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Re: 4:30 awakenings

Posted by Cairo on October 17, 2006 at 10:16:04:

In Reply to: Re: 4:30 awakenings posted by moonatic on October 17, 2006 at 09:45:51:

Moonatic- my advice would be to first get a grip on your sleep anxiety before you stop the medications. I think you have mentioned before that you worry a lot about how your insomnia will affect your job performance... I used to also worry about that. I ended up leaving that job because it was just too stressful, but before I did, I was able to make the mindset shift to stop worrying about functioning. It happened partly because some coworkers went to my boss and complained about my functioning (people I thought I trusted, another reason to leave) and that snapped me into awareness that if I didn't get a grip on my anxiety, I would make my worst fear come true.

I decided that for six weeks, I wouldn't change dosage of medication, wouldn't research sleep, wouldn't talk about it (except here) and would be in a good mood regardless of how much sleep I got. I also practiced CBT and addressed my anxious thoughts and worries about not functioning. I discovered that I actually functioned quite well, and that no one even noticed my tiredness if I didn't say anything. That motivated me to keep going and at the end of the six weeks, I was sleeping better and much, MUCH less worried about my job.

As I said, I left that job anyway, and found a situation with less stress. Now I have an occasional bad night, but my biggest problem is that I need an alarm clock now, something I never used much before, or I'll OVERsleep.

Anxiety reduction is the key...I know it's hard, but CBT will work if you work it.

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