Losing Sleep Over Losing Sleep
Our 2nd Discussion group comes up in three weeks on Thursday, October 7th at 8 pm Eastern on the topic of Chronic Insomnia.
As an introduction, let’s delve into the singular tendency for insomniacs to worry about their lost sleep. When this worry occurs acutely, say once or twice when a person is going through a difficult period at work, this specific “anxiety-about-sleep” may disappear when the work stressors/issues/conflicts resolve.
In contrast, among a susceptible portion who suffer from acute insomnia, the sleeplessness frequently becomes chronic simply because individuals cannot stop worrying about their lack of sleep. In a nutshell, obsessing about sleep worsens sleep.
This worry takes many forms, including: worrying about being able to fall asleep “on time” so enough sleep will be gained; worrying about being able to fall back asleep after an awakening; worrying about how a next day will play out based on a night’s sleep loss. If you’ve been in this situation, you know it can cascade into far too many dimensions, leading to a place where sleep emerges as the center of your attention. Ultimately, this thinking-feeling activity that often reframes Hamlet’s question, “To sleep or not to sleep” generates the highly maladaptive and dysfunctional state known as “Losing sleep over losing sleep” or LSOLS.
Depending upon how far down the LSOLS path the patient has traveled, it becomes extremely common for prescription sleeping pills to enter into the sleep regimen. The sleeping pills feed the LSOLS cycle, particularly when drugs provide inconsistent benefits, a very common occurrence among chronic insomniacs.
Regrettably, despite the failure of the pills to yield consistent and excellent results, these individuals still see medications as the “answer,” which leads me to ask, “what is the question?” Are you trying to sleep more or better? Are you willing to pay the price for more hours of lesser quality? Is the continuity of your sleep (no awakenings) more important than how you feel in the morning and the rest of the day? What is your level of frustration from the inconsistent results you are currently achieving with medications?
To be continued…