Listen "What Finally Helped Me Escape Insomnia"
Episode Synopsis
I know how terrifying insomnia can be.I’ve lived through it myself for 5 brutal years.I created the End Insomnia System because nothing else worked.And I tried everything.This system wasn’t born in a lab.It came from my own desperation.Let me take you back to how it all started.My descent into insomniaIt began after a particularly stressful period in my life.The stress eventually passed.But the insomnia didn’t.Even once the circumstances calmed down, my body remained on high alert.I dragged myself through each day, exhausted and tense.My brain was foggy.I was irritable, anxious, and scared.Scared of another night.Scared of how I’d feel the next morning.Scared this was never going to end.I kept telling myself it would resolve on its own.But it didn’t.In fact, things only got worse.The turning pointI would lie awake for hours.Then finally fall asleep—only to jolt awake again, heart pounding.Sometimes I’d feel panic setting in as soon as I got into bed.Other times, I’d toss and turn all night in a kind of frozen dread.I couldn’t relax.I couldn’t think clearly.And I couldn’t find anyone who seemed to truly understand what I was going through.Even people trying to help didn’t get it.Sleep was becoming the central force in my life.And it was wrecking everything.I stopped enjoying things.Stopped seeing friends.Stopped feeling like myself.It was a lonely path to walk.So I started chasing solutions.I tried everythingHere’s just some of what I tried:Sleeping pillsSleep hygieneHerbal teas and tincturesRelaxation appsExerciseWeighted blanketsBlackout curtainsPre-bedtime routinesCold showersHot showersVitamin DVitamin B12No caffeineNo alcoholNo screens 2 hours before bedSunlight first thing in the morning, blue-light glassesSleep restriction therapy and CBT-iSome helped for a few nights.Most didn’t help at all.None of it lasted.After CBT-i failed me—despite being “the gold standard”—I knew I had to do something different.I wasn’t willing to spend the rest of my life sleep-deprived and afraid.What finally made things clickI started researching what actually causes long-term insomnia.What I found changed everything.Insomnia almost always starts from stress.But it persists because of sleep anxiety and nervous system activation.When you’re afraid of not sleeping, your body goes into survival mode.And the more you worry about sleep, the more you unknowingly train your nervous system to stay alert at night.This is called conditioned hyperarousal.And it explains why you can feel calm all day, but your heart still pounds the moment you lie down.That insight finally helped me understand the real problem.But I still didn’t have a clear path to fix it.What helped me finally escape insomniaAround this time, I found an approach called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).It had been proven effective for anxiety, trauma, and hyperarousal.But it had barely been applied to insomnia.So I teamed up with a therapist.We studied the research.We filled in the gaps.We added in tools from nervous system work, psychology, and mindfulness.We tested everything.I experimented on myself.And slowly…Things began to shift.I began to feel calm at night—even if I...
More episodes of the podcast Former Insomniac by End Insomnia
How Insomnia Starts (And Why It Gets Worse)
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Why Nothing Has Worked for Your Insomnia
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