9 replies to this topic

[OpaqueMind]

During these past few years, suffering from insomnia has crippled my actualisation as a full, well-rounded, life-loving member of this world. I tried everything (which really didn't amount to much) in the form of a billion supplements, herbs and drugs to try and bring about a good, solid, restorative night of sleep. Alas, as is so often the case with chemical interventions, it was all in vain (and not without significant detriment to my wallet). I'm sure many of you have and currently are experiencing the same personal hell, to varying degrees and consequences. However, I've come upon a solution that seems little known in the mainstream, at least I only came upon it by pure chance from a post of another member on this board.

Simply, it is a Cognitive Behavioural approach to treating insomnia, an overview of which can be found here. This is not a pill you take, this is not the sledgehammer approach of self-lobotimazation to a delicate problem. This gets to the heart of the matter, namely, that at some point in your life you may have suffered from secondary insomnia, which is insomnia that is caused by other factors ie depression, substance abuse, newborn infant crying you awake every night, and which you have now been conditioned to assume - primary insomnia. This set of techniques will teach you to decondition these associations your mostly wonderful but decidedly dastardly your brain has created.

I've been implementing CBT-I for about 2 weeks now and I've gone from being in bed an average of 9-10 hours a night and getting about 7 hours of fragmented sleep to sleeping about 7.5 hours solidly! I haven't slept properly for about two years! And it is getting better every night! I don't think I have to tell you, compared to the efficacy of all those chemical band-aids, that that is fucking insane. And insanely wonderful. So I had to tell you guys cause I hadn't yet seen a thread on it! To be precise, I used this workbook here, which was highly commended on amazon. I am not in any way affiliated with the author, but this book was the silver spike that slay the beast that perpetually dragged me down into the void of zombification. Now I sink into the real void, nightly. May you do the same.

Edited by OpaqueMind, 24 January 2013 - 03:54 PM.

[platypus]

How many hours a day do you spend on your feet or doing some kind of exercise? Does your body really NEED to sleep when you go to bed?

[OpaqueMind]

I waver in and out of days on days off, but generally 30 minutes to an hour a day. To be honest I feel like it's a negligible factor in my insomnia. For me, when I hit the hay, it's not about body tiredness; either my mind is flying, racing uncontrollably or it's not. The great thing about this program is that when you go into the sleep restriction phase you're literally just SO knackered when you go to bed that you'll very quickly drift off. So at first you run up a slight deficit and then you become conditioned to sleep quickly and solidly.

[OpaqueMind]

Damn I just realised I messed up the title haha. It's meant to say CURE not CURSE. Damn you fingers.

[dirdir207]

Fuck

[Thorsten3]

Fuck

That was just incredibly profound. Thank you for sharing that with us.

[dirdir207]

Fuck

That was just incredibly profound. Thank you for sharing that with us.

I apologize, couldn't help it given the name of the thread, plus that always helps me sleep. On another note melatonin, glycine and magnesium is a very effective sleep regimen. And if sleep is impossible, doxylamine succinate is supremely effective at knocking me out.

[jadamgo]

Yes, CBT-I is the most effective treatment for primary insomnia currently available, and it also works great for DSPS if combined with light therapy in the morning.

CBT-I is in fact more effective at improving quality of life than any sleeping pill currently on the market.

[Mike C]

I practice CBT and have been for many years. I read about it from a renowned sleep expert william dement, in the "Promise of Sleep", although he did not call it CBT. great book although I disagree with one part of it wherein he says favorable things about Ambian-in his defense the drug was new then and looked promising. But the basics are there and a whole lot more about the dynamics of sleep. Also he states, and in my case it is definitely true, that caffeine first thing can be a good thing for sleep because you want to "WAKE UP" first thing to set your clock. He himself limits himself to that one wake up cup in the morning-I'm not so disciplined;-).

He also strongly suggests same time to bed and same time getting up-very important. The body has its own clock and can be trained or conditioned to it. It is also very important not to oversleep-that messes everything up big time.

the two factors very important are sleep debt and the clock-for instance even if you have enough sleep debt if you screw up your clock you wont sleep well. Like going to bed real late and waking up at 6:00 A.M because normally that is the time you get up-so bedtime and getting up must be rigidly set if your an insomniac. Figure out how many hours you actually need, usually 7-8 and work on not staying in bed any longer-or even go the extreme route of sleep restriction if you must to reset the clock.

Mike C.

[chesupp]

I've had insomnia for a few years. Usually wake up 3-5 hours after going to bed almost like clockwork. Even if I went to bed at 2am which was par for the course. Anyway, one thing that seems to have slightly helped and only started recently is less caffeine intake. Especially after 3pm. This was mentioned to me by my doctor but I didn't really take it much to heart and didnt't down on my 48+ ounces of coffee a day.