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Has any one tried CBT for Insomnia? (CBT-I)

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Scarlet13

MyPTSD Pro
Ok, my first reason for posting is just to see if any one has tried CBT-I?
This is a specific therapy for insomnia, considered to be actually more effective that sleep meds for insomnia.
So, my first question is just on that. Did you have insomnia that maybe spiraled from PTSD and have you tried this?

My second thing is just to bring up the PTSD/insomnia connection for me and how it may make my treatment tricky.
I am set to go into a CBT-I group mid Jan.
I have been doing research that why this therapy is effective is that it increases sleep time and quality sleep by giving you good CBT thoughts and by helping to lower arousal that can get tied to a bed.
This is totally my problem. From having poor sleep after child birth, I get wide awake when getting into bed (it's that whole Skinner/Pavlov association thing.)

I had a baby, post partum insomnia, bad reaction to an SSRI, and then high cortisol all played a role in this "wide awake assiciation" with bed time.
I am working on all of these initial causes of poor sleep and being wide awake. It has been 6 years.
So, I am ready to try this therapy, but it uses sleep restriction and that is so triggering to me.
It relies on sleep deprivation to improve your sleep actually.
My thing is that my post partum insomnia and bad reaction to lexapro was traumatizing. I stayed awake for a week straight, hallucinated, felt like I was in a waking nightmare, felt like I was going to die or go insane. My post birth time was terrifying and it was made worse by drugs.

Now, I feel like I cannot just practice sleep restriction as then it would be a repeat of that post birth week, which is honestly probably why I have insomnia.

CBT-I relies on the belief that your worries on sleeping are actually unfounded. But sleep deprivation taught me that you could go insane and potentially die. So I don't know.
I hope this makes sense.
I appreciate your thoughts.
 
CBT helped me with some ptsd symptoms. I did not do CBT-I so I'm commenting hoping you will come back to let us know how it goes. I have insomnia and have had it since childhood and directly related to ptsd and for many different reasons.

I posted before that I started diffusing essential oils an hour in the evening and it helped me sleep. I'm pretty sure it's not a placebo effect. Right now I have some painful things going on, and my sleep is messed up again. So I'm curious to see how the cbt - i works for you. Oh, and I don't have "worries" about sleep. When the insomnia hits, I just roll with it. I get up and do work quietly. I've gone for walks in the middle of the night which is actually kind of cool to be out at 2 am when everyone else is asleep (kind of). So I don't know if cbt-i only works on the "worry' of not sleeping, if so then it probably won't work for me.

I feel "sleep deprivation" is different than insomnia. When I'm sleep deprived it's caused by an outside force keeping me awake--such as neighbors dogs, neighbors commotions and parties, if having an infant all the needs they have every 45 minutes or so, or pulling an all nighter for a project, or traveling sometimes has crazy hours you must keep. The sleep deprivation if kept up does create serious health and mental wellbeing problems for me. Whereas insomnia to me is this wide awake naturally, I can't relax, I'm vigilant. I have some kind of free floating doom and morbid thinking and some S/I. So getting up and working helps with that for distraction until my body decides to go to sleep sometime around 4 or 5 am.

Oh, and Lexapro should be illegal. discontinuation syndrome puts people through actual hell. I don't think you will experience that again as long you are not withdrawing from that horrible drug.
 
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My issue with undergoing CBT-I and the sleep restriction part of it is the trauma triggering component of it.
I am trying to figure out how to bravely do the restricting, but then I feel terrified, like I am going to die or go insane.
I have a trauma therapist, but she seems more helpful when it is childhood trauma or relationship trauma, not the medical stuff, but she does understand.
I will just have to get help from her, but I dont want to get so triggered and then not do it right.
 
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