Listen to the podcast episode (audio only) When Summer experienced consecutive nights of insomnia, sleep started to consume her life. She started taking time off work and she began endlessly researching sleep. Summer felt that if she could get rid of anxiety and stress things would improve — but this led to even more of a struggle as Summer went to war with her mind. Sleep became an obsession. It was all she could think about. Summer felt as though she was losing control. She felt helpless. She started to blame herself. It was becoming increasingly difficult for her to live the life she ..read more

Listen to the podcast episode (audio only) Nina typically dealt with occasional periods of sleep disruption by taking some form of over-the-counter medication. When she fell pregnant this was no longer an option. Work stress seemed to make sleep more difficult and so Nina stopped taking on work. Her sleep would improve but every time she started working again, she struggled with sleep all over again. At this point, Nina thought her ongoing struggle with sleep might be down to pregnancy hormones and yet, after giving birth, her sleep seemed to get even worse. Nina tried to make sleep happen by ..read more

Listen to the podcast episode (audio only) In this episode, Kreuza shares her journey through the challenging landscape of insomnia and somniphobia — a fear of sleep. Initially, she found Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) techniques helpful. However, when sleep problems returned as somniphobia, the same techniques faltered. Feeling isolated in her struggle, Kreuza realized that implementing rules around sleep were not helping her. A turning point came when she embraced a more flexible, compassionate approach to sleep. She began to practice accepting her thoughts and feelings w ..read more

Rachel’s struggle with insomnia started in grad school. She tried everything from sleep aids to strict bedtime rules and routines to improve her sleep, but nothing worked. The harder she tried to fix her sleep and get rid of sleep-related anxiety, the more difficult things became