These phenomena often seem bizarre and strange and lead you to think something must be wrong. In this video we talk about the culprit - hyperarousal. We discuss what hyperarousal is and how to have less of these experiences.
Predicting the weather is possible because whether it rains or not is not affected by your forecast. How you will sleep tonight or in three weeks is a very different story.
The only forecasting you should do is answer these two questions: Do you want to sleep better? Are you willing to do some work?
Jay is waking up much earlier than in the past and tries not to worry. Karan slept well until COVID and is wondering if just staying up until naturally feeling sleepy is a good idea? Ricardo has started CBTi. He feels really sleepy at 6 pm but at 11 pm all that sleepiness has evaporated. Why does this happen and how can he keep that sleep drive until later? Colleen is in a stretch of little sleep. She wonders, is it really important not to talk to friends? It takes Jerry longer and longer to fall asleep despite taking medications. What’s going on?
Peter is in week 9 of CBTi and is stuck after early progress. What’s wrong? Dench used to sleep with 0 effort until a few weeks ago and wonders what’s going on. Zoltan asks why doctors always talk about how little sleep is not good for your health. Mikael wakes up like clockwork 4 hours after falling asleep + has vivid dreams. What’s up?
A great comment by Don leads to a discussion on how taking supplements can lead to less hyperarousal. And why this can become a problem.
In this episode we talk about the three problems with textbook CBTi:
1. Setting an extremely short sleep window
2. The rule of getting out of bed if not sleeping in 20 minutes
3. The rule of using the bed only for sleep
We also go over the better approaches:
1. Set a sleep window that you can commit to for weeks or more
2. Get out of bed only if you're frustrated
3. Use the bed for anything that gives you pleasure!
In this episode we talk about to magical moments. One is when you have an insight, an understanding that transforms how do you think about sleep. This will happen to you as long as you’re willing to learn and keep an open mind.The other magical moment is the experience of sleeping without having done anything to produce sleep. This happens when you don’t do anything that can explain away the magic.
Kevin slept well for 6 months but after a bout of tinnitus sleep deteriorated. He's meditated and done breathing exercises for hours only to get 2-3 hours of sleep. What to do? Kevin is suffering greatly from insomnia and is planning to get out of bed 3 am every morning. Is this a good plan? Luke is enjoying watching TV in bed instead of on a couch and wonders if a slight tension is normal? Mary misses a time before the isolation of COVID. She knows that she will sleep better once quarantine is over and does not want to take sleeping pills.
Navinder has seen amazing results four days into starting a CBTi program. But so far he’s just been going to sleep whenever he’s felt like it and getting up whenever he wakes up. How important is it to have a set rise time?
Laura has been on the verge of asking her doctor for sleeping pills. I make a case for trying to avoid anything that either makes you frustrated because it “doesn’t work” or something that you think makes you sleep and erodes your sleep confidence.
Ben drops some great live questions including why “good sleepers” can sleep in when you should avoid this when working in your sleep.
Juro and Alina have realized that doing the opposite of what the threat monitoring part of the brain wants to do can be really helpful. Pondering these insights The Fearless Method is born. This is a way of rapidly teaching the brain that insomnia is a perceived threat and taking a leap towards sleeping well.
In this episode we explore why The Fearless Method can work, how to use it, for whom it is for and what teaching points apply to everyone.
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