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Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that by changing how we respond to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it, we can move away from struggling with insomnia and toward living the life we want to live. In this podcast, I share insomnia success stories featuring people who ended their struggle with insomnia. New episodes are released monthly.
50 - How Maria faced the fear of insomnia by allowing it to exist and discovered that all its power came from how she responded to it (#49)
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- 50 - How Maria faced the fear of insomnia by allowing it to exist and discovered that all its power came from how she responded to it (#49)
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A couple of years ago, Maria experienced anxiety and panic attacks. When she didn't sleep for over 72 hours, she felt that something was wrong with her. She feared that the chemistry of her brain had changed and her days became dominated by sleep-related thoughts and worries.
Medication didn't seem to help. Maria felt lonely, confused, and afraid. She felt that she couldn't even leave the house because things were so difficult. She withdrew from doing things that she enjoyed. She found it hard to focus on anything other than sleep.
Feeling completely stuck, Maria committed to a new approach. She started to leave the house and went for short walks — even when her mind told her that wasn't possible. Taking baby steps, she started to do more of the things that mattered to her.
Perhaps the most helpful change Maria made was facing the fear of insomnia. Instead of trying to fight or avoid insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings associated with it, Maria started to allow it to exist. She would even start to welcome it, whenever it chose to show up — and, by doing this, Maria found that insomnia started to lose its power and influence.
She soon discovered that she didn't need medication to generate sleep. That she didn't need to do anything to make sleep happen. And, that trying to fight or avoid insomnia and the difficult thoughts and feelings that often come with it only set her up for an ongoing struggle that made everything more difficult.
Maria realized that insomnia's survival depends on how we respond to it. And, she is 100% sure that with the right approach, no matter how bad your situation might be right now, you can recover.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that by changing how we respond to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it, we can move away from struggling with insomnia and toward living the life we want to live.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Okay, Maria, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come onto the podcast.
Maria Koziol:
Absolutely, no problem. My pleasure.
Martin Reed:
I'm really excited to have you on. Let's just start right at the beginning. When did your sleep problems begin and what do you think caused those initial issues with sleep?
Maria Koziol:
If we're talking about the trigger, I think it was a very complex case. There was not a singular cause or trigger that I could point out. I think I haven't even been able to recognize it yet, like 100%, what was that? I just think it all started at the point when I actually started to have different mental health problems. That was at the beginning of 2021 when all of a sudden, I started to have panic attacks and anxiety attacks, when I had never ever experienced such things before. I was trying to figure out why at that time, why the beginning of 2021? I hadn't had any major tragic events at that time,Wed, 14 Jun 2023 - 1h 03min - 49 - How Leah freed herself from the insomnia struggle by abandoning her efforts to control sleep (#48)
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Leah's insomnia showed up around puberty and was a consistent presence throughout her teenage years. As an adult, Leah found that insomnia would often come and go in response to the stress and anxiety that comes with being a human being — until it showed up and stuck around for several weeks. What that happened, Leah found it harder to be the person she wanted to be and live the life she wanted to live. Sleeping pills no longer seemed to be the solution and she found herself really struggling.
Like most people who struggle with chronic insomnia, Leah felt stuck. And that was because so many of the things she did to try to fix her sleep and deal with all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with insomnia just weren't working. They weren't getting her where she wanted to be. The more she tried, the more difficult it all became.
So Leah decided to pursue a different approach. She moved away from trying to control sleep. She stopped chasing after sleep. She stopped putting pressure on herself to make sleep happen. She would remind herself that her body knew how to sleep and so it was pointless to put effort into sleep. Leah also worked on detaching herself from her thoughts — with ongoing practice she was able to become more of an observer of her thoughts and remain more present when they swept in and tried to push her around.
Leah also realized that canceling plans and staying home after difficult nights didn't make things any better. So, she committed to going about each day, independently of sleep — and she started to notice that even when she felt exhausted she could still do things that mattered and she could still focus on things other than sleep — even if only for a moment. Leah found that by committing to actions that kept her moving toward the life she wanted to live she was able to start freeing herself from all the mental chatter she was experiencing.
Leah's life is no longer controlled by how she sleeps or by the thoughts her mind generates. Sleep now feels more natural and all the energy that was once consumed by an ongoing struggle with insomnia is now being used to do more of the things that matter to her. Things that help Leah live the life she wants to live, independently of sleep.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that by changing how we respond to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it, we can move away from struggling with insomnia and toward living the life we want to live.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Okay, so Leah, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come onto the podcast.
Leah Werner:
I'm excited to be here. It's nice to be on the other side of it.
Martin Reed:
Yeah, you're not the first person to say that. Someone finds the podcast and then one day they're a guest themselves, and I think that's the ultimate success story. Let's get started talking about your experience and your story.Fri, 19 May 2023 - 1h 05min - 48 - How Amanda reclaimed her life from insomnia and abandoned all the rules and rituals that were making things more difficult (#47)
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Amanda slept well through high school, college, and her early professional life. Her experience with insomnia began when a number of different stressors all showed up around the same time. She had a baby. She relocated. She had to get a new job. She had to deal with a toxic parent.
Even when things settled down, Amanda found herself struggling to fall asleep. She felt as though her own mind was working against her. She started to panic and didn't know what to do.
After finding that CBD gummies, melatonin, over-the-counter sleep aids, alcohol, and the many sleep rituals and rules she implemented were not helping, Amanda realized she needed to explore a different approach. That was when she found the Insomnia Coach podcast, recognized her own experience in the stories of others, and started working with me.
Amanda realized that the more she chased after sleep, the more she craved it, the more she tried to make it happen, the more difficult it became. So, she started to move away from chasing after sleep and from trying to fight or avoid nighttime wakefulness and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that came with it.
She started to acknowledge her thoughts — even the really difficult ones — instead of trying to control them. As she did that, she found that her thoughts weren't always true and that she always had control over her actions, regardless of what her mind might have told her.
As she practiced this new approach, Amanda started to notice more of the good stuff that was present in her life and she started to do more of the things that mattered to her. And, as she moved away from the insomnia struggle and expanded the focus of her attention, she found that she started to sleep a lot better, too.
As Amanda shares in this episode, the process was not easy. There were ups and downs. Her new approach took time and ongoing practice. However, as she started to get more comfortable with experiencing nighttime wakefulness, as she gained skill in allowing her thoughts and feelings to come and go as they pleased, and as she committed to doing things that kept her moving toward the life she wanted to live each day — independently of sleep — she was able to reclaim her life from insomnia.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that by changing how we respond to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it, we can move away from struggling with insomnia and toward living the life we want to live.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Okay. So Amanda, thank you so much for taking the time out for your day to come onto the podcast.
Amanda Kramer:
I'm so happy to be here.
Martin Reed:
I'm really excited for everything that we are going to cover. Let's just start right at the beginning. Can you tell us when your sleep problems first began, and if you can remember or if it was obvious what you think caused those initial issues with sleep?Fri, 21 Apr 2023 - 1h 12min - 47 - How Eddie got through the ups and downs of insomnia by implementing a plan that stopped it from controlling his life (#46)
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Eddie struggled with sleep for over 10 years. During that time he would experience a lot of ups and downs — whenever he thought his sleep was back on track, things would get difficult again.
The more difficult sleep proved to be, the more he would struggle. And, when he struggled, he found himself doing less of the things that mattered to him.
Eddie's transformation began when he moved away from chasing after sleep and practiced habits that helped create and maintain good conditions for sleep. Perhaps most importantly, he also took the time to identify what insomnia seemed to be stopping him from doing. What it seemed to be taking from him. And then he started to do those things, to take them back, even after difficult nights.
As Eddie shares in this episode, the process wasn't easy — but having a clear plan in place and committing to that plan, even when things were difficult and even when his mind was trying to distract him and pull him away from that plan, kept him moving forward.
Eddie now reflects on his experience with insomnia as something that was actually quite empowering. In Eddie's own words, he's not happy he went through this experience but he's not sad that he went through it, either.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that by changing how we respond to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it, we can move away from struggling with insomnia and toward living the life we want to live.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Okay, Eddie, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come onto the podcast.
Eddie Vaisman:
Oh, you're welcome. Yeah, it's good to be here.
Martin Reed:
It's great to have you on. Let's get started right away and start at the beginning. If you can just tell us a little bit more about when your sleep issues first began, and if you are able to recollect what caused those initial issues with sleep?
Eddie Vaisman:
Yeah, of course. They began, God many years ago, and it was at a time, it's interesting, it was at a time when I didn't really have that much going on in my life. I had made some pretty good money and I was pretty financially secure. And I was able to, this was a weird angle on the thing, but I was able to take a lot of time off and I didn't have to really work really regularly. And that gave me the freedom to develop bad habits, and that's where it started. It was for me having the freedom to do whatever I wanted with my day and then actually misusing that freedom in a way that led to sleep problems and stuff like that.
I started napping at odd hours, having a really irregular schedule all over the place, and then started having trouble every once in a while. Then started having trouble regularly with it, and then you could say it kind of spiraled from there into becoming a factor in my life that actually started to undermine me and make things a lot more diffic...Tue, 14 Mar 2023 - 1h 05min - 46 - How Jeannette got back on track after an insomnia relapse and how ongoing practice helped her move away from ongoing struggle (#45)
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Jeannette thought of herself as a great sleeper until 13 years ago when she moved and her work schedule become less consistent. She started to stay up later and sleep in later and this led to some sleep disruption. When Jeannette tried to fix this, she ended up going down the insomnia rabbit hole and started researching how to get rid of her insomnia. The more research she did, the more she tried to fix her sleep, the more rules and rituals she engaged in, and the more she found herself struggling.
After working with me, Jeannette's sleep improved — but one night she woke up and found that she couldn't fall back to sleep and all her old fears returned. She felt that something must be wrong with her as she found herself waking and finding it impossible to fall back to sleep night after night.
This pulled Jeannette back into her old safety behaviors that she knew from experience weren't helpful because she just didn't know what else to do.
In this episode, Jeannette describes how she moved away from the insomnia struggle; how she became more comfortable with nighttime wakefulness, how she stopped chasing after sleep, how she started to allow her mind to generate whatever thoughts it chose to generate — even the difficult ones, and how she started to be kinder to herself when things were difficult.
Perhaps most importantly of all, Jeannette's story shows that ups and downs are normal and to be expected. Just as we will have difficult days from time to time, we will have difficult nights from time to time. What truly matters is how we respond.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that by changing how we respond to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it, we can move away from struggling with insomnia and toward living the life we want to live.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Okay. Jeanette, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come onto the podcast.
Jeannette Stojcevski:
You're welcome. Glad to be here.
Martin Reed:
I'm really looking forward to our conversation, so let's just get started. I'd like to start right at the beginning. So can you tell us a little bit more about when your sleep problems first began and what you think may have caused those initial issues with sleep?
Jeannette Stojcevski:
Yeah, so my sleep problems, I never had problems sleeping in my teens, my 20s. I was a great sleeper, a really great sleeper. I brag about it. I needed to get my eight, nine hours. So I was always a little obsessive about it, but I was a great sleeper. And then right about 13 years ago, I was living in LA and I'm a personal trainer, so my job was pretty consistent as far as the schedule. But around 30, I moved to Hollywood. I wanted a change, I moved to a little city outside of Hollywood that I liked. And I commuted to work three days a week. And on the other two days, Tuesdays and Thursdays, I worked from home,Thu, 16 Feb 2023 - 1h 04min - 45 - How Eric changed the way he responded to insomnia, stopped battling with his mind, and improved his sleep for the long term (#44)
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Like many people with chronic insomnia, Eric found that the more he tried to make sleep happen, the more difficult it became. Although he didn't have any real issues falling asleep, he would regularly wake during the night and find it hard to fall back to sleep. His mind would start racing and he would experience a lot of anxiety.
Eric found himself getting obsessed with sleep. He was thinking about it all the time and no matter how hard he tried to relax and no matter what he tried, things just didn't improve.
When we started working together, one of the first changes Eric made was to reduce the amount of time he allotted for sleep to more closely match the amount of sleep he was getting at the time. This allowed him to rediscover the sensation of sleepiness rather than fatigue and that proved to be both reassuring and motivating.
Eric also started to respond to nighttime wakefulness in a more workable way. Instead of tossing and turning all night, trying to make sleep happen and trying to relax, he decided to draw instead. This helped make wakefulness a bit more pleasant and helped train his brain that wakefulness wasn't a threat that it needed to be alert at night to protect him from.
Finally, Eric committed to doing things that mattered to him — to live the kind of life he wanted to live — independently of sleep.
Eric experienced rapid improvements in his sleep as he changed his response to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it. He no longer takes sleeping pills and today, more than one-and-a-half years after we worked together, Eric is no longer engaged in a daily (and nightly) battle with his mind and he continues to sleep well.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that by changing how we respond to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it, we can move away from struggling with insomnia and toward living the life we want to live.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
So, Eric, thank you so much for taking the time out for your day to come onto the podcast.
Eric Myers:
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Martin Reed:
It's great to have you on. I'm really looking forward to everything that we are going to end up talking about today. So let's just start right at the beginning. Can you tell us a little bit more about when your sleep problems first began and what you think may have initially triggered that sleep disruption?
Eric Myers:
It was the spring of 2020, so this is when the beginning of the COVID hysteria and stuff. And I think I had some health anxiety. I tried not to get caught up in all that stuff, but I think, I don't know, I have a tendency to be a little bit of a hypochondriac anyway, so I probably didn't help. I remember it was starting to interfere with my sleep. I wasn't sure what was going on. I remember talking to my doctor about it,Fri, 13 Jan 2023 - 51min - 44 - How Vicky changed her approach to insomnia when sleeping pills stopped working after 20 years (#43)
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Vicky dealt with her insomnia by taking sleeping pills and this seemed to work well until one night, after 20 years of regular use, the medication didn't help her sleep.
This led Vicky to think that something was wrong with her. She felt alone. She felt that without getting the amount of sleep she wanted to get, she would be unable to take care of her children and she wouldn't be able to be the person she wanted to be or live the life she wanted to live.
She started to experience a lot of anxiety and would wake up in the middle of the night and have panic attacks.
This all led Vicky to explore a new approach to insomnia that involved letting go of the struggle. She began to recognize that difficult thoughts and feelings, although very unpleasant, didn't need to prevent her from doing things that mattered — so she didn't need to engage in a battle with them.
