Insomnia? HATE a fixed wake time? - Make it easier then! 

Thanks Renee - how have you both been and how's your sleep since we last worked together? Joe

Hi thanks for your message. I have a video on this coming out within the month, hyperawareness around sleep. Because there is so much desire and obsession for sleep the brain is constantly thinking about it. If you have that obsession during the day time, you bring that obsession into the bed at night. This is why so much of my work is focused on behavioural changes and what you can do during the day time rather than trying to fix the sleep at night. It's so hard to think your way out of insomnia, but what you can do is do more and more in the day to push it into the background. You'll notice so many written exercises on the course are all aiming towards shifting this focus - everything from from the gratitude jounalling to the memento method, Marie method - it's all to get you to do more behaviours tbhat are not designed to fix your sleep, just to get you to get stuck into your days again. A side effect of this, is if there are other things to occupy the brain and to give you purpose / contentment slowly but surely the obession around trying to fix this problem comes sown, and with this the hyper analysis both during the day and in the bed at night time. I think people want to intellectualise and think there way out of insomnia. I prefer a much simple approach of just doing more and more in the day with repetition and consistency - and with these behavioural changes, eventually the thought pattern changes follow automatically afterwards. Hope this helps, Joe

Hi Sean, yes I'll make this. I'd also say that yes pain, medication, anxiety stress etc will all effect sleep quality but as long as you have the right behavuours in place you can still sleep 'good enough' despite this. I suppose it's about knowing the difference between insomnia, and poor quality sleep due to health concerns. As for fear around sleep quality, does this fear come from -what will happen to my health long term if I don't sleep as well as everyone tells me I should? There has never been a study that proves insomnia causes any long term health concern that holds weight (correlation is not causation) and in fact people with insomnia have the exact same life expectancy as those who don't) yes it makes you feel dreadful and it needs to be fixed, however the fear around sleep quality has been massively overblown and is creating another layer of suffering to the condition. I've also got a video about this coming out soon too!

@@InsomniaTalks thank you for your comment and I look forward to the future videos, I work in a health store and frequently recommend this channel to customers who struggle with sleep 🙂 Yes for me it’s primarily the side effects of a bad night that make me anxious (the sore eyes, twitches etc)… especially if I have several bad nights consecutively of little to no sleep. Being quite health conscious any deviation makes me anxious and triggers hyperarousal I’ve never been a great sleeper but the injury is causing sleep disturbances and the after effects are re-trigger my lack of faith in the ability to sleep 👍

Hi, so I'd set this wake time and stick to it. Alongside putting in place a gentle sleep window. As for what to do at 2am - I'd suggest either counter or stimulus control. If all this sounds foreign to you, have a look at the beginners playlist on this channel, after the first 5 videos you"lol know exactly what to do! Hope this helps, Joe

Hi, so I would say as you have long term insomnia it is time to tackle it properly which starts with shifting that focus away from trying to get as much sleep (or rest where you are half asleep half awake) as you possibly can in the short term to changing you behaviours and thought patterns so that you sleep well over the long run. I would start with the sleep window and doing either stimulus or counter control. You'll find all of this on my playlist here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_gHf0tGcQrY.html If you really want the best chance of ending it, i'd also advise my step-by-step programme which you'll find on the website sleepze.com Joe

@@InsomniaTalks So meaning to say i should focus on waking up the same time everyday instead of worrying if im not getting enough rest for my training right? after i get my sleep pattern settled only thn i should focus on my training right? thank you for replying really means a lot to me! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Hi, so yes still train in the morning as it's a great way to anchor your body clock and sleep drive, but yes fix the sleep long term buy getting up at the same time rather than worrying about each individual day.@@STR675

@@InsomniaTalks Thank you so much for your reply! 🙏🏻

Hi, always set the wake time rather than the bedtime - for a sleep window, say it starts at 11pm like your example, you would still only go to bed at 11pm if you are feeling sleepy - 11pm is just the earliest you can go to bed. As for the exact timings - it depends on works best with your lifestyle. If you started ti go to bed later, your body clock would natural adjust to make you start waking up later, but if you prefer waking up earlier then you would get up earlier and your body would naturally adjust to this. Which do you prefer? you could also meet in the middle of course perhaps 5am is too early but 6am works well, that would be a sleep window from 12:00 - 6am. Once you start sleeping better you can naturally start increasing the sleep window. Either end is fine (after a week add 15 more minutes on to wake time or bedtime) but usually people prefer to keep that consitent wake time. Joe

@@InsomniaTalks Thanks for the reply. I was under the impression that changing either wake or bedtime depended on the type of insomnia you had. For example, if you have sleep maintenance insomnia, you would go with the consistent bedtime and adjusting wake time every week whether as if it’s sleep onset insomnia, you’d have to keep a consistent wake time and adjust bed time. I also heard that majority of the people think it’s best to simply keep a consistent wake time as it helps regulate your body's internal clock and sets a consistent sleep wake schedule & does the job better compared to having a consistent bed time. Is there really a science backed difference between these two? Ideally, it would make more sense for a person who doesn’t have issues falling asleep to set up a consistent bed time. But for those who have trouble falling asleep, they should have a later bedtime. But the most common approach I hear being used regardless of the type of insomnia you have is keeping a consistent wake time while adjusting bedtime weekly. I just wanted to hear your thoughts on this and how relevant it would be in this case. Thanks!

Hi, so a consistent bedtime really should stop being taught as it is literally impossible to sleep unless you have a drive to sleep (sleep drive) so yes, whilst the time you feel sleepy is likely to be consistent if you have a fixed wake time there are 1001 variables that can affect sleep so this is not always the case. As for the type of insomnia - it doesn't matter what type you have as the body clock and the sleep drive is built from your wake time which is the anchor point. You can move the timings of your sleep to whatever time you want from the time you wake up, this is hpw people move between time zones when travelling. But yes, consistent wake time key, once in place the body clock and sleep drive will naturally fall into place. @@omg.uly--Vexnorz

@@InsomniaTalks the consistent bed time or wake time is all in regards to sleep restriction therapy so it’s only sole purpose is just to enhance sleep drive. I understand that it’s merely impossible to have a consistent bedtime outside of SRT. If consistent wake time is key, would the overall best approach to using SRT be adjusting bedtime every week while keeping a consistent wake time? That’s what I’ve read in majority of the books nowadays but I do see the opposite statements being recommended in very few books.