Timeless principle during insomnia recovery. Benefits and nuances
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- čas přidán 17. 10. 2023
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Thank you,.I used to fall asleep very casually, Ever since I was bombarded with the information that getting 7-8 hours of sleep is essential for being healthy, I started being hyper aware of the "drift". I used to play bargain as each hour passes...
> Oh at least, I'll get 7 hours
> *An hour passes*
> At least 6 hours, Maybe?
> *An hour passes*
> Maybe I should try meditating, I should get at least 5
> *An hour passes*
> I must get 4 at the least, I deserve that
> *An hour passes*
> Fuck this..God, If I don't sleep at least 3 hours..I'm going atheist mode.
> *An hour passes*
> OK, This is life I guess
> *An hour passes*
> Listening to a podcast about some weird branch of mathematics called Knot theory, Which I don't understand at all.
In short, Timeless principle works folks. Don't try to play the "at least" game.
Great comment! I totally recognise myself in that internal dialogue :))
Yes, timeless sleep helped me not focus on how many hours I am awake!
I also wake up a few times at night to go to the bathroom.
By the 3rd bathroom trip I do get curious about the time.
Lately I check the time by the 3rd or 4th waking. Sometimes I fall back to sleep and sometimes I stay awake.
I just stay in bed until the alarm goes off.
I felt like I was being too rigid since before insomnia I always checked the time when I woke up to go to the bathroom.
Thank you for the video! It eased my mind about checking the time or not.
Glad you found it helpful
Yes timeless principle really helped me reinforce my recovery because when I was waking in the night to go to the bathroom and returned to my bed, I had no idea what time it was and the only thing I could do is fall alseep again. The “oh no… it’s only two thirty am, what am I going to do if I don’t go back to sleep” line I was telling myself was no longer happening, because it could have been eleven, two thirty or four, etc. My brain doesn’t know so it left me alone. The first few nights I did this I was litterally lost and scared but after a few nights I was falling asleep after being awake. It really helped in my recovery. Thank you Alina for the video. 🇨🇦
Thanks for sharing this valuable input Guylaine! It is helpful to know what to expect at first when we begin to implement this principle
Did you have maintenance insomnia? I am really struggling with that
@@lillianyoukhana8451 yes, I had maintenance insomina (as well as on set insomnia). Once I was able to fall asleep and not be anxious about the onset insomnia then I tackled the maintenance insomnia. It’s the anxiety that drove me crazy. Let’s say I was going to the bathroom after a few hours of being asleep then instantly I would fret about when I return to my bed, what if I can’t fall back to sleep. It was always around 2:30:am so the night was young and I couldn’t deal with only having 4 hours of sleep, every night I looked at the clock and had anxiety, disapointment and fear. Then I decided not to look at the clock, not knowing what time it was when I was going to the bathroom. After a couple of nights doing that I was able to fall asleep again and sleep a few more hours. I was so happy about that I had to share this with Alina’s community. It’s been a few months since I don’t suffer from both onset and maintenance insomnia and I feel free. Now I truly don’t remember when I fall asleep during both situations. Of course I do have shorter nights but that is due to what I am going through emotionally or if I have something to do the next day that plays with my brain. I don’t control how many hours I sleep every night but I do fall asleep and fall back to sleep that is the most important thing for me. If I did this you can do this too.
Hi Alina, thanks for another nice and helpful video. I've also found the timeless sleep window one of the big things that helped. Recognized the things you mentioned -- afraid to open laptop for fear of knowing time and also mind noticing external cues for time of night. Doing better after a summer speedbump. Fear is more vague and hopefully fading. By the way, the expression you were seeking was "double edge sword" - i.e. a sword that can cut both ways for good and bad.
Thanks for sharing this! Glad you've been doing better! And thanks so much for reminding me of the right sword expression - that is exactly what I wanted to say in the video, but forgot the right phrasing :)
Hi Alina. Great Video. What are some tips that you have for someone that gets scared/triggered when they happen to see the time and see it’s late. i’m trying to apply the concept that time is a neutral thing but i’ve created a fear around seeing that “it’s late and i’m still not sleeping” type of thing
It's a really good question. I need to make a follow up video on it. In short - letting that first wave of fear to come and just open up to experience it. As we begin expect and welcome that initial shock reaction, it stops being so shocking with time. And at some point we reach a place where we don't care whether we see time or not - it becomes a non-factor for how the night is experienced. That said, we no longer monitor our sleep performance, nor we are stressing about randomly seeing the time. Hope this clarifies things!
How can this work when you get zero sleep, zero sleep multiple nights. I obviously know I got zero sleep and my brain is tracking that. I don’t get hyper sleep either. I usually know when/if I do cuz I’ll dream. How can the timeless window work when this happens? Or what’s the best thing to do in this case, just to change your reaction to a sleepless night?
Hi Angela, timeless principle helps reduce pressure from having to "perform" sleep. When we keep our eyes constantly on what time it is and doing the sleep math in our minds, we are more pressured which often translates into staying awake for a long time. But remember that the point of the timeless principle is not to make sleep happen or ensure that an all nighter will not happen, but to bring the ease into our experience of the night, even if it happens to be a zero sleep night. There is nothing more powerful in creating a sleepless night than the fear of a sleepless night, if that makes sense 🙏
I hear the sound of the churchclock every hour at night. You have an advice how to deal with this? Just accepting the sound and let it pass?
Greetings Alexander
oh, yeah, churchclock every hour, - sounds like a powerful lesson for the recovery. It is possible to get to the place where hearing that clock isn't an issue and our mind does not even notice it most of the time. I had a similar challenge but with trams. I could hear them at around 4 am when they first start to go, and it was one of the most scary sounds to hear because that would mean it was another sleepless night for me.
What's the most scary is not the sound itself but how we feel hearing it. We are afraid of anxiety/panic that comes in reaction to the sound. And so, a helpful way to overcome it is to "befriend" that anxiety reaction, be open to experience it, as uncomfortable as it can be. It doesn't mean that sleep won't come once you hear it.
We want to let brain know that the sound and our automatic reaction to it aren't the enemies but just a conditioned response (like Pavlov's dogs' reflexes) that has no real meaning. When there is no threat associated with the sound (and with the reaction to it), the brain stops paying attention to it.
Folks! Can someone explain to me how people all across the globe do the same stuff?😂