Vicky started to allow her mind to think what it wanted to think and to generate the full range of human feelings and emotions. She started to acknowledge and make space for thoughts and feelings — even though she often wished they weren't showing up — instead of going to war with them.
She committed to doing things that were important and meaningful even after difficult nights and even in the presence of uncomfortable thoughts and feelings.
Today, Vicky still experiences some difficult nights from time to time but she is no longer engaged in an exhausting and distracting battle with her mind throughout the day and throughout the night.
She is living the kind of life she wants to live even when difficult nights happen and even when uncomfortable thoughts and feelings show up. In fact, Vicky now thinks of her insomnia as a gift — as something that has helped her become more resilient and better able to react in a more workable way to the difficulties we all experience as human beings.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that by changing how we respond to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it, we can move away from struggling with insomnia and toward living the life we want to live.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Okay. So Vicky, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come onto the podcast.
Vicky Chiu:
Yeah, absolutely. I'm really grateful to be here. Thank you.
Martin Reed:
I'm really looking forward to everything that we are hoping to cover today, so let's just dive right in. Let’s start, if you could just tell us when your sleep problems first began and what you think caused those initial issues with sleep.
Vicky Chiu:
I'll start right from the very beginning where it all started in my teens and I think it's about when I was 17. I got my very first early morning job, and of course, that got my nerves going before when I go to bed, and actually I didn't sleep well. But then going on forward with that job,Thu, 06 Oct 2022 - 59min - 43 - How Jim stopped chasing after sleep and put over 10 years of insomnia behind him (#42)
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Jim struggled with insomnia for over 10 years. At first, he thought it was a symptom of heavy drinking, a poor diet, working late, and experiencing a lot of stress. However, the insomnia stuck around even after Jim addressed these issues. This led to many years of ongoing sleep disruption, fear, frustration, and anxiety.
In this episode, Jim shares the changes he made that helped him put his insomnia behind him. Instead of chasing after sleep, he began to spend less time in bed and always got out of bed at the same time every day. He started to get out of bed at night instead of staring at the ceiling for hours.
Instead of spending time before bed doing things in an attempt to make sleep happen, he simply set aside some time to unwind and do things that were relaxing and enjoyable.
Ultimately, Jim stopped trying to fight or avoid nighttime wakefulness. He stopped trying to fight or avoid the difficult thoughts and feelings that often come with nighttime wakefulness.
Today, Jim knows that he can still enjoy really good nights of sleep — even after the most stressful days — because he is no longer engaged in a competition with sleep.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that by changing how we respond to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it, we can move away from struggling with insomnia and toward living the life we want to live.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Hi, Jim. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come onto the podcast.
Jim Evans:
Hey Martin, thanks for having me. Really appreciate the opportunity.
Martin Reed:
Well, let's start right at the beginning. If you can just tell us a little bit more about when your sleep problems first began, and what you think caused those initial issues with sleep.
Jim Evans:
Yeah, so I've had sleep problems for probably the last decade. It really was alcohol. I was a heavy drinker. In fact, you could say I was a high functioning alcoholic. Caffeine. When I wasn't drinking alcohol, I was drinking caffeinated beverages. I drank coffee for a number of years. And then when I quit coffee, I went over to some black tea and green tea, and even when I was drinking tea, I was really drinking too much of it.
The other contributing factor was diet. I was eating standard American diet, was snacking all the time, and was even eating before I would go to bed. I would have a late night snack before I would go to bed, and I didn't really even realize what impact that was having on my sleep.
I was working a lot of late hours, had a lot of stress in my life. Still do occasionally have stress in my life, but it's not as bad now. And then, a lot of bad sleep habits that I acquired over the years. I found myself trying to jump into bed early and stay into bed late, trying to grab naps.
The sleep wasn't really bad right away.Thu, 08 Sep 2022 - 54min - 42 - How Nick stopped his mind (and sleep) from controlling his life by letting go of the struggle with his mind (and sleep) (#41)
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Nick's insomnia journey began in 2000 when he relocated and started a new job. Stress, uncertainty, and anxiety took over his life as he found that the more he tried to fight or avoid his thoughts the more powerful they became.
Nick felt helpless. He didn't know how to deal with the difficult thoughts and feelings he was experiencing and he didn't know how to improve his sleep. The more he tried, the more he struggled.
In this episode, Nick shares how he adopted a new approach to dealing with difficult thoughts and feelings. Instead of trying to control them, he began to acknowledge them and make space for them. Instead of fighting with them and getting distracted by them, he validated them and then redirected his attention on actions that would help him move toward the life he wanted to live.
Nick practiced kindly bringing his mind back to the present whenever it started to time travel. He began to notice and savor all the things he was missing out on when he found himself running on autopilot. He started to focus on living a life aligned with his values — doing things that were important to him — even after difficult nights and even in the presence of uncomfortable thoughts and feelings.
Today, Nick has a different and more workable relationship with sleep and the full range of thoughts and feelings he experiences as a human being. He is no longer haunted by sleep. He sees sleep as part of his life but not his entire life.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that by changing how we respond to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it, we can move away from struggling with insomnia and toward living the life we want to live.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Hi, Nick. Thank you so much for coming onto the podcast today.
Nick Hobbs:
Hi, Martin. It's really lovely to be here. Thank you for inviting me.
Martin Reed:
Absolutely. I can't wait to get onto our discussion, so let's just get started right away. When did your sleep problems first begin, and what do you think caused those initial issues with sleep?
Nick Hobbs:
It's lovely when you got hindsight, isn't it? I can look back and around about the year 2000, I moved states, and started to live in a new city, and a new situation. And at the time, I would've told you that I was anxious about starting a new job. And, but looking back, I can see that it wasn't partly situational crisis of just uncertainty, unknowing. But actually when I look back, that was a big life change as well. That was a big shift in direction. And I guess how I would answer that question now would be that well, partly it's to do with in daily stress reaching a certain level, where on which I wasn't really dealing with. But the other side of that was a sense of not being sure whether I was heading in the right direction with the decision that I'd made about moving to another place.
Fri, 29 Jul 2022 - 1h 09min - 41 - How Adam released himself from the prison cell he had built to protect him from insomnia (#40)
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Adam's insomnia began the night before an important work presentation. After a really difficult night, Adam ended up calling in sick — and this planted a seed in his mind that told him that difficult nights would mean he couldn't go through with important plans.
Safety behaviors such as canceling plans or avoiding activities in order to protect his sleep helped Adam feel a bit better in the short-term but over the long-term they were preventing him from living the kind of life he wanted to live.
In other words, his comfort zone became more like a prison.
In this episode, Adam shares how he learned to let go of his anxiety, his anger, his fear, and his intense desire to avoid nighttime wakefulness. He also talks about the benefits of self-kindness and how he managed to separate how he slept at night from his ability to engage in things that would help him live the kind of life he wanted to live and be the kind of person he wanted to be.
Today, Adam has released himself from that prison cell. He is living his life and sleeping a lot better!
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that by changing how we respond to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it, we can move away from struggling with insomnia and toward living the life we want to live.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Hi, Adam, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come onto the podcast.
Adam Currie:
Thank you for having me.
Martin Reed:
It's great to have you on. Let's start right at the beginning like I do with every single guest. Can you tell us a little bit about when your sleep problems first began and what you think triggered that initial sleep disruption?
Adam Currie:
Sure. Yeah, so I probably first experienced real problems with my sleep I would say about probably two, two and a half years ago. I think the trigger was I had an event where I had to present to some quite important people at work and the night before I found myself thinking about what I needed to do the next day. And I thought I've got an early start tomorrow and I need to be up at 5:00 AM and I've got the train to catch and I've got a taxi and I've got all these big things to do. And what if it goes wrong tomorrow? And I just had this kind of snowball of really quite intense negative thoughts about what would happen the day after. And I had a very difficult night. I actually had no sleep at all to the point where I actually unfortunately called in sick the next day.
Adam Currie:
And I felt that I couldn't go through what I needed to go through. And that unfortunately, was then imprinted in my mind. So every time I had something like that that cropped up again in the future, I then felt the same anxiety and I was worried about whether I would sleep or not. And it was almost like the trauma of having a completely sleepless night.Thu, 30 Jun 2022 - 1h 04min - 40 - How Juergen improved his sleep by becoming more willing to experience wakefulness and difficult thoughts, feelings, and emotions (#39)
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As Juergen got older, his sleep began to change. Although this is normal, Juergen didn't know that at the time! And, just as he began to pay more attention to sleep, COVID hit, work stress increased, and all the places he used to enjoy going to got shut down.
Juergen felt as though insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it were starting to control his life. He felt as though he was losing himself and getting pulled away from the kind of life he wanted to live. This was when we started working together.
Ultimately, Juergen became more willing to experience nighttime wakefulness. He became more accepting of the difficult thoughts and feelings that would show up. Juergen discovered that as long as he didn't try to battle with all the stuff that was out of his control he could free up all that energy to do things that would help him live the kind of life he wanted to live instead. The skills Juergen learned and repeatedly practiced also helped when tinnitus returned after a long absence.
Today, Juergen can notice when he's getting distracted by his thoughts and feelings and is better able to disengage autopilot, bring himself back to the present moment, and refocus attention onto the actions he can control — actions that help him be the kind of person he wants to be and help him live the kind of life he wants to live, even in the presence of difficult thoughts and feelings and even after difficult nights.
As a result, all the difficult stuff that is out of his control now has far less of an influence over his life — and he is also sleeping a lot better!
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that by changing how we respond to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it, we can move away from struggling with insomnia and toward living the life we want to live.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Hello, Juergen. Thank you so much for taking some time out of your day to come onto the podcast.
Juergen Kuhmann:
Yeah, sure. Thank you for having me and for inviting me. Can't believe I'm on your podcast after having viewed so many of them when I was in the middle of it. Thank you very much.
Martin Reed:
Oh, absolutely. You're not the first person to say that. Feels like a journey where you just go full circle, right? You listen and then eventually you know you've made it when you come onto the podcast yourself.
Juergen Kuhmann:
Maybe that's the circle. Not of life!
Martin Reed:
Yeah, exactly. Well, let's start right at the beginning. When did your sleep problems first begin? And what do you think caused those initial sleep issues?
Juergen Kuhmann:
I think it was a combination of things. I think, first of all I didn't even realize how sleep would change when I get older. So at that time I was close to 50, and in the onset to it, I was starting to think about my sleep more becau...Fri, 27 May 2022 - 1h 01min - 39 - How Kristina dealt with anxiety, worry, and stress as her insomnia shifted from difficulty staying asleep to difficulty falling asleep (#38)
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Kristina had a very stressful job. One night, her husband woke her suddenly after experiencing a really bad nightmare. This event seemed to trigger the release of a lot of anxiety that had been building for some time and Kristina was unable to fall back to sleep. Unfortunately, sleep proved to be difficult on subsequent nights, too — and this created even more worry and anxiety.
At first, Kristina found that she could fall asleep but would wake in the middle of the night with a racing mind and find it hard to fall back to sleep. This then shifted into difficulty falling asleep — and this change created even more anxiety and sleep disruption.
Kristina's mind constantly worried about sleep. Even if she was doing something she really enjoyed, her mind would interrupt her with thoughts like, "What if I don't sleep tonight?". She wondered if this would be her entire life from now on. She worried that if her sleep didn't improve, she wouldn't be able to live the kind of life she wanted to live.
After trying lots of things that didn't seem to help, Kristina started to do things that are known to starve insomnia of the oxygen it needs to survive. Instead of chasing sleep by going to bed earlier and staying in bed later, she started going to bed later at night — when she felt truly sleepy enough for sleep, rather than fatigued. She got out of bed by the same time each morning — no matter what. Whenever being awake at night didn't feel good, she did something more enjoyable instead.
Perhaps most importantly, though, Kristina decided to work on shifting her focus back to the present moment and what was in her control. She engaged in things each day that helped her continue to move toward the kind of life she wanted to live, independently of sleep and even in the presence of difficult thoughts and feelings.
Sleep is no longer a problem for Kristina. There is no more mystery and there is no more struggle with wakefulness and difficult thoughts and feelings. Kristina's experience proves that although we can get stuck, we are never broken.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that by changing how we respond to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it, we can move away from struggling with insomnia and toward living the life we want to live.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Hi, Kristina. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come onto the podcast.
Kristina B:
Hi, Martin. No problem. So glad to be here.
Martin Reed:
It's great to have you on. Let's just get started right at the beginning. Can you tell us when your issues with sleep first began, and what you feel might have triggered those issues with sleep?
Kristina B:
Absolutely. So, at the time it was specifically around Christmas of 2019. I had a couple different reasons that filtered all into one overlying issue,Thu, 28 Apr 2022 - 1h 06min - 38 - How Deeandra reclaimed her life from insomnia and got her sleep back on track without medication (#37)
Deeandra always slept well but a stressful period in her life led to 48 hours of no sleep whatsoever and this generated a lot of anxiety. Deeandra started to panic and thought that she had lost the ability to sleep. Doctors gave her different medications that didn't always seem to be helpful and came with their own set of side effects. For three years, Deeandra put her life on hold while she engaged in a long list of rituals and experiments in an attempt to improve her sleep.
Gradually, Deeandra moved away from trying to control sleep and avoid nighttime wakefulness. She started to go to bed only when sleepy enough for sleep. She decided to live her life regardless of how she slept at night. She started to do things she'd withdrawn from — she no longer canceled plans, she started to exercise again. Little by little she reclaimed her life from insomnia — and her sleep began to improve.
Today, Deeandra averages around six to seven hours of sleep. She still has difficult nights from time to time but they no longer have such an effect on her life. In Deeandra's own words, "life is about the time we spend awake, not the time that we sleep".
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that by changing how we respond to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it, we can move away from struggling with insomnia and toward living the life we want to live.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Okay, Deeandra. Thank you so much for coming onto the podcast today.
Deeandra:
Thank you, Martin. Thank you for having me.
Martin Reed:
It's great to have you on let's just start right at the beginning as always. If you could just let us know when your sleep problems first began and what you think caused your initial issues with sleep.
Deeandra:
Well, it started in 2018. I was going through a stressful time in my life, lots of stress, lots of problems at work, and switching houses, and stuff like that. I was going through a tremendous amount of stress, but I actually used to be a really great sleeper even through stress and anxiety. I mean, strangely, I never really struggled that much with sleep before. But in 2018, I don't know, maybe it was lots of stuff going on, and I basically just started struggling with sleep. All of a sudden I couldn't sleep. Before I would have a sleepless night every now and then, and I wouldn't really think much of it. It would happen and the next night I would be okay. I would go to sleep and I would recover from that.
