Posted by DesperateforSleep on November 24, 2008 at 02:50:58:In Reply to: how to break this cycle over sleep posted by newmom08 on November 23, 2008 at 17:09:14:
Hi there...my insomnia started when I was pregnant, too (last year) and for the longest time I have been desperate to get back to my "old self" like you. I too deal with being paralyzed by the fear of not sleeping sometimes. The big thing that has started to work for me is to tell myself I can live without a lot of sleep. I have to do this if I wake up at 1am and can't get back to sleep. The minute I start obessing about sleep, I get more hyped up and wide awake, tossing and turning, agonzing about not getting enough sleep. This seems simple but it's actually worked for me in the past few weeks. I won't deny that I haven't had a few bad nights (3-4 hours sleep) but the more I obsess about what I did right/wrong to cause a bad night, and the more I worry about what will happen when I go to bed, the worse it gets. On the contrary, when I told myself, "Yes, I slept badly, but I'm not going to worry about it and freak out even if it happens again," I slept 7 hours. To me you almost have to face the fear head on and tell yourself you're going to live and enjoy your life even with insomnia, and then the fear is no longer ruling us. We are stronger than we think we are and can get by with less sleep than we think we can...not that that is the ultimate goal, but it's a truth we have to tell ourselves to prevent ourselves from worrying ourselves awake.
I'm sure there are many others here who would have some good advice for you. Hope this helps just a bit.
- Re: how to break this cycle over sleep newmom08 20:25 11/24/08 (1)
- Re: how to break this cycle over sleep kikibikini 21:01 12/06/08 (0)