Exactly it just makes it so much worse!

Yesss! They make me feel hopeless and scared for my life, as if my lack of sleep will lead to my death tomorrow. It is disheartening and frustrating to continuously hear this narrative, as if my well-being is entirely in my own hands.

@theresiasinta7730 I came across good advice from sleep expert who said meditation or yoga nidra are as healthy as deep sleep so instead of becoming anxious I relax with a good sleep meditation

​@@tessatandler393thank you for sharing! I will definitly try it. Do you have particular sleep meditation and yoga nidra that you are using in youtube?

Thank you Donald for your support!!

Thank you so much for your support!

Only a few people who never had insomnia really understands it. Overwhelming majority don’t fully get what it’s like to be in a situation like that. But I hope the conventional medical and psychological field catches up with that eventually 🤍

Sorry, ‘anthropomorPHISE’…!😮

Thants a good topic to discuss. In short I would say that the more we try to push ourselves to sleep longer, the earlier we tend to get up. I would go the path of least resistance and allow sleep to take any duration - if shorter sleep happens- fine! If it gets a bit longer - fine too! Equanimity and allowing mindset can help us feel less pressured which is when a lot of magic can unfold.

I’ve been there. Even longer. 6 days straight without a wink. Negative mindset. Terrified. Doom and gloom. Depressed. Even waiting death!! All of it. It sucks…. In those times, if you can shift mind set ever so slightly positive, almost fake it if you have to, it’ll make all the difference. Get the book Set and Forget it my Daniel Erichsen. This too shall pass!

Hi Veronika! Nice to meet you:) I am really glad to read that you are feeling better! "I actually feel better sometimes after not sleeping." - this is so insightful! The actual proof that no matter how you slept you can still have a meaningful day! And I actually don't find it weird that you have energy in spite of less sleep at all! So common and I had it too. The way how I explain it is that there are two possible things in action: 1. You know how insomnia is about hyperarousal. And sometimes that hyperarousal is not always anxiety, it could be more neutral (or even positive) emotions: excitement, curiosity, etc. This can partially contribute to that feeling "energized". 2. But there is another thing that may play even a bigger role in that "energizing" - it is how we perceive sleep. Sleep perception is so interesting because it may feel like you slept less but in reality your body was going through the normal sleep stages. If they'd check your brainwaves in the lab they will show totally normal sleep pattern. This hyperarousal makes us feel like we are awake :) So this is good news: you sleep more than you think! This is why "energy out of nowhere" - is because your body knows how to get the necessary amount of sleep even if it feels like the opposite, we can totally trust our body in this :) I think the whole journey, since I started unlearning fear and befriending wakefulness took 8 -10 months, but I don't want to set any "right" or "normal" timeframes for anyone, as we are all different and plus, setting yourself a time goal can actually work the opposite - can create some performance anxiety that can delay the process :) And as for the not sleeping part: I remember having 6 nights with (what I thought) 0h sleep. But now looking at that, there was definitely some sleep was happening (it's again a sleep perception thing) even though it felt like I was all the time awake. Let me know if that makes sense! And if you have any followup questions:)

@@FearlessSleep Thank you for the explanation. I did not know about the sleep perception thing... I had my eyes closed but felt that I am still conscious. Sometimes I got frustrated tossing and turning. Then got out of bed for few minutes. However I do not like to get out of bed because I feel tired. I started doing the sleep window and waking up the same time every day. Wow 6 nights without sleep and you are still here :) You must be a very strong person.

@@tuttutboy2637 I have rule of thumb when it comes to getting up at night: if you feel cosy, but sleep doesn't come, it is totally fine to stay and enjoy that peaceful time. But if you start feeling frustrated, angry, I think this is a good idea to get up to change the settings a bit - you can do something that you would find enjoyable or meaningful. I don't really like the advice such as "get up and do something boring" - because this just makes that time being awake worse: you try hard to get sleepy, but it doesn't work that well usually. This is why doing something for your own joy can do so much! Hope this helped a bit, but let me know :)

Alina, thank you for the video! You mentioned in your comment "unlearning" fear - how does that actually happen? What does the process feels like in terms of emotions and feelings? You also mention insomnia related emotions that are not our enemies. What do you think about sadness and depression? They are definitely the byproducts of insomnia, however how to turn them into a friend? Thank you!

Hi I love your videos and just started following you! Would you say no to taking sleep gummies to fall asleep not melatonin but garden of life gummies or sleep tea

I talked about what to do when we are awake in this video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fb-hn7aQzp-ul4U.html you might find it helpful!

This was me on friday night! Probably the worst night I've ever had and a true low point in my life. Was really rough. I also recently started reading Lord of the Rings. Last night I started doing something different (I knew I couldn't just sit there and be depressed all night as that was so rough). So I decided that after 30 mins or so of trying to sleep, I'd get up and read 5 pages, then go back to the bedroom and try again. Took me 4-5 tries but I finally slept from about 4-930 and was very grateful I had. I'm not a big reader but this book is so damn good that I was actually happy to get up and read a few more pages each time. I was also feeling frustrated but I knew I had to push through. I use a headlamp to read that has a pure red light on it. That helps keep you away from blue light that will harm your melatonin production. Hope you can find a book you like equally as much! It really helped last night. Hope your situation improves. J

@@FearlessSleep Thank you!!!!

@@aslanbc Very helpful, thank you J!!

@@aslanbc Tolkien is a fucking legend