Deeandra:
The first night, after this lots of stress, I struggled for sleep that one sleepless night. I said, "Okay, a sleepless night. It happens every once in a while. It's nothing in particular. And the next night I will sleep." And the next night happened and still, I didn't sleep. And then I thought, "Oh my God, this has never happened before. Why I'm still not sleeping. I mean, this is the second night I'm not sleeping. This is new. I mean, this is not something I have experienced before.Tue, 29 Mar 2022 - 1h 06min - 37 - How Wayne improved his sleep by thinking of sleep as a friend that doesn’t need to be controlled (#36)
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Wayne's experience with insomnia began when he was preparing for his board exams. Because he needed to get up earlier than usual, he started going to bed earlier than usual. Unfortunately, this made it harder for Wayne to fall asleep — and, as a result, nights started to become stressful and he began to experience a lot of sleep-related anxiety.
In an effort to address this sleep disruption, Wayne started implementing a number of sleep hygiene rituals. He experimented with sleep supplements and started to record, analyze, and evaluate every aspect of his sleep. Unfortunately, these actions — although completely understandable — served only to perpetuate his insomnia.
Ultimately, Wayne got his sleep back on track by recognizing that sleep is a natural process that doesn't require or respond well to effort. He started to go to bed later at night. He started to make some space for difficult thoughts, feelings, and emotions rather than trying to fight them, and he reminded himself that sleep always happens in the end.
This process took time but today, Wayne thinks of sleep as a friend — not as an enemy or something to be feared. He no longer puts pressure on himself to sleep and he no longer puts any effort into sleep. As a result, he sleeps well and is living the kind of life he wants to live.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that by changing how we respond to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it, we can move away from struggling with insomnia and toward living the life we want to live.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Hi, Wayne. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come onto the podcast.
Wayne Tan:
Thank you for having me.
Martin Reed:
I'm really excited to go through everything we've got planned to discuss, but we're never going to get anywhere unless we start at the beginning, so let's start there. If you could just give us an idea of when your sleep problems first began and what you think maybe caused those initial issues with sleep.
Wayne Tan:
Okay. Yeah. My sleep problems started back in March of 2020, right around the beginning of COVID. It all happened around the time when I was preparing for my board exams for optometry school. I remember at the time I had given myself a very strict bedtime that I wanted to meet in order to basically prepare myself, not only mentally and also academically for boards, but I wanted to have a good sleep schedule. Typically, I was a person who went to bed at 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, a little bit later. You could consider me a night owl, but for this exam that I was preparing for, I had to get up basically around 6:30 or 7:00. To me, that was very daunting. I told myself I need to get the bed by 11:00 at the latest. I put this pressure on myself to really get to bed around that time. That was around March when the test was going to be. That's when it all started.
Fri, 25 Feb 2022 - 1h 01min - 36 - How Felicity transformed her relationship with sleep by practicing new sleep habits, being kinder to herself, and living life independently of sleep (#35)
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Felicity had struggled with sleep, on and off, for her entire life. Usually, her sleep would get back on track after a few months of sleep disruption — however, when sleep issues returned due to some big life changes, Felicity's sleep didn't recover.
In an attempt to make sleep happen, Felicity started to spend a lot of time researching sleep. She gave up coffee, she experimented with medication and supplements. She even booked herself into hotels because sleep seemed so impossible in her own bed.
Fortunately, Felicity was able to get her sleep back on track and change her mindset about sleep by implementing behaviors that created better conditions for sleep. She practiced self-care and did things that helped her continue to move toward the kind of life she wanted to live, independently of sleep.
Felicity did get frustrated with her progress — she felt improvements were not occurring quickly enough. However, because she committed to techniques that help set the stage for sleep and because she was ready, willing, and able to explore her relationship with sleep, Felicity's sleep did improve.
Perhaps most importantly of all, though, Felicity's entire mindset around sleep changed — she stopped identifying as an insomniac, she started to be kinder to herself whenever difficult nights occurred, and she learned that sleep doesn't require any effort and doesn't respond well to effort.
Sleep is no longer something that gets in the way of Felicity's life — she lives her life independently of sleep and, as a result, she is sleeping well and living well.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that by changing how we respond to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it, we can move away from struggling with insomnia and toward living the life we want to live.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Hi, Felicity. Thank you so much for coming onto the podcast today.
Felicity Jackson:
Thanks for having me.
Martin Reed:
It's great to have you on. Let's start right at the beginning, as always. Can you just tell us when your problems with sleep first began and if you've got any kind of idea what triggered that sleep disruption?
Felicity Jackson:
Yep. So, I've had issues on and off with sleep my whole life. So, I found, on your podcast, there's two types of people. There's the people who've had a short term event that's created their insomnia, and then there's the other people, like me, who've struggled with it on and off your entire life. So, I identified with that.
Felicity Jackson:
I remember as a young kid we had a family holiday house. All the kids slept in the same room, just stare at the ceiling and irritated by little noises. And then, I've had, during university exams or moving house or sleeping in hotels, I've always struggled a bit with having short term insomnia, but it always recovered itself.Mon, 31 Jan 2022 - 1h 10min - 35 - How Amy went from an intense fear of insomnia and feeling her situation was hopeless to averaging over seven hours of sleep each night (#34)
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Night after night of wakefulness led Amy to a dark place where she saw no way out. She felt helpless and doomed to a life of insomnia.
Ironically, Amy became friends with someone else who was struggling with insomnia. This friend ended up enrolling as a client of mine and started to experience improvements in their sleep. Amy learned more about the behavioral changes he was making, and — even though she assumed these wouldn't work for her — she figured she was already suffering so much, nothing she could do could make her situation worse.
So, Amy started to spend less time in bed, she abandoned her sleep rituals, and she shifted away from trying to control sleep and all the thoughts and worries her mind would generate. After weeks of ups and downs, Amy started to get more sleep, more consistently. Now, she averages around seven or more hours of sleep each night and considers her transformation nothing short of a miracle.
Amy's story shows that no matter how desperate things feel, no matter how severe your insomnia may be, there is always hope. If you are willing and able to make some changes to your current sleep habits and your current relationship with the difficult thoughts and emotions that like to accompany insomnia, you can get to a place where you will realize that you CAN sleep!
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that by changing how we respond to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it, we can move away from struggling with insomnia and toward living the life we want to live.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Hi, Amy. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come onto the podcast.
Amy M:
You're welcome.
Martin Reed:
It's great to have you on, and I'm really looking forward to our conversation. So without any further ado, maybe we could just start right at the beginning and talk about when your sleep issues first began. When did they first begin, and what do you think caused those initial issues with sleep?
Amy M:
So they began first in September of 2020, and I think the first thing that really happened is that we had raccoons in the attic, and that was causing some interrupted sleep. But it began, in earnest, when I was talking to a friend of mine and he mentioned that he was having sleep issues. And because I had had insomnia once before in 2013, I was very superstitious about talking about sleep. And when he told me what was happening, I suddenly got scared like, "Oh my God." And I just suddenly knew I wasn't going to sleep that night, just because of him telling me that his... It triggered something, and that's when it really started.
Martin Reed:
I hear you mentioned the word superstition around insomnia. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Amy M:
Yeah, well since I had the insomnia in 2013, and I had resolved it finally,Wed, 01 Dec 2021 - 59min - 34 - How Jennifer moved past 18 years of insomnia by exploring her sleep-related beliefs and recognizing her own insomnia in the stories of others (#33)
Jennifer's issues with sleep began 18 years ago when she started to wean her firstborn from breastfeeding. When Jennifer fell pregnant again, things got better — until it was time to wean her second child. As the mother of five children, Jennifer went through this cycle for a long time — and when she decided that she was done having children, she started to get really nervous about sleep.
Jennifer tried lots of different things in an attempt to get rid of her insomnia — she tried different foods, she experimented with supplements, she tried medication, she tried alcohol. Fortunately, Jennifer recognized that her body wasn't missing any vital vitamin, mineral, or chemical — and that a hormone imbalance wasn't to blame for her ongoing issues with sleep.
After listening to a few episodes of the Insomnia Coach podcast, Jennifer felt that it was her belief system that was the real reason why she was enduring an endless struggle with sleep. At this point, she felt ready to implement some changes that would lead to new habits and a new relationship with her thoughts and beliefs that would help create better conditions for sleep.
When Jennifer started to feel a strong sense of sleepiness again (rather than ongoing fatigue and brain fog) and learned from experience that sleeping pills weren't doing anything for her, she felt confident she was on the right track.
Ultimately, Jennifer regained confidence in her natural ability to sleep after learning that she wasn't alone and that other people were experiencing insomnia in a similar way to her, and by making changes to her behaviors and the relationship she had with her thoughts. It was these changes that helped create better conditions for sleep and helped Jennifer put chronic insomnia behind her.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Hi, Jennifer. Thank you so much for taking some time out of your day to come onto the podcast.
Jennifer B.:
Yeah, you're welcome. Happy to be here.
Martin Reed:
It's great to have you on. I'm really excited for our conversation, which I'm just going to start right at the beginning, like I always do. If you could just tell us when your problems with sleep began, and what you think might have caused those initial issues with sleep?
Jennifer B.:
So I had problems when I was weaning my firstborn from breastfeeding. He is 18 now, and so I struggled with it for quite a while. I had gone to the doctor, and they had suggested some Benadryl. I tied it to the weaning, and it really didn't get better until I got pregnant six months later with my second child. I have five children, so I cycled through this for 11 or 12 years. When we were finished having children, I really struggled with it, and was convinced that I had some sort of hormone imbalance or hormone problem that was leading to it...Fri, 29 Oct 2021 - 50min - 33 - How Jovana put insomnia behind her by recognizing that her insomnia wasn’t unique and that sleep is a natural process that cannot be controlled (#32)
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In 2019, Jovana experienced a night of no sleep whatsoever but she was confident that she would get some sleep the following night. However, the next night was just the same — Jovana didn't get one minute of sleep.
At this point, she started to panic, and her anxiety was further compounded by the fact she was a new mom. Jovana started to dread going to bed. She felt frustrated. She felt lonely. Fortunately, she found the Insomnia Coach YouTube channel and the Insomnia Coach podcast and started to realize that she was not alone and that her insomnia was not unusual or unique.
Ultimately, Jovana stopped the endless sleep-related research and ongoing detective work. She stopped experimenting with medication and supplements. She started to remove herself from the process of sleep and began to accept that sleep cannot be controlled. At the same time, she committed to actions that helped her move toward the kind of life she wanted to live, even after difficult nights and even in the presence of difficult thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
As a result, Jovana regained confidence in her natural ability to sleep and is once again living the kind of life she wants to live.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Hello Jovana, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come on to the podcast.
Jovana Mühle:
My pleasure. Thank you, Martin.
Martin Reed:
So I'm going to start right at the beginning, just like I do with all my podcast guests. So can you just tell us when your sleep problems first began? And what do you think caused your initial issues with sleep?
Jovana Mühle:
So it first began, I think I know exactly the date, which is, it's so weird, right? You remember some things very precisely, I think it was the 13th of December. And I think it was a weekend you can recall, and check if you'd want to check. I think it was 2019 13th of December. And it happened for me two nights in a row that I couldn't sleep, so I really remember it's the first time it began because before that, I would have bad nights of sleep but I wouldn't panic.
Jovana Mühle:
And I wouldn't react the way I did when it happened then in December, so basically, I had the feeling I couldn't sleep. So I was laying down in my bed, I even tried to go to the couch, tried to sleep there, I just think nothing was happening. I didn't sleep a minute, which never happened to me before. Because even if I had a bad night, and I couldn't fall asleep, at some point and say, four or 5:00 AM, I would fall asleep, eventually. This didn't happen then, and I didn't know why,Wed, 29 Sep 2021 - 1h 08min - 32 - How Cindy tackled the insomnia that appeared after her baby was born by accepting nighttime wakefulness and eliminating safety behaviors (#31)
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Cindy developed postpartum depression shortly after her daughter was born and was prescribed medication to help her sleep. The medication seemed to work at first but Cindy soon found that it wasn't helping and this led to more anxiety and more sleep difficulties.
Cindy thought that her brain was broken and started to implement lots of different safety behaviors in a bid to get her sleep back on track. After trying to eliminate all the possible causes of her insomnia, Cindy was continuing to find sleep difficult.
Fortunately, Cindy realized that it was all the effort she was putting into sleep and all the behaviors she was implementing in a bid to protect her sleep and create perfect conditions for sleep that were keeping her insomnia alive.
Cindy started to accept the possibility of nighttime wakefulness and the reality of nighttime wakefulness when it occurred. She took steps to make nighttime wakefulness more pleasant and took comfort in the fact that nights of less sleep build sleep drive and increase the likelihood of sleep on subsequent nights.
Ultimately, Cindy stopped putting pressure on herself to sleep. She stopped striving for sleep, she stopped putting effort into sleep, she stopped trying to fight or avoid sleep-related anxiety, and she started to recognize that all the anxious thoughts produced by her brain were just that — thoughts. Nothing more and nothing less.
Today, Cindy doesn't take any sleep medication and she is sleeping well. Perhaps one of the biggest insights she shared is that she no longer uses sleep itself as a measure of her success. In Cindy's words, it's our relationship with sleep that is the true measure of success.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Hi, Cindy. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come onto the podcast.
Cindy Xia:
You're welcome. Thanks for having me here.
Martin Reed:
It is great to have you on. I'm really excited for everything that we're going to be talking about. Let's start at the beginning. Can you just tell us a little bit about when your sleep problems first began, and what you feel caused those initial issues with sleep?
Cindy Xia:
So it started when I had Feena in October last year. And I had a great pregnancy, a great birth. I felt really good. Feena was actually a pretty good baby. And for the first few days I was actually still doing okay. I was really sleep deprived from looking after her, but I had no problems just passing out whenever I had the chance. And then around a couple of days in, I just remembered feeling really off, really jittery and just feeling like I couldn't switch off. And now I think back, it was sort of probably the beginning of my postpartum ...Thu, 26 Aug 2021 - 59min - 31 - How Jake got his sleep back on track by changing his nighttime behaviors and his daytime behaviors (#30)
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When COVID led to Jake having to work from home he found himself working way beyond the usual nine to five. Jake found himself answering calls and texts at all hours of the day and even started to take his computer to bed.
