My journey: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia

In this thread I'd like to post my journey to beat the unexplained highly frequent awakening (3 per hour) at night by CBT-I. I heard that in this forum there is at least one user (Robysue) very experienced with CBT-I.

Not only too many awakening, my morning after sleeping 8 hours are more tired than 3-4 hours.

To be continued ...

papzombie wrote:In this thread I'd like to post my journey to beat the unexplained highly frequent awakening (3 per hour) at night by CBT-I. I heard that in this forum there is at least one user (Robysue) very experienced with CBT-I.

Not only too many awakening, my morning after sleeping 8 hours are more tired than 3-4 hours.

To be continued ...

Unfortunately, she is no longer an active member but I am sure if you do a search of her CBT threads, you will find them helpful. Definitely post about your journey with CBT if you feel doing so will be helpful.

49er

Thanks 49er.
Unfortunately there's no "Thank" button to avoid having to make a post only to say so.

papzombie wrote:Thanks 49er.
Unfortunately there's no "Thank" button to avoid having to make a post only to say so.

Don't worry about it papzombie. And you are welcome by the way.

I will be very interested to follow your post. I'm an insomniac, as well, but not as bad as you, it seems. I can fall asleep easily but can't stay asleep.

robpiercey wrote:I will be very interested to follow your post. I'm an insomniac, as well, but not as bad as you, it seems. I can fall asleep easily but can't stay asleep.

That's maintenance insomnia that you have, I am curious
- How many times do you think you wake up per hour / per night ? --> I did not know I wake up involuntarily 3 times per hour, but a WatchPat-200 ( a type of polysomnography) found it out
- How long do you stay awake after waking up ?

I'd like to follow this.

I suffer from "insomnia". I'll fall asleep within minutes, but tend to wake up after 3 hours, ready to jam (for a few hours anyway), then I lose my steam and need my 2nd sleep. I can do that on vacation and feel great! But I, like most people, have to work on my boss' schedule.

I got myself a therapist, and started on a CBT-I program. It was immensely helpful, but I have to make a conscious effort to stay on the program. If I take a nap, go to bed too early or too late; I'm screwed for days.

I, and my therapist, tend to believe that 8 consecutive hours of sleep is unnatural and a condition of modern society. Sleeping all at once simply saves valuable time needed to hold a regular job. So basically, I've got it right. It's the rest of the world with the sleeping disorder. That said, I need to live in that world, so I strive to sleep on it's schedule.

Usually twice a night. Up for 45 minutes to an hour.

Bravo, FishLips! Somethings about the industrial revolution need to be scrapped. Viva Siestas!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

49er wrote:

papzombie wrote:In this thread I'd like to post my journey to beat the unexplained highly frequent awakening (3 per hour) at night by CBT-I. I heard that in this forum there is at least one user (Robysue) very experienced with CBT-I.

Not only too many awakening, my morning after sleeping 8 hours are more tired than 3-4 hours.

To be continued ...

Unfortunately, she is no longer an active member but I am sure if you do a search of her CBT threads, you will find them helpful. Definitely post about your journey with CBT if you feel doing so will be helpful.

49er

I'm back. At least for a while.

papzombie wrote:

robpiercey wrote:I will be very interested to follow your post. I'm an insomniac, as well, but not as bad as you, it seems. I can fall asleep easily but can't stay asleep.

That's maintenance insomnia that you have, I am curious
- How many times do you think you wake up per hour / per night ? --> I did not know I wake up involuntarily 3 times per hour, but a WatchPat-200 ( a type of polysomnography) found it out
- How long do you stay awake after waking up ?

papzombie,

So the WatchPAT data says an average of 3 awakenings per hour? And you remember how many of them? None? or a lot of them?

I'm very interested in what kinds of CBT-I you'll be doing. And whether it works well for you.

robpiercey wrote:Usually twice a night. Up for 45 minutes to an hour.

What's the first thing you do when you find yourself awake in the middle of the night?

And do you watch the clock until you (finally) fall back asleep?

FishLips wrote:I'd like to follow this.

I suffer from "insomnia". I'll fall asleep within minutes, but tend to wake up after 3 hours, ready to jam (for a few hours anyway), then I lose my steam and need my 2nd sleep. I can do that on vacation and feel great! But I, like most people, have to work on my boss' schedule.

My hubby's sleep is naturally like this. You could do what he does: Go to bed earlier than you might like to. Wake up after 3 hours or so "ready to jam" and get some things done for an hour or two. And then go back to bed and wake up when you have to because of the boss's schedule.

To be clearer: Work back from the time you have to get up for the job. Factor in both how much sleep time you want to get for the night AND the time you want to spend out of bed doing things. Use the combined sleep times plus "ready to jam out of bed time" to figure out when you need to go to bed for your first chunk of sleep.

I've definitely done that at different times in my life. It's difficult now because of several late night obligations each week. And my CBT-I was always based on maintaining a consistent schedule. It's easier for me if I stay up later than I'd like on my free nights.

robysue wrote: So the WatchPAT data says an average of 3 awakenings per hour? And you remember how many of them? None? or a lot of them?

I'm very interested in what kinds of CBT-I you'll be doing. And whether it works well for you.

On CBT-I, I need to note down the begin and end time of the sleep, and also an estimation of the awakenings and real-wakeup that I can remember.

The first night on CBT-I, I remembered about 8 times (out of the estimated 21 times as if it would be measured by the WatchPAT). The nights after I remembered much less awakenings.

Was that some psychological effect on the first night, when my brain knew that it would need to memorize those awakening, so it stayed alert ? And after that night my brain was less impressed by what the CBT-I is about ?