]

Your experience of insomnia and your solutions worked well for you. Congratulations. I will think more about your comments as anything which alleviates the curse of insomnia is worth a try., particularly methods which exclude medication. Thank you.

[Katie02]

Hi John, 

i’ve struggled with insomnia and particularly around anxiety around going to sleep for years. 

It is particularly bad at the moment, as I’ve come off prescription sedation medication to improve my overall health.  I’ve tried psychological techniques such as mindfulness which has been less effective.

I find ‘sleep story audios’ helpful to relax before going to sleep if that’s at all helpful? 

I’m also wondering if others have helpful advice around insomnia management and if others experience fear/anxiety around going to sleep? 

I’m finding it’s the worst it’s ever been, it’s impacting my physical and mental health and increasing my anxiety throughout the day. I’ve had to defer uni, it’s  impacting my performance at work and social life. 

Grateful for any advice on how to manage it? Or just someone to chat to about it. 

[Bob_22]

Hi Katie02,

Thank you for posting such a great question and sorry we haven't gotten round to replying just yet. I'm sorry to hear that you've been struggling with insomnia and are particularly doing it tough at the moment. Similar to you, I would also have some anxiety before going to sleep out of fear for nightmares and also the lack of control that comes when you're asleep (a big reason I'm anxious about surgery as well). I find day to day, that getting enough exercise, proper diet and avoiding napping will help with getting to sleep at night. I also sometimes watch ASMR videos or listen to calming music/audio books on a mindfulness (calm) app that I used to have. Sleep can definitely have a huge impact on our day to day life. In terms of managing anxiety, I like to use some relaxation techniques (especially breathing techniques for panic attacks). I found some examples of relaxation strategies on beyond blue here: https://www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support/staying-well/relaxation-exercises 

I also found a fact sheet on sleep hygiene on the headspace website which you can find here: https://headspace.org.au/assets/Factsheets/HSP225-Sleep-Fact-Sheet-DP3.pdf 

Hope that helps. Please keep us updated on any tips or questions you might have as well. 🙂💙

Bob