Work soon encroached into his weekends and before long, Jake found that he no longer had any kind of sleep schedule. When he took a vacation he found it really hard to get any sleep at all and this led to a lot of sleep-related research, a lot of anxiety, and a lot of worry.
Fortunately, Jake's sleep recovered — but only for a few weeks. Then, his insomnia returned and was even worse than before. Jake thought that his sleep was broken and that something was wrong with him.
The good news is, there's no real mystery when it comes to insomnia — from person to person, insomnia is remarkably similar. It's often our relationship with our thoughts and the behaviors we might implement in a bid to improve our sleep that provide insomnia with the oxygen it needs to survive.
As Jake learned more about sleep and insomnia he implemented evidence-based techniques to help build sleep drive, strengthen his body clock, and weaken arousal. He started to spend less time in bed, he got out of bed during the night if being in bed didn't feel good, and — perhaps most importantly of all — he tried to live the kind of life he wanted to live during the day, independently of how he slept.
Now, Jake's life doesn't revolve around sleep and he no longer tries to control sleep or put effort into sleep. As a result, he is sleeping a lot better and has regained confidence in his natural ability to sleep.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Hi, Jake, thank you for taking the time out of your day to come on to the podcast.
Jake Zandi:
Oh, thanks for having me, Martin. I'm very happy to be here today.
Martin Reed:
It's great to have you on. Let's start right at the beginning. When did your sleep problems first begin and what do you think caused your initial issues with sleep?
Jake Zandi:
Well, so we've all been going through this pandemic for the past, I think it's over a year now since it's hit the States. Yeah, I was doing pretty good with work and everything like that, working at an actual physical location. Once the pandemic hit, I think it was like in March of last year, I was told to go home. I actually just started the job probably two weeks prior to that. So, I had never really worked from home before and that's something I've never really had to do. So, I didn't really know, at first, I didn't really have the discipline, you know what I mean? Of working just nine to five like my old job was.
Jake Zandi:
So, I got caught in,Wed, 28 Jul 2021 - 1h 07min - 30 - How Celia improved her sleep by abandoning all attempts to control her sleep and accepting and acknowledging anxious thoughts rather than trying to fight or avoid them (#29)
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From a very young age, Celia would often try to control her sleep and often used medication to get her through her frequent bouts of insomnia. After the birth of her son and the emergence of the COVID pandemic, Celia became even more fixated on sleep. All of her old sleep crutches seemed to stop working and she didn't know what to do.
Celia began to spend her days researching sleep and looking for options. She had heard about evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques that can help tackle the thoughts and behaviors that perpetuate sleep disruption, but she found the techniques difficult to implement and whenever she experienced some difficult nights she felt she was back to square one.
Fortunately, Celia did not give up. She decided it was time to stop allowing insomnia to be part of her identity and began to implement new habits that would create better conditions for sleep. Instead of trying to eliminate anxiety and spending her days obsessing about sleep, she learned to acknowledge and accept anxious thoughts and lived the life she wanted to live, independently of sleep.
Celia recognized that it was her desire to control sleep and her sleep-related thoughts that was a big part of the problem. When she was able to accept that she couldn't directly control sleep or her thoughts and committed to implementing behaviors that would create better conditions for sleep and help her live life according to her values, she was able to starve her insomnia of the oxygen it craved and enjoy the life (and sleep) that she wanted.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Hi, Celia, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come onto the podcast.
Celia Garforth:
No problem. Nice to see you. Thanks for having me.
Martin Reed:
It's great to see you too. I'm just so excited to have you on, because I remember when we first started working together, you actually shared that one of your goals was to be a success story and to come on as a guest at some point in the future, and here you are now.
Celia Garforth:
Yeah. It definitely was. As I said to you in our emails to start with, I discovered you and your work through the podcast and it was listening to the stories of other people that you'd worked with that actually made me... Because I'd heard about CBT-I and I'd always been resistant to trying it because it seemed quite horrible. So listening to the podcast was really, really motivating for me to reach out and actually get things started and do it for myself. So that was a bit of a north star for me as I was going through it, just knowing that at some point in the future that I could come on and talk to everybody else about my experience and hopefully help some people in the wa...Wed, 30 Jun 2021 - 1h 09min - 29 - How Chad improved his sleep by undoing all the changes he had made in response to his insomnia (#28)
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Chad experienced some sleepless nights during a stressful period at work but his sleep started to get back on track — until one completely sleepless night created an avalanche of anxiety and insomnia.
This led Chad to develop an obsession with sleep. He would go to bed earlier to try to catch up on sleep, try to take naps, and he withdrew from activities that added meaning and enrichment to his life in an attempt to protect his sleep.
Fortunately, Chad discovered that it was his obsession with sleep and the changes he had made in response to difficult nights that were giving insomnia the oxygen it needed to survive.
So, he started to undo all those changes. He started to spend less time in bed and a sense of sleepiness returned. He started to live his life without allowing insomnia to control his decisions, plans, or activities — and this improved the quality of his days and helped him realize just how capable he can be, even after nights of little or no sleep.
By abandoning all efforts to create or control sleep and by living his life according to his values, regardless of how he slept, Chad was able to shift attention away from sleep, create better conditions for sleep to happen, and put his insomnia behind him.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Hi, Chad. Thanks so much for taking the time out of your day to come onto the podcast.
Chad Mullin:
Hey, Martin. Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to be with you today.
Martin Reed:
It's great to have you on and I'm really looking forward to our conversation and I always to get started right at the beginning, so let's start there for you. Can you tell us when your sleep problems first began and what you think caused those initial issues with sleep?
Chad Mullin:
Yeah, sure. I would say that my sleep issues began about 16 months ago, I guess. It was September of 2019, and things at work had gotten pretty stressful, there was some toxic environment issues going on, which I'm sure is pretty common for folks that deal with insomnia, and I had to have a very difficult conversation with somebody at work. And before that conversation, I was pretty anxious. I knew I was going to have, but a couple of days in advance. And so the night of that, before that conversation, I didn't sleep very well at all, maybe a couple of hours. Now this was a couple of months before I actually felt I had insomnia. And so I had the conversation, the sleep issues kind of resolved, I noticed sort of the next couple of months, sort of some lingering issues.
Chad Mullin:
I'd have a harder time falling asleep, I'd wake up a little bit earlier. But then there was this one night, September of 2019,Fri, 07 May 2021 - 57min - 28 - How Pat got rid of her insomnia by embracing a philosophy of “fake it until you make it” and accepting anxious thoughts (#27)
Like everyone else, Pat experienced some difficult nights every now and then — but her sleep would always get back on track. However last summer, her neighbors starting throwing loud parties and this made sleep increasingly difficult.
Before long, Pat found herself starting to fear falling asleep because she knew she would end up being woken by her neighbors. She soon started to pay a lot of attention to sleep and thought that something was terribly wrong with her. She was canceling plans and would rearrange her life around sleep.
Since none of these things led to better sleep, Pat adopted a radically different strategy — she decided to approach each day pretending that she'd had a good night of sleep. She went about her days as normal and pursued enjoyable and enriching daytime activities, independently of how she slept. She also stopped talking about insomnia.
Pat shifted her attention away from sleep and refused to allow sleep to control her life. She also stopped all attempts to control anxious thoughts and instead, chose to acknowledge and accept them. The final piece of the puzzle came when Pat was able to abandon all attempts to control her progress and was able to accept that sleep is something that cannot be controlled.
As Pat discovered, if we can place less importance on sleep and refuse to allow sleep to control our lives, sleep often becomes a whole lot easier!
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Hi, Pat, thank you so much for coming onto the podcast today.
Pat Boldys:
Very pleased to be here!
Martin Reed:
It's great to have you on. I'm really excited to talk about your sleep issues, what you did to try and tackle them, and just to talk about where you're at today. So before we get to start to going through that journey, let's start at the beginning. Can you tell us when your sleep problems first began and if you have any idea what caused that initial sleep disruption?
Pat Boldys:
Yeah, so it started this past summer, in August. And I had had a few nights prior to that where I had a difficult night sleep but it wasn't every single night. And what had been happening, I'd say since about May, is that we had some rowdy neighbors, and they were having parties at night, and we were being woken up, us and some other neighbors, calling the police at 2:00 AM and things like that. And this became kind of not every night, but it was very disruptive.
Pat Boldys:
Anyway, so starting in around August is when my sleep problems became chronic. And I didn't realize at first that it was because of that. It took me a while and actually after watching a lot of your videos that kind of a light bulb went on. Because I remembered saying to my husband one night when I got into bed, "I'm actually afraid to go to sleep tonight because I k...Tue, 30 Mar 2021 - 1h 04min - 27 - How Hannah got her sleep back to normal after COVID by caring less about sleep while creating better conditions for sleep (#26)
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Like many of us, Hannah began experiencing sleep disruption during the COVID pandemic. When it became clear that lockdowns were likely to be extended, Hannah started to find it harder to fall asleep. Before long, she also found it hard to stay asleep, too.
After trying different types of medication and finding they weren't helping much (and came with some unpleasant side-effects), she found a website that shared insomnia tips and advice.
After trying a do-it-yourself approach, Hannah realized she would benefit from working with a coach so she could receive personalized support and guidance and so she enrolled in my online coaching course.
In this episode, Hannah talks about the new sleep habits she developed and how she changed her relationship with sleep-related thoughts, and tested the sleep-related beliefs that made sleep more difficult.
Ultimately, Hannah found that abandoning all attempts to control sleep, accepting difficult nights of sleep and sleep-related worry, committing to new sleep habits, and going about her days as normally as possible really helped her get her sleep back on track.
Today, Hannah's sleep is back to normal — she typically averages around seven-and-a-half hours of sleep and is far more resilient to any one-off nights of sleep disruption because she was able to tackle the sleep-related thoughts and behaviors that perpetuate insomnia.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Hello, Hannah, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come on the podcast.
Hannah Vanderpool:
Thanks for having me.
Martin Reed:
It's great to have you on. I always like to start right at the very beginning. So you're going to be no different. I'd love to know if you can remember when your issues with sleep began? And do you have any recollection of what triggered that initial sleep disruption?
Hannah Vanderpool:
Yeah, I do, actually. It happened about, I would say five or six weeks after the initial lockdown in March, when Coronavirus was really a serious thing and people were being told to stay home. My family and I have lived overseas in developing countries and we homeschooled for years with our kids. So, we actually felt initially like, "Alright, we got this, no problem. We know how to handle chaotic environments, water shortages, et cetera." But I think it was probably after Easter.
Hannah Vanderpool:
So, worshiping with our church family is a huge deal for us. And we had to do Easter at home. And up until that point, I was like, "I'm doing fine, we're all good." We were healthy, nobody had lost their job. And so we felt good. But then, it was like that was a mark for me. After Easter,Thu, 25 Feb 2021 - 1h 18min - 26 - How Susie stopped sleep from controlling her life, regained trust in her natural ability to sleep, and learned to love her bedroom (#25)
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Susie never had a great relationship with sleep — but dealing with her insomnia wasn't something that was high on her list of priorities. That all changed, however, when Susie went overseas and her sleeping pills seemed to suddenly stop working. Quite understandably, Susie's anxiety skyrocketed and she ended up cutting her vacation short and returning home.
It was at this point that Susie realized she had to do something to improve her sleep. In this episode, Susie talks about the changes she made to create significantly better conditions for sleep. She also discusses the challenges she faced as she implemented these changes, and describes the ups and downs she experienced along the way.
Susie used to feel anxious about going to bed and used to dislike even being in her bedroom. Today, Susie loves her bedroom, loves sleep, and is confident in her natural ability to sleep. This transformation was entirely down to her own efforts to address the thoughts and behaviors that perpetuate sleep disruption, her natural ability to sleep, and her refusal to give up!
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Hello Susie. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come on to the podcast.
Susie Mason:
Hey Martin. I'm really happy to do this. And it's good to see you.
Martin Reed:
Yes, it's great to see you too. It's always such a difference because so much of the communication I do with clients or visitors to my website is just by email, the written word, and sometimes I don't actually get to see people. So it's always nice to just put a face to the name and actually see the person that I'm communicating with.
Susie Mason:
Yeah, definitely. Same. It's good to see you. And really, I'm really happy to be doing this too. I want to. It'd be really nice to give other people the knowledge that they can get through insomnia. The hellish thing, and I'd really like to enable somebody else to do that, because it's made such a difference to my life. It's really nice for you too because I've got so much from you.
Martin Reed:
Great. I appreciate that, and I know that everyone listening to this is going to get so much from you too. So without further ado, let's start right at the beginning. So, when did your sleep problems begin, and do you have any idea what that initial trigger for your sleep issues was?
Susie Mason:
Yeah, definitely. I had a pretty traumatic childhood. I was terrified of going to bed. It started really early. I was scared to go to bed, and if I did go to sleep, I would wake up in the night and I'd be screaming. I'd be terrified. And I don't know how that got dealt with really, and my parents were always arguing about me.
Fri, 15 Jan 2021 - 49min - 25 - How Michelle got to the root cause of her insomnia and improved her sleep after 15 years of unhelpful experiments, research, and sleep efforts (#24)
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Michelle spent 15 years researching sleep and trying lots of different things to get rid of her insomnia. She did all she could to control her sleep but all that happened was sleep (or a lack of it) ended up controlling her as it slowly became an obsession and took a hugely influential role in her life.
Fortunately, Michelle got to the root cause of her insomnia — the sleep-related thoughts she had developed and the sleep-related behaviors she implemented in a bid to improve her sleep that were actually perpetuating the problem.
In this episode, Michelle shares the techniques she found most helpful, talks about the short-term difficulties she experienced when changing her sleep habits, and shares how she ended up modifying two core behavioral techniques — sleep restriction and stimulus control — to better suit her while also abandoning all efforts to control sleep.
Today, Michelle averages around seven to eight hours of sleep and lives and plans her life without giving sleep any thought whatsoever. She also knows exactly how to respond to any difficult nights because her new habits are skills that will remain with her for the rest of her life.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Hi Michelle. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come on the podcast.
Michelle Pragnell:
A pleasure, Martin.
Martin Reed:
It's great to have you on. As always, I like to start right at the beginning. So, can you tell us a little bit more about when your sleep problems began and perhaps if you can remember what initially triggered those issues with sleep?
Michelle Pragnell:
It was about 15 years ago after a fairly stressful period in my life. And yeah, I just started having sleep problems, which sort of morphed into insomnia over the years. They crept up on me and I got to the point where I was really struggling with sleep.
Martin Reed:
Yeah. So, was it more to do with trouble falling asleep at the start of the night, or was it to do with waking during the night?
Michelle Pragnell:
Yeah, in the beginning, it was waking through the night and not being able to get back to sleep. So, I'd watch TV, but all this was in bed which I realize now is a no-no. And then, it seemed to start at the beginning of the night, so I couldn't actually get to sleep. And then when I got to sleep, I'd only sleep for short periods of time and I'd wake up and then I couldn't get back to sleep. So, I really wasn't getting that deep, revitalizing sleep. The sleep I was getting was fragmented and light, very light. Yeah.
Martin Reed:
Yeah, yeah. So, I think a lot of us realize that sleep disruption from time to time is just a normal part of life...Wed, 25 Nov 2020 - 57min - 24 - How Jennifer got through setbacks and relapses while implementing techniques that transformed her sleep after 25 years of insomnia (#23)
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Jennifer's insomnia was deeply entrenched. After working with me for four weeks, she felt as though it was becoming more difficult to get through the day, her sleep had not improved, and she was understandably feeling discouraged.
However, Jennifer kept going and four weeks later she was happier with her progress. She was experiencing less daytime fatigue and getting more sleep but she was still finding it hard to fall back to sleep when she woke during the night.
Again, Jennifer kept going — she continued to implement techniques that build sleep drive, strengthen the body clock, and lower arousal. She began to notice that the quality of her days wasn't completely dependent on how much sleep she got. She stopped striving for sleep, she stopped putting effort into sleep, and she stopped worrying about sleep.
In this episode, Jennifer explains how changing her sleep-related thoughts and behaviors not only improved her sleep, but also her quality of life. She shares how she coped with setbacks by focussing on the process rather than progress and tells us about the moment she realized that she knew exactly how to respond to sleep disruption and understood that she was now armed with life-long skills that would enable her to enjoy better sleep for the rest of her life.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come on to the podcast today, Jennifer.
Jennifer Ellison:
Well, you're welcome. Good to be here.
Martin Reed:
It's great to have you on. I'm going to just start right at the beginning. Can you just tell us how your sleep problems began, and what you think initially triggered that sleep disruption?
Jennifer Ellison:
Well, I believe that sleep has always been a bit of a challenge for me. I know even as a child, my parents would talk about that I wasn't a great sleeper. I'm a bit of a worrier by nature. So I know that just being over-focused on sleep or lack of sleep even very early on, was always there for me. I think one of the precipitating events was the birth of my kids and I love my kids, but kids are a challenge when they're little and when you're a young mom and you have to get up three or four times in the night to attend to a child, that throws any mother, any parent's sleep into disarray.
Jennifer Ellison:
So that certainly happened for me. Then I have two children who are very close in age. So for a while, I had two little children getting up most nights. So it became sort of this ongoing battle with just trying to get any sleep at all with little kids. Then as they became better sleepers, I noticed that I really wasn't becoming a better sleeper again, but again,Fri, 30 Oct 2020 - 1h 01min - 23 - How Jessica transformed her relationship with sleep by challenging her sleep-related thoughts and changing her sleep-related behaviors (#22)
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When Jessica moved back to her hometown with her husband and two children she began to struggle with sleep. She soon found herself spending a lot of time researching sleep and experimented with different supplements and techniques to improve her sleep.
When none of these things worked, Jessica found herself becoming increasingly obsessed with sleep and started to really worry about how she'd function if her sleep didn't improve — after all, she was a stay-at-home mom with two small children!
Jessica started to believe that she'd lost the ability to sleep and was losing hope — until she learned more about how insomnia develops and realized that her insomnia wasn't unique or unusual.
When Jessica recognized many of the common thoughts and behaviors that perpetuate sleep disruption in her own experience with insomnia, she started to feel a sense of hope. This allowed her to start exploring and challenging her beliefs about sleep while implementing behaviors that build sleep drive, strengthen the body clock, and reduce sleep-related worry and anxiety.
Today, Jessica rarely thinks about sleep and it no longer controls her life. She is able to do all the things she once put off because of concern about how they might affect her sleep and this has given her a whole new outlook on life.
Jessica transformed her relationship with sleep by challenging her sleep-related thoughts and implementing helpful sleep-related behaviors. If Jessica can do it, you can, too!
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Okay, Jessica, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come onto the podcast.
Jessica Brondyke:
Yeah, thanks for asking me to join you.
Martin Reed:
Absolutely, I always like to just start right at the very beginning with everyone that I talk to so I'm going to do the same for you. When did your sleep problems first begin and what do you think caused your initial issues with sleep?
Jessica Brondyke:
Okay, it was almost four years ago now, so back in 2016, my husband and I moved back to our hometown from Georgia. And that was just a huge transition for us in our life, we had two small kids, sold a house, we're looking to buy a house. He was totally changing jobs, we left a community that we... It was just a lot of stress and change. I was also nursing my youngest daughter at that time, and she was not sleeping very well during the night. And I mean, I had never really thought about it, but all of a sudden when she would wake up and I would put her back to sleep, I wasn't able to go back to sleep then. And so then the next day I would just feel terrible and immediately I just began worrying about it and researching like, "What can I do?Tue, 22 Sep 2020 - 49min - 22 - How health-conscious Anafer shed her identity as an insomniac and now focuses on her career, relationships, and personal happiness rather than sleep (#21)
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Anafer believed that she was born with insomnia. Sleep was a problem for her for as long as she could remember. Being very health-conscious, she spent many of her adolescent years focused on improving her sleep.
After years of doing her own research, speaking with health professionals, and taking various supplements and prescription pills, Anafer's insomnia was becoming unbearable.
After graduating from college, Anafer decided she needed to address her sleep issues before starting her career in dietetics. Two years ago, she came across my online coaching course and is now here to share her transformation and the ups and downs she experienced on her journey to better sleep and restored sleep confidence.
As a nutritionist, Anafer's goal is to help people obtain a healthy lifestyle without the added stress of dieting. Fortunately, she no longer has to contend with the added stress of thinking and worrying about sleep!
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Okay, Anafer thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come onto the podcast.
Anafer Barrera:
No problem.
Martin Reed:
So let's start right at the beginning. When did your sleep problems first began? What was it that you think caused your initial issues with sleep?
Anafer Barrera:
I'm pretty sure I was born with sleep issues because for as long as I remember, I was always the last person to go to sleep and my parents also suffer from sleep problems and they've been on pills for as long as they can remember. I was pretty certain it was by birth.
Martin Reed:
It sounds it's just something that goes back for as long as you can remember it, you just always had this sleep disruption. It was just part of who you are. Is that right?
Anafer Barrera:
Yeah.
Martin Reed:
So what'd you find the sleep disruption would just be every night or would it just be bursts where you'd just go through a few weeks of sleep disruption, things would get back on track and then you'd go back to struggling again. What was the pattern like?
Anafer Barrera:
It had no pattern. When I was a kid, I would have a random anxiety at night and I would be up all night panicking that I didn't want to go to bed. And then when I would go to camps, every time I'd go to some camp or a vacation with a friend or something, it would be the first night was an all nighter pretty much, even if I was in second grade or if I was a teenager and then the second night was iffy and then after that I would almost got used to it and sleep just everybody else. Then when I went off to college, I would have weeks of episodes and then something random would just let it go back to normal a...Tue, 11 Aug 2020 - 54min - 21 - A conversation about sleeping pills with Dr. Wallace B. Mendelson (#20)
Dr. Mendelson is a psychiatrist, sleep doctor, and author who works primarily in the field of sleep research and sleep medicine. He is perhaps best known for his research related to the properties of sleeping pills and the effect of medication on sleep.
He most recently worked at the University of Chicago as a professor of psychiatry and clinical pharmacology and was the director of the school's Sleep Research Laboratory. Two books authored by Dr. Mendelson that might be of particular interest to those listening to this podcast are Understanding Sleeping Pills and The Science of Sleep.
In this episode, Dr. Mendelson describes the evolution of sleeping pills, explains how they work, and shares information on their potential side-effects. We also talk about over-the-counter pills and supplements, and the evidence-based alternative to sleeping pills and recommended first-line treatment for chronic insomnia — cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I).
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Okay, Dr. Mendelson, thank you so much for taking the time to come on to the podcast today.
Dr. Mendelson:
Well, thank you, Martin. I'm delighted to have a chance to chat with you.
Martin Reed:
I'm really excited to cover this whole topic of sleeping pills, but before we move on to that, specifically, can you tell us a little bit more about your own background and how you got interested in the field of sleep?
Dr. Mendelson:
Well, sure. I guess the best way to describe, it is that I was a student in the 1960s. And it was a remarkably exciting time. In the field of psychiatry, the 1950s and early 60s, saw a revolutionary kind of evolution, prior to that time, the dominant process in American Psychiatry had to do with psychoanalytic treatment and Freudian notions which involve things like understanding the unconscious and the very powerful influence of early childhood on adult life. Although this was a very interesting thing and still I believe a very important thing. It didn't fully address the range of psychiatric patients in my opinion. And then suddenly in the 50s, a whole new era opened up, and it began with a discovery of Thorazine which revolutionized the way hospitalized patients were taken care of, the two major kinds of antidepressants, anti-inhibitors and tricyclic antidepressants came along.
Dr. Mendelson:
Probably a little more relevant to our today's talk, and 1961 the first benzodiazepine, Chlordiazepoxide, became available in the US and was seen as a very re...Thu, 16 Jul 2020 - 59min - 20 - How Sally improved her sleep after 60 years of insomnia and 10 years of sleeping pills (#19)
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Sally had been living with insomnia for 60 years and had been taking sleeping pills for 10 years. She believed that she would never be able to sleep properly — but this all changed when she started to change the way she thought about sleep and began to implement new sleep-related behaviors that made it easier for her body to generate and sustain sleep.
Sally used to average around three hours of sleep each night. She now averages around seven hours of sleep each night and barely thinks about sleep.
In this episode, Sally shares what she did to improve her sleep after living with insomnia for 60 years. If Sally was able to improve her sleep, you can too!
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Hi, Sally. Thank you so much for coming onto the podcast today.
Sally Newman:
Thank you, Martin. It's nice to meet you at last.
Martin Reed:
Yeah, absolutely. We've been talking through email for quite some time. So, this is really the first time we're meeting so to speak. So yeah, it's good to see you too.
Sally Newman:
Yeah.
Martin Reed:
Let's just start right at the beginning is what I like to do before all these podcast discussions. Can you tell us a little bit about when your sleep problems first began? And if you can think or if you have any recollection onto what that initial trigger was that led to sleep disruption.
Sally Newman:
I can't actually think of a trigger, but I've had insomnia nearly all my life. I'm not sure what the trigger ever was because I've had it since I was a child. I must have been about eight years old when I was frantic about not getting enough sleep and worried that if I didn't get enough sleep, I wouldn't be able to get through the school day, and that was at a very young age. My parents were concerned enough to take me to a therapist at that time.
Sally Newman:
I don't remember too much about the therapist, but I do remember him with a slide projector, and he was explaining to me that I shouldn't worry about sleep, it wasn't that important, and that a lot of people didn't sleep wonderfully, it wasn't the end of the world. I remember he showed me a slide of Winston Churchill. Very old, very old, way before your time, who only used to cat nap, and he was perfectly all right. He showed me various other people. I think it did help me. It did help me to talk with a therapist at that time.
Sally Newman:
I didn't have a major problem with it but I was witness to insomnia because my parents were both addicted to sleeping tablets. I remember they were taking lorazepam. Every single night at nine o'clock, my father would make my mother a cup of tea and they would take their sleeping tablets. So,Fri, 19 Jun 2020 - 53min - 19 - How Rick’s retirement triggered a two-year struggle with insomnia and what he did to get his sleep back on track (#18)
Rick's insomnia started in 2017 shortly after retirement. He started to wake during the night and would find it hard to fall back to sleep. Before long, he started to feel very anxious every time he woke and began to worry about what the day would be like after each difficult night of sleep.
Rick started to cancel social events, he would try to take naps during the day, he started to change every aspect of his life in a bid to improve his sleep. He also started experimenting with a cocktail of supplements and pills — none of which helped.
Fortunately, Rick discovered evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques that changed the way he thought about sleep and helped him implement behaviors that would improve his sleep for the long-term.
Gradually, Rick started to get more sleep without a single sleeping pill or supplement. As his sleep improved, Rick began regaining sleep confidence and that really got the ball rolling!
Today, Rick averages somewhere between seven and seven-and-a-half hours of sleep each night. In this episode, Rick shares all the techniques he implemented to transform his relationship with sleep. Just as Rick was able to improve his sleep, you can too!
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Okay. So Rick, thank you so much for being on the Insomnia Coach Podcast.
Rick McNally:
Well, thank you for having me.
Martin Reed:
So can you start at the beginning for us. When did your sleep problems first begin and do you remember what initially triggered them?
Rick McNally:
Well, they started back in 2017 and it was shortly after I retired. I really didn't seem to think there was much stress going on in my life at that time. I do have a small bit of tinnitus, which I was able to sleep with and I think just retiring and changing my going to bed time and my waking up time had completely changed. I was going to bed like at eight o'clock and getting up at 3:00 in the morning and heading off to work. All of a sudden, I didn't need to go to bed at eight o'clock and I didn't need to get up at three o'clock, but I still went to bed at 8:00 and was probably getting up about 6:00 or 7:00 and didn't realize it as I retired all the things that would come into play. Trying to get health insurance, taking care of financial situations. A lot of things I think, started to build up and I thought, wow, this wasn't a just an easy transition like I thought.
Rick McNally:
All of a sudden I noticed, boy, I'm really having a tough time going to sleep and I was probably spending at least eight or nine hours in bed. Then I thought, well, I'll take a sleeping pill. Then I looked at supplements and I started mixing, coming up with a cocktail of supplements and sleeping pills. I got to the point where I started to think, well,Wed, 20 May 2020 - 1h 03min - 18 - How Anna went from not feeling sleepy at night and thinking her sleep system was broken to sleeping well and with confidence (#17)
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For five years, Anna experienced short episodes of insomnia that would last for a week or two before disappearing. However, when her mother fell ill and required surgery, Anna found it very difficult to fall asleep and this time, even though her mother recovered, Anna's sleep did not.
For two years, Anna struggled to fall asleep at night and this led to experimentation with sleeping pills, supplements, relaxation techniques, light-blocking glasses, sound machines, weighted blankets, and a lot of ongoing sleep-related research (and worry).
Anna got to the point where she just didn't feel sleepy when she went to bed and this made her think that her sleep system was broken. Luckily, she began to implement evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques to help build sleep drive, rebuild sleep confidence, and create a strong association between her bed and sleep rather than unpleasant wakefulness.
Today, Anna doesn't really think about sleep and she gets somewhere around seven-and-a-half to eight hours of sleep each night. In this episode, Anna shares everything she did to improve her sleep and also reveals how she coped with the typical setbacks most of us experience on the road to recovery.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
So, Anna, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come onto the podcast.
Anna Wojcicka:
Thank you for having me.
Martin Reed:
So can you get us started right at the beginning? When did your problems with sleep begin and what do you think caused you initial issues with sleep?
Anna Wojcicka:
Sure. So in general, I have never been a very sound sleeper. I was never a person that took naps. I never really enjoyed sleeping in. So I think in general I always needed less sleep than an average person, but it was never really a big problem and I was actually quite happy with it. I started having short episodes of insomnia I would say maybe around five years ago. They would be triggered by something like a work-related stressful event and then I would have trouble falling asleep for maybe a week at a time or two weeks and then it would generally resolve itself on its own.
Anna Wojcicka:
Two years ago I had a stressful event that was health-related. So my mom was having some heart issues and we didn't know exactly what was wrong with her. It lasted for quite a while and then doctors were running some tests, she needed to have a surgery. So the whole situation I would say lasted for maybe six week or so, and during that time period I was having a hard time sleeping. I think this is when my real sleep problems actually started. So before, like I said, within a week or two insomnia would resolve in its own but this time,Tue, 21 Apr 2020 - 1h 02min - 17 - How Gretchen went from believing she was the world’s worst sleeper to someone who sleeps well and has confidence in her own natural ability to sleep (#16)
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Gretchen is a pediatrician and the mother of three children. Her sleep was regularly disrupted as she worked shifts during college and was on call during her pediatric residency. After having children and then entering early menopause, Gretchen started to spend hours awake during the night. This led to sleep-related worry and anxiety that combined with work stress to make sleep more frustrating and more difficult.
In this episode, Gretchen talks about how changing the way she thinks about sleep and implementing constructive sleep-related behaviors helped her improve her sleep significantly — and how setbacks along the way didn't lead to insomnia working its way back into her life.
Gretchen went from believing she was the world's worst sleeper to looking forward to going to bed at night! Gretchen did it — and you can, too!
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Okay. So Gretchen, thank you so much for coming onto the podcast today.
Gretchen Volk:
Oh my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Martin Reed:
So can we start right from the beginning and can you just tell us when your sleep issues began and in what ways were you struggling with sleep?
Gretchen Volk:
So, I struggled with sleep for many, many years. Things got noticeably worse probably seven years ago when I entered early menopause. So for the past seven years I've just been struggling more nights than not.
Martin Reed:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). So, did you tend to struggle with falling asleep at the start of the night or was it more to do with waking and then finding it hard to fall back to sleep or maybe both?
Gretchen Volk:
Yeah, for me it was both, so it would take me a long time to fall asleep, and then I would pop up multiple times during the night and just stay awake thinking in my brain way too hard and wishing I could go back to sleep.
Martin Reed:
I think you touched upon it there, but why do you think you were struggling with sleep, what do you think was the barrier that was making sleep more difficult for you?
Gretchen Volk:
I think ultimately the issue was the anxiety that I developed around sleep. So I think initially there were maybe some hormonal issues that switched in my body and then issues just related to family conflict and worries about that and work stress, all the normal things. But then, I think why this became such a huge problem for me is that at the slightest sign of sleep trouble, my brain would just launch into this full fledged attack like, this is going to be terrible. Oh my gosh, here goes another bad night. Oh, you've only got six hours left to get a good sleep. You better fall asleep right now,Thu, 19 Mar 2020 - 51min - 16 - How sleep restriction helped Dave fall asleep faster, spend less time awake during the night, and get more sleep (#15)
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Dave often experienced difficulties falling asleep and staying asleep and this became more of a problem once he became a father. After an overseas trip, Dave's sleep really took a turn for the worse — not only did he find it hard to fall asleep, he would also wake around 3:00 AM and find it very difficult (if not impossible) to fall back to sleep.
This decline in his sleep led to experimentation with over-the-counter medications, the implementation of unhelpful sleep hygiene techniques, and ongoing sleep-related research. Unfortunately, this only led to more worry and anxiety and more sleep disruption.
Fortunately, Dave found out about sleep restriction — a core component of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). Consistent implementation of sleep restriction transformed Dave's relationship with sleep — he began to look forward to going to bed, he rediscovered the pleasurable sensation of sleepiness at night, and he started to fall asleep faster, spend less time awake during the night, and get more sleep.
In this episode, Dave shares his transformation and explains how sleep restriction improved his sleep and why consistency and persistence is so important if you want to enjoy better sleep for the long term.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed:
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed:
The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed:
Okay, so Dave thank you so much for taking the time to come on to the Insomnia Coach Podcast today.
Dave Barrie:
Excellent, it's a pleasure.
Martin Reed:
So, let's start at the beginning. Can you tell us when your sleep problems began and do you have any recollection or any memory of what initially triggered these sleep issues that you dealt with?
Dave Barrie:
Yeah, I've been thinking about that and it's not one single event. I've always been sort an anxious sort of person and had trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. I think it came to a head when I had children and children really messed with my sleep. Children were the worst thing for sleep. But when it really became a problem for me was when I had a trip to Canada and I remember every time I'd have a cold or a flu I'd take those flu drugs that would help me sleep at night. And I'd take those and I'd have a fantastic night's sleep. But then the next night I'd be awake and I couldn't sleep properly.
Dave Barrie:
So I saw some drugs over the counter in Canada and I took those to try and get a good night's sleep. And then they gave me a great night's sleep but after three or four nights of taking them and then going off them, then I found that my sleep drive just absolutely just diminished and I needed th...Mon, 24 Feb 2020 - 56min - 15 - How Bill’s health scare led to insomnia and how tackling sleep-related thoughts and behaviors helped him improve his sleep (#14)
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Bill is a 57-year-old self-employed mechanical design engineer who lives in Australia with his wife and three children. In August 2018, Bill was admitted to hospital with a suspected heart attack and this triggered an intense period of insomnia that led to progressively worse sleep.
Bill soon found himself following a long list of pre-sleep rituals that did not improve his sleep but did lead to more sleep-related worry. Fortunately, Bill was told about cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and was able to get his sleep back on track.
In this episode, Bill tells us how his insomnia developed, all the ways he tried unsuccessfully to improve his sleep, and he shares the specific techniques that he found to be most helpful for improving his sleep.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed: Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed: The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied.
Martin Reed: Okay. So thank you so much for taking the time to be on with us today, Bill.
Bill Hunter: My pleasure.
Martin Reed: So let's start at the beginning. When did your sleep problems begin, and do you remember what initially triggered that sleep disruption?
Bill Hunter: Yes. So sleep problems really started in about February of this year, and it's been a part of... Well, to be honest, I think in August last year I was admitted to hospital with what was a suspected heart attack. Didn't turn out to be that, but it was an anxiety-related issue. So I guess in using a term that used to be used, it was probably what you might describe as a nervous breakdown in August last year. So it's been a very difficult last 12 or 14 months or so for me.
Bill Hunter: It was one of those ones where, I guess in terms of mental health, they call it the holy trinity, I think. Anxiety, depression, insomnia, they all go together. So the insomnia part of it started as I said in February while I was away from home for a few days, in a night where I got zero sleep, which I don't think had ever happened to me that I can ever remember before. So after that, those nights of no sleep seemed to be happening just more and more frequently, and it just became very, very distressing really.
Bill Hunter: You end up just in this, I think, this sort of vicious circle where the insomnia feeds the anxiety, and the depression becomes a bit worse and you sort of just spiral down, so that's when it started.
Martin Reed: Yeah, absolutely. I think everyone listening to this will really identify with you talking about this vicious cycle, you know where you start to worry about sleep, sleep becomes more difficult, and then it kind of leads to even more worry about sleep, which then makes sleep more difficult.Fri, 31 Jan 2020 - 55min - 14 - Busting sleep and insomnia myths with clinical psychologist and behavioral sleep medicine specialist Dr. Jade Wu (#13)
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Dr. Jade Wu is a clinical psychologist and behavioral sleep medicine specialist at Duke University School of Medicine. Her current research focuses on treating sleep disorders in those with chronic illness. In the clinic, she uses treatments that do not involve medication to help people with insomnia, circadian rhythm disorders, and other sleep concerns.
In this episode, Jade and I discuss a number of concerns that are common among people with chronic insomnia — we talk about how much sleep we need, whether we can lose our ability to sleep, whether insomnia is caused by a chemical imbalance in the body, whether chronic insomnia causes any serious health problems, and whether we have any control over the negative impact insomnia can have on our lives.
We also talk about why cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is such an effective treatment for people with chronic insomnia, even if it's present alongside another health condition.
Many people have inaccurate beliefs about sleep and this is a big contributor to sleep-related worry and anxiety that can perpetuate insomnia. My aim with this episode is to help change the way you think about sleep and insomnia. I hope this will help reduce the intensity of any worry or anxiety that might be making it more difficult for you to improve your sleep and encourage you to pursue CBT-I so you can enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed: Welcome to The Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed: Okay. So thank you so much for sparing some time and coming onto the podcast today Jade.
Jade Wu: Well thank you so much for having me. I'm very happy to be here.
Martin Reed: So let's start right at the beginning. How did you get interested in the field of sleep and insomnia in particular?
Jade Wu: So my background is in clinical psychology and when I was getting my PhD, I actually started out doing research in mood and anxiety disorders. And while I was doing research in that area, it became really clear to me that one common threads through a lot of things I was seeing was sleep problems. Everybody who came in, whether they had generalized anxiety disorder or OCD or depression, everybody has something wrong with their sleep. So I was very intrigued by this and I ended up doing a little bit more neuro-psychology research in Parkinson's disease and there to sleep was a big issue.
Jade Wu: So it just started to dawn on me more and more that sleep was this common trans diagnostic factor that, if we can improve sleep for people, then I bet we can sort of raise the water for all boats. And so that's how I got interested in sleep. And insomnia specifically, I think I just got really interested in, because it's one of the most common sleep problems. And I was working at the VA at some point, and a lot of veterans have problems with PTSD and with insomnia. So that was something so common in the clinic. I just got really interested.
Martin Reed: So I think you hit upon a really important point, just this link with anxiety and just the mental impacts the sleep has. And I think it's kind of like it's two way street. I was actually just talking to a client yesterday and they said to me that they're not sure if they have an in...Wed, 15 Jan 2020 - 1h 03min - 13 - How working with a sleep coach helped Jeff get rid of sleep-related worry and anxiety and sleep well without sleeping pills (#12)
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Jeff is 46 years old and married with two children — his daughter is five years old and his son is two years old. He works remotely for a real estate investment company and in his spare time he enjoys trail running, exercising, golf, and socializing with friends.
Jeff often found it hard to fall asleep — especially when he was under a lot of stress. When he gained additional job responsibilities and became a parent, those difficult nights became more common and this led to a lot of sleep-related fear, worry, and anxiety.
After trying to implement cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques with the help of a book, Jeff continued to struggle — until he started implementing CBT-I techniques with the ongoing support and guidance of a sleep coach (me!).
Within eight weeks of implementing CBT-I techniques, Jeff went from taking a sleeping pill every three to five days and managing to get around five-and-a-half hours of sleep to averaging six-and-a-half hours of sleep each night without any sleeping pills.
Ten months after we stopped working together, Jeff is still sleeping well and feels far more confident about his ability to sleep. Furthermore, he now has all the skills he needs to get his sleep back on track should he ever struggle with sleep again in the future.
In this episode, Jeff shares the specific CBT-I techniques he found most helpful and why working with a coach proved to be the most effective way to recover sleep confidence, get rid of sleep-related worry and anxiety, and enjoy better sleep.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed: Welcome to The Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed: Okay. So thank you so much for being with us today, Jeff.
Jeff Shetterly: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
Martin Reed: Can we get started by going back to the beginning? When did your sleep problems begin and can you remember what the initial trigger was to your sleep disruption?
Jeff Shetterly: I was thinking about this question, and it's hard to pinpoint exactly when my sleep troubles started, but I feel like, for most of my life, I've really had some struggles falling asleep. Sometimes, that means it can take an hour to 45 minutes, I think, when things were sort of normal for me. That got a lot worse when I was under stress. That feels like it was with me ever since. That was probably in my 20s or teens up until now, I'm 46.
Jeff Shetterly: I was thinking back to one of the first triggers that caught my attention, which was I had started working in a job that I really enjoyed and I was getting a little bit more responsibility in it, and was putting a lot of pressure on myself. I remember working toward one particular deadline and just being so anxious that I had to get this thing done. I had one of those literal sleepless nights where I got no sleep, and that had never happened. I mean, I had nights when I had gotten three or four hours of sleep, but this was a night where my anxiety just built, and built, and built every hour. I was watching the clock and getting more anxious. You know the story with all this.
Jeff Shetterly: I think about 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning, I just decided, well, I'm up for the day so I'm just going to go into work. I went into work and just started working about 6:00 in the morning and my boss was real nice about it.Wed, 18 Dec 2019 - 1h 02min - 12 - Everything you need to know about cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (#1)
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I talk a lot about cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) in this podcast. This episode will explain exactly what CBT-I is and how it helps improve sleep. The audio from this episode was taken from a Facebook Live, originally recorded in May 2019. You can find the Insomnia Coach Facebook page at facebook.com/insomniacoach.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Welcome to the Insomnia Coach podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
I just want to talk a little bit about CBT-I, what it is, why it's the best treatment, certainly the best long-term treatment for chronic insomnia, just because I think that we're still really struggling with getting the awareness of CBT-I out there and what it is, what it means. I just want to say this right from the start, that CBT is not CBD. It's not a marijuana product or cannabis product. CBT-I is a collection of skills. Anyway, with that out of the way, let's get going.
CBT stands for cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. Now it's not therapy in the traditional sense of the word. It probably gives you these ideas that you're lying on a couch with your hand on head, eyes closed, just recounting all your fears and worries. It's not really therapy in that traditional kind of stereotypical idea that we have around therapy.
What CBT-I is, is a collection of techniques or skills that you can implement that effectively retrain you to trust your sleep system again, and over time this reduces any sleep related worries. It also helps you identify and address and fix any behaviors that you might be implementing in an attempt to kind of compensate for bad sleep or lost sleep, that can actually perpetuate insomnia or make the problem worse. CBT-I also helps correct any unrealistic thoughts or incorrect thoughts that you might have about your sleep or unrealistic expectations that you have around sleep. The usually just end up putting extra pressure on you. You feel like, "Oh, I've really got to get these eight hours of sleep," for example. And that in itself makes sleep more difficult.
With that being said, there are some core components of CBT-I. All practitioners generally follow a similar pattern in terms of how they implement or the actual components that they're using, but they might just have slightly different philosophies as to the best way to encourage people to observe the techniques and the components. But generally speaking, it won't vary that much from provider to provider, because they're all evidence-based techniques.
With that being said, what I would like to do is just talk about how I approach CBT-I. Now, with my company, InsomniaCoach.com I offer a phone coaching package and also offer an online course. I'm going to talk about the online course, primarily, because it's more structured. It helps me use that as an example for how we introduce each stage of CBT-I and what's involved.
When I work with new clients, they generally like to start with sleep education, and that's just because all of us, I'm not talking specifically about people with insomnia here, but virtually everyone has unrealistic expectations or beliefs about sleep. Most of us don't really understand what sleep is or what normal sleep is. I like to start off with sleep education, just to kind of challenge any incorrect thoughts or assumptions about sleep,Thu, 20 Jun 2019 - 24min - 11 - How Eileen used CBT-I techniques to improve her sleep after taking sleeping pills almost every day for 15 years (#11)
Eileen is a registered nurse of almost 30 years. She was always a light sleeper who felt that she needed perfect conditions for sleep to happen. After becoming a parent she started to get less sleep and this triggered more sleep-related stress and worry that made sleep even more difficult.
Before long, Eileen became totally focussed on sleep and soon developed the mistaken belief that she just couldn't sleep. After seeking help from her physician, Eileen ended up on Ambien — a drug she took almost every day for 15 years.
In this episode, Eileen describes how insomnia became part of her identity and how she went from constantly worrying about sleep and struggling with sleep to someone who now sleeps very well without sleeping pills.
Eileen's willingness to implement cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques (and her positive attitude!) helped her get to the point where she is now able to relax at night and let sleep happen naturally. Eileen no longer worries about sleep and, as a result, she is able to relax at night, get into bed, and sleep.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed: Welcome to The Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed: Okay, Eileen. Thank you so much for being on with us today.
Eileen Reali: Thank you for having me.
Martin Reed: Let's get the ball rolling here. Can you tell us how long ago your sleep problems initially began, and can you remember what initially triggered the sleep disruption?
Eileen Reali: Oh, I always was a light sleeper, and I had to have perfect conditions for me to go to sleep. I couldn't sleep in a car or on a plane. I would have to be laying in bed in the dark with no noise. Then when my kids were young, I noticed I'd be up a lot with them and I was getting less sleep, so I would start to stress about that, and then the more I stressed about it, the less sleep I was getting. And the more I was concentrating on the hours I was in bed and not sleeping, the less sleep I was getting. It was just a vicious cycle.
Martin Reed: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, that is so common. I'm not sure if you're familiar, if we ever discussed this, but we have this model for insomnia called the 3P model. Have you heard of that?
Eileen Reali: No, I haven't.
Martin Reed: Okay. This is a model that we use to kind of describe how just this initial sleep disruption, how a one-off night of bad sleep can kind of develop into a longer term problem. It's based on this idea that there are three Ps. Okay. The first P is this predisposing factor. The P stands for predisposing. This can apply to people, if we're light sleepers, like you just mentioned, if we're naturally light sleepers, we're more predisposed to sleep disruption. If we have a stressful job or if we're just more reactive to stress or anxiety or worry or if we're really strong night owls or really strong morning larks.
Martin Reed: But we can kind of progress on to this precipitating factor, this event that makes this sleep disruption occur. I would say that a big life change, even something more minor, like an argument with a spouse just before bed, that can lead to a bad night of sleep. Or, in your case, a big life change, having children, and then the children disrupt your sleep. These are all these precipitating factors. But, again, we're still onto just this initial short-time sleep disruption.
Sun, 01 Dec 2019 - 45min - 10 - A conversation about the challenges of CBT-I (and how to get through them) with clinical psychologist Steve Orma (#10)
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Dr. Steve Orma is a clinical psychologist and specialist in the treatment of insomnia and anxiety. He is the author of the book Stop Worrying and Go To Sleep: How to Put Insomnia to Bed for Good, and he provides online treatment for insomnia and anxiety.
Steve works with clients at every stage—from college students to new moms, entrepreneurs, top CEOs, and beyond. Everything he teaches his clients from stress management to conquering insomnia, he's studied, experimented and tested on himself. He has also been featured in the media in Entrepreneur Magazine, The Huffington Post, Women's Health, and Forbes.
In this episode, we talk about how Steve got through his own insomnia using cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques and the common challenges people face when implementing CBT-I techniques. The fact of the matter is that, in the short term, CBT-I techniques can be hard to implement — but if you are committed and consistent, your sleep will improve.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed: Welcome to The Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed: All right, Steve, so thank you so much for being on the podcast with us today.
Steve Orma: Yeah, absolutely, it's great to be here, Martin. Thanks for having me on.
Martin Reed: Let's get started right at the beginning. How did you get interested in the field of sleep and insomnia in particular?
Steve Orma: Yeah, so the way that I got into it is I had insomnia myself, probably like about six years ago now. I had been a psychologist already for several years and my specialty was anxiety and stress. I knew very little about sleep or insomnia because psychologists receive no training. I received zero training in sleep in my six years of graduate training and everything, which is also pretty common for medical doctors. It's kind of crazy and ridiculous.
Steve Orma: I got this insomnia and it wasn't going away and it was pretty bad. I was suffering and I needed to solve this problem and because I didn't know anything about it, I just started researching it on my own. I read a lot of different books that were out there and just read everything and just looked for the best treatment. I was already familiar with CBT because that was the primary treatment that I used for anxiety was CBT. When I found there was actually a specific treatment for insomnia that used CBT, I was intrigued because I know it's a really powerful form of therapy.
Steve Orma: I found really a book that I thought was really good and I modeled it after that book because it had a pretty good way to follow. I just put myself through the treatment. I mean, I did it all on my own. It's kind of like me. If I have a problem, I'm very motivated and I'll do it. It was hard. I mean, it's hard to go through the treatment. It was three weeks before I got any improvement at all and I was getting four to five hours of sleep a night maybe for six days a week, so it was pretty bad. Then, I started getting improvement and it ultimately... then it started getting better at that point and I started getting hopeful, but it took about eight weeks full...Thu, 14 Nov 2019 - 1h 08min - 9 - How Sara got rid of her insomnia, got off sleeping pills, and now averages seven hours of sleep each night (#9)
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Sara lived with insomnia for a year and resorted to sleeping pills because she didn't know how to improve her sleep. Luckily, Sara did discover cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia — and after just eight weeks of implementing CBT-I techniques, she went from averaging four hours of sleep each night to six hours of sleep each night. One year later, Sara now averages seven hours of sleep and no longer takes sleeping pills. In this episode, we'll learn more about how Sara got her sleep back on track and how she regained confidence in her ability to sleep.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed: Welcome to The Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed: Thank you so much, Sara, for coming onto The Insomnia Coach Podcast today.
Sara Flaherty: It's okay. No problem.
Martin Reed: Can you start off by just telling us when your sleep problems first began?
Sara Flaherty: It was the summer of 2017. I've suffered from health anxiety for a long time, but it was particularly significant then. And from having been a person to have perfect sleep and could sleep anywhere at any time, I suddenly started waking up in the night with these health worries and then just got a massive fear that I couldn't go back to sleep. And it sort of escalated from that summer.
Martin Reed: Yeah. So was your main difficulty just falling asleep at the start of the night, or was it more to do with you'd just find yourself waking during the night and then just finding it really hard to fall back to sleep? Or maybe both?
Sara Flaherty: It was a little bit of both, but more when I woke up in the night. Sometimes, though, I couldn't go off to sleep initially, and then even waking in the night, I still couldn't go back to sleep. But mostly it was waking in the night and then not being able to go back at all.
Martin Reed: Do you think that you had difficulty falling back to sleep or just falling asleep at the start of the night because you were worried about health issues, or was it specifically you were worried about sleep? Or maybe it started off as one and progressed into the other?
Sara Flaherty: It started off as one. It started off with waking because I was worried about certain things, but then it got to the point where that was sort of at the back of my mind more and the fact that I couldn't sleep was the big fear. I'd wake up and I'd think, "Oh my God. I can't go back to sleep. I've got to function tomorrow. I've got to go to work. What am I going to do?" And then I just couldn't go back to sleep.
Martin Reed: Yeah. How long was this going on for before you... For people that don't know that you enrolled in my online coaching course, how long were you experiencing these issues with sleep before you found out about cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia techniques?
Sara Flaherty: It was about a year I had poor sleep, and it got to the point where it was affecting my life so badly I just knew I had to do something. So I Googled and tried to get some research on techniques to help me, but I felt I needed more than that. Where I live, there's not a lot of support for anything psychologically as a problem. So I just had to find some help. So that's what I did.
Martin Reed: Before you found me, before you found out about CBT-I,Wed, 30 Oct 2019 - 1h 04min - 8 - How David overcame three years of insomnia by addressing his obsession with sleep using CBT-I, acceptance, and mindfulness techniques (#8)
Like many people, David struggled with the odd night of poor sleep every now and again — but three years ago a night of absolutely no sleep led to sleep-related worry and the fear that he had lost the ability to sleep. This led to more nights of bad sleep (and many nights of no sleep whatsoever) and this compounded the problem. Eventually, David discovered that it was his worry and obsession with sleep that was perpetuating his insomnia. His recognition of this, along with the implementation of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), acceptance, and mindfulness techniques helped him get his sleep back on track.
David runs two websites: Letting Focus and Tenant's Guide to Successful Renting and is the author of Successful Property Letting – How to Make Money in Buy to Let.
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Martin Reed: Welcome to The Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed: So, first of all, David, thank you for joining us today on the podcast.
David Lawrenson: Okay, thank you.
Martin Reed: So, let's start right at the beginning. Tell us a bit about when sleep became a problem for you. Are you able to recall what initially triggered your insomnia? And how long ago did this all begin for you?
David Lawrenson: Well, in a major way, it started about three years ago actually, around now. Yes, 2 years 11 months, 3 years ago. I had occasional problems with not being able to sleep very well, before that, on the odd evening, odd night. But the first time was about a half a year before it started in a big way. I went through a whole night without any sleep. But there have been a few times, as I was growing up, when I couldn't sleep for a long time.
David Lawrenson: And the funny thing was, my dad was suffering from insomnia. I think I heard him talk about it when I was young, little from the age of eight. And I think that was in the back of my mind. But the thing that really started it in the modern time, so this was three years ago, was I had this asthma develop. So, I hadn't had asthma before, and it was just crazy. I thought, "Well, what is this?" I go and play football, because I play football a couple of times a week, and I would really struggle to be breathing after it.
David Lawrenson: This went on for quite a while. And then, it got really bad, and finally, I couldn't sleep through the night. I was also quite worried about it. It took a bit longer than it should to sort of figure out what it was. But I was a little bit shocked to have asthma anyway. Never had it before. So, I had my first proper, I had another night with no sleep at all. And there were a couple of these. I got the asthma sorted out, but the sleep problem remained. And I have the occasional nights where, well sometimes a bit more than occasional, where I have a whole night where I didn't sleep at all. I'm beginning to think I've lost the ability to sleep.
David Lawrenson: Anyway, that was the start of it, and that was about three years ago now that it started. And it started with asthma, although I had the occasional night of non sleep before that, but not very many. That was when it started. And it started getting quite bad then.
Martin Reed: Yeah. It's quite a typical pattern.Tue, 15 Oct 2019 - 51min - 7 - A conversation about insomnia and anxiety with clinical psychologist Nick Wignall (#7)
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Nick Wignall is a clinical psychologist who specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders and insomnia. He's also a writer interested in how we can use the tools and insights of behavioral science to better achieve our personal growth and development goals.
In this episode, we talk about insomnia as an anxiety disorder rather than as a sleep disorder, the pros and cons of acceptance and commitment therapy for insomnia, why sleep hygiene is rarely helpful, and why CBT-I is typically the best option for people with chronic insomnia.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed: Welcome to The Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed: I want to say thanks for being on with us today, Nick.
Nick Wignall: Sure, thanks for having me.
Martin Reed: So, just to get the ball rolling then, tell us how you got interested in the field of sleep, and insomnia in particular.
Nick Wignall: Mm-hmm (affirmative). I didn't study it at all in grad school, which is strange it didn't come up at all. But then, right as I was starting my first postdoc, I was asked to do a review of a book by a couple psychologists named, Colleen Carney and Rachel Manber who are big in the CBT-I world. I just thought it was ... I didn't know anything about sleep, but I was asked to do this review. So I thought, "Sure." And I reviewed this book and I was just blown away by this whole world of CBT-I, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. I was a trained cognitive-behavioral therapist, but I had never heard of CBT-I before.
Nick Wignall: Everything I read was like, "Wow, this makes so much sense." It was almost too good to be true. It all made a ton of sense. So, when I started working I took on some insomnia clients, and thought, "Well, hey. Does this actually work? Let's see." So, that was kind of the start, and then I started going to conferences, and reading more, and taking on more insomnia clients. And of course, I learned a lot more. But it was that initial thing of reading that book which, kind of did it for me.
Martin Reed: So when you decided to try this out in the real world, how did it work? Was it straight away you were just thinking, "Wow! This really is getting results straight away"? Or was it more a case of trial and error as you were actually implementing it in the real world?
Nick Wignall: I think I lucked out, in that my first couple cases of insomnia were pretty ... They weren't super severe, and they were pretty straightforward, they didn't have a lot of complicating factors along with them. So they went, frankly, just a pretty good dose of sleep restriction, and some stimulus control really just did the trick for these people.
Nick Wignall: And they got a lot of benefit really quickly. But then as I went on, I started getting more complex clients, with some stickier situations, which I learned a ton from, and eventually were successful with. But, it did take some time with some of those more complicated ones.
Martin Reed: So, go back to what you were saying earlier, about your initial training in your area of interest was CBT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
Nick Wignall: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Mon, 30 Sep 2019 - 50min - 6 - How Rose battled with insomnia as a teenager but now looks forward to going to bed at night (#6)
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Rose started struggling with sleep at the age of just 12 years old. One bad night of sleep triggered a vicious cycle of ever-increasing sleep-related worry and anxiety, and ever-worsening sleep.
At the age of 18, the added stress of exams led to panic attacks and as little as two to three hours of fragmented sleep each night. In this episode, Rose shares how she addressed her sleep issues so that she now feels far more energetic during the day, sees sleep in a far more positive light, and actually looks forward to sleep at night.
Since recording this podcast episode, I'm happy to report that Rose did great on her A level exams, earning two As and a B. This means she formally received a job offer from the company she wanted to work for.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed: Welcome to The Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed: All right. So thanks for being with us today, Rose.
Rose Fullerton: Thank you very much for having me.
Martin Reed: So can you tell us a little bit about when you started finding that sleep was becoming a problem for you?
Rose Fullerton: Yeah, so I would pinpoint it back to about July, 2013. I was around 12. And up until then I absolutely loved residential sleepovers, all that kind of stuff. So I was away family friends. On the second last night, I just couldn't fall asleep for whatever reason. But it sort of manifested itself into this anxiety that when I went to bed I would never be able to fall asleep. And it's something that I've dealt with every single day up until about May of this year. When I would go to bed, I would just get so frustrated, I would be tossing and turning. I just would never be able to fully relax.
Rose Fullerton: And then my exams hit, my A-level exams, which are for uni, and the stress just made everything explode in May and I was having panic attacks, I couldn't eat. It was just awful. And I was getting two to three hours of sleep per night, which were really light sleep and they were disturbed and interrupted and yeah, I had just tried to put it into a box and just not really deal with it. And I think that sort of came back to bite me this year when everything met head on.
Martin Reed: Mm-hmm (affirmative). So you mentioned that you had a lot of worries going on, like when you got into bed. Were they specifically sleep-related worries right from the start or was it something else going on in your life that kept you awake and then it kind of turned into sleep related worries?
Rose Fullerton: Yeah, I think that when I got into bed I just over-thought the entire sleep process and that sparked that anxiety. And then because my adrenaline would start to run, then I'd be like, oh my word, now I'm so much more awake, I'm never going to be able to fall asleep. And it just turned into this complete vicious cycle and I had the wrong mentality of, I refuse to get out of bed if I felt like that, even though, because I had so much adrenaline, I was buzzing, I was banging off the walls, I refused to get out of bed and I just had to stay there because I was like, if I got up out of bed, I'm going to wake up even more and I'm not going to be staying in the place where I will fall asleep. And it just, I think that, first of all, the fact I'm never going to be able to fall asleep then because I was never able to relax and then the thoughts of what was going to happen the next day, I didn't get a good night's sleep.Wed, 18 Sep 2019 - 32min - 5 - A conversation about CBT-I with sleep physician Daniel Erichsen (#5)
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Daniel Erichsen is a sleep physician of eight years and is currently practicing in Eugene, Oregon. He is also the man behind BedTyme, a CBT-I based iPhone app, host of the Insomnia Insight YouTube channel and podcast, and author of two books; Sleep 101 and Why We Don’t Sleep.
In this episode, Daniel explains why he is such a believer in CBT-I and why eight hours of sleep is not an appropriate goal to aim for. We also discuss the barriers that make it harder for people with insomnia to improve their sleep, how to cope with setbacks when implementing CBT-I techniques, and the problem with melatonin and other supplements for insomnia.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed: Welcome to The Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed: All right, so Daniel, thank you for being here with me today.
Daniel Erichsen: Thank you, I'm just so excited to be here, really.
Martin Reed: It's great to have you. So first of all, can you tell us a bit more about how you got into sleep, and a bit more about your day-to-day work with your sleep patients?
Daniel Erichsen: Absolutely, so I'll start quickly from way in the beginning, my dad's a doctor, my mom's a nurse, so I just kind of fall in that medical footsteps, and eventually found myself doing pediatrics actually, in the Bronx, New York. I was doing well, but I knew I wanted to do some kind of sub-specialty, some kind of fellowship, and I didn't really know what to do. I initially thought I was going to do something really intense, like pediatric-intensive care, but I realized that was not for me. And it was really a friend of mine just said, "Oh Daniel, do you know that there's a fellowship in sleep medicine?" That made me really curious, because I always liked higher functions, like what it... I was really curious about like, what is the purpose of sleep, why do we sleep? And so that's how I applied and got into sleep fellowship.
Daniel Erichsen: And what happened was, I was really fortunate because my fellowship director was, he taught us CBT, very basic, but they taught us CBT. So I thought it was interesting, started practicing, and then I realized that A, it works, it helps people, but B, it's like, nobody's heard about it. And then I got more and more interested in really working with insomnia, but that's how I got into sleep and insomnia.
Martin Reed: Mm-hmm (affirmative). And so CBT, which we know is cognitive-behavioral therapy, and it's slightly modified for insomnia, like specifically for people with insomnia. Do you practice CBT-I techniques like, on a daily basis with people that you see in-clinic?
Daniel Erichsen: Yeah, it's rarely that a day goes by without me doing some CBT. I work in a sleep clinic, a pretty typical sleep clinic, meaning the bulk of what we see is sleep apnea, I would say, probably 70 to 80% of patients are referred to us because they have sleep apnea. That said, there's a good... The other 30%, a lot of people are insomnia, but out of those people that were referred because they have sleep apnea, when we get a history, a lot of them really have insomnia. So I say definitely between one to four patients a day is like,Sat, 31 Aug 2019 - 58min - 4 - How Scott overcame sleep-related worry and anxiety and got rid of insomnia (#4)
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Scott slept well his entire life until he listened to a podcast that led him to worry about how much sleep he was getting and the health consequences of insufficient sleep. That night, Scott had a terrible night of sleep and this triggered a vicious cycle of ever-increasing worry about sleep and increasingly worse sleep that lasted for ten months.
In this episode, we'll discover how Scott managed to get his sleep back on track, how well he sleeps now, and what life is like now he no longer worries about sleep.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed: Welcome to The Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed: Scott slept well his entire life until he listened to a podcast that led him to worry about how much sleep he was getting and the health consequences of insufficient sleep. That night, Scott had a terrible night of sleep and this triggered a vicious cycle of ever-increasing worry about sleep and increasingly worse sleep that lasted for ten months.
Martin Reed: In this episode, we'll discover how Scott managed to get his sleep back on track, how well he sleeps now, and what life is like now he no longer worries about sleep.
Martin Reed: A full transcript of this podcast, and an accompanying video, can be found at insomniacoach.com/podcast
Martin Reed: Alright, Scott. Thank you so much for being on with us today.
Scott Johnson: Yeah, it's a pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Martin Reed: Can you tell us a little bit more about your insomnia? When did it begin and how did sleep become a problem for you?
Scott Johnson: Yeah, that was a question that went through my mind for weeks after the insomnia set in. I just couldn't figure it out, and then one day I was discussing my insomnia problem with a friend of mine and I really was able to pinpoint the exact time and date that it had occurred.
Scott Johnson: I'm an avid podcast listener, especially when it's a health-related issues, and I remember that day that insomnia occurred that a friend of mine sent me a link to a very popular podcast featuring, I believe his name is Dr. Matt Walker.
Scott Johnson: As I was driving home listening to the podcast, even though I didn't have insomnia or sleep issues at the time, I started thinking and evaluating my own sleep patterns. "Well, am I getting the desired amount of sleep that he's recommending, and if I don't, then all of these health-related issues are going to start setting in. I'm going to start having cancers, heart disease is going to go up, my mortality rate is, I'm going to live shorter."
Scott Johnson: My anxiety started building as I was driving to the house and then I started having a conversation with my wife and explaining to her the podcast, and then again continuing to evaluate my own sleep pattern, even though I didn't even have a problem. Then as bedtime started settling in a little bit, anticipatory anxiety just really kicked in. My mind started racing wondering if I was going to be able to sleep tonight.
Scott Johnson: That's the night that I got zero hours of sleep, and then of course you get into this vicious cycle. The next day you start again analyzing why I didn't sleep, and at the time I didn't know it was because of the podcast. That was the only thing at the time that I could pinpoint back, but this was months later after thinking about, "How did this all start? Why did it occur?Fri, 02 Aug 2019 - 41min - 3 - A conversation with Michael Schwartz about CBT-I and intensive sleep retraining (#3)
Michael Schwartz is the founder of MicroSleep, LLC, and the program director for the Clinical Sleep Health Program at the Oregon Institute of Technology. Michael has over 30 years of experience in sleep. He's a registered and licensed sleep technologist, and he's certified in clinical sleep health. Michael can be found at SleeponQ.com and on Twitter. His Sleep on Cue app is available for iOS devices and Android devices. In this episode, I talk to Michael about cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and intensive sleep retraining.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed: Welcome to The Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed: All right. I'm here with Michael Schwartz. He's the founder of MicroSleep, LLC, and the program director for the Clinical Sleep Health Program at the Oregon Institute of Technology. Michael has over 30 years or experience in sleep. He's a registered and licensed sleep technologist, and he's certified in clinical sleep health.
Martin Reed: First of all, you do have a lot of experience in the field of sleep. How did you get involved in sleep?
Michael Schwartz: Let's see. I came out of college with a degree in psychology, and I do remember them talking a little bit about sleep in a couple psychology classes. Which I think is interesting, because we always hear in medical school that they don't really talk much about sleep. I remembered a little bit of it, and thought it was really interesting, and then didn't think much of it after that.
Michael Schwartz: Then I got out of college and was doing odd jobs in the summer, and I was actually painting a house. The person whose house I was painting was the best friend of a manager of a local sleep lab. The lady stuck her head out the window and said, "Hey, Mike, are you a night person?" I said, "What do you mean?" She said, "There's a job as a sleep technician down the road. Are you interested?"
Michael Schwartz: One thing led to another, and I was hired on to work nights in a sleep lab. Then I was running the big stainless steel polygraph machine with the Z-fold paper. Then that was in the mid to late '80s, and started off down in Southern California, and then just went on from there.
Martin Reed: Great. Now you do a lot of work, especially ... You still do a lot of the sleep apnea work, but you also do a lot of work with insomnia, as well, right? How did you branch out from doing this sleep lab work into insomnia?
Michael Schwartz: With a background in psychology, I was familiar with some of the aspects of insomnia. It was just always a bit of an interest of mine. When I eventually made my way up to Oregon in the 1990s, there was a medical director of the sleep lab where I was in who was a pulmonologist, and was actually quite interested in chronic insomnia. We started talking, and one thing led to another, and he worked it out where I could educate patients. I would provide sleep education.
Michael Schwartz: That's really how I started working with patients in a hospital setting who had, primarily, chronic insomnia. A large number of them had comorbid sleep apnea, so it was a combination type patient that I was educating. It was mostly sleep hygiene, but there was some of the other components that are a little more helpful for chronic insomnia that I was allowed to phrase in my own way with t...Wed, 24 Jul 2019 - 2 - How Ann improved her sleep after 30 years of insomnia (#2)
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Ann is a college professor from New York City who had been struggling with sleep for over 30 years and got great results using cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques.
In this episode, Ann describes how her sleep issues began, all the ways she tried to improve her sleep without success, and how she finally managed to get her sleep back on track. I think many people with chronic insomnia will recognize Ann's struggles with sleep — and the good news is, of course, that since CBT-I techniques worked for Ann, it's very likely they'll work for you, too.
Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript.
Martin Reed: Welcome to The Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that nobody needs to live with chronic insomnia and that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) techniques can help you enjoy better sleep for the rest of your life.
Martin Reed: Okay, so I'm here with Ann Vigo who went through my online coaching course, I think it was around seven months ago now. Ann is a college professor in New York City, I believe. So thanks for for joining me today, Ann.
Ann Vigo: Of course, thanks for having me on.
Martin Reed: So, this is great to have you. Can you tell me a little bit more about like the start of your sleep issues? When did it start and how did it start for you?
Ann Vigo: For me, it started with gaining independence. I never went through sleep issues in college, I was kind of happy in my scholastic world and my ivory tower. And then when it came time to finding a real job, dealing with independence, those were like big issues for me, finding a career I really liked because my studies really didn't translate to really a practical job. I don't think I was very practical. So I had to deal with a lot of reality facing and growing up really, growing up becoming an adult. And these were like struggles for me.
Ann Vigo: And another part of my struggle was a social phobia, where I had kind of isolated myself for a lot of my growing up years, like really formative years, and I didn't have the social connections I should have. So then when it came time to really be out there and to function in life, to function in a career, you need to have a network to have friends, and all this which was natural to most people for me wasn't really like something I was so comfortable with. I had to learn it. So I would have sometimes, I would have this anticipatory anxiety the night before, like before I would meet someone, a friend even. And then I would start obsessing about sleep. So, that was also part of it. So it was quite significant for me, a big obstacle.
Martin Reed: And so, did you did you tend to find that it would start off as you just have one or two bad nights or was it kind of like, bam, it just hit you, you just suddenly have this string of bad nights all in a row?
Ann Vigo: I think it would kind of hit me now and then when I would realize like I'm not happy, I don't have a career path, I feel a little loss, I don't feel comfortable being independent. I would try to forget about it and just kind of go about doing my job. But then now and then I would step back and look at the bigger picture like as a young adult in my 20s and I'd say like, where am I going, I feel very lost. And then I would kind of panic and then that would sort of trigger my anxieties. And then I would fall into negative sleep patterns. My thinking, of course, would affect my sleep, you know, when you feel really hopeless, then I think I would fall into a depression.
Wed, 10 Jul 2019 - 1h 06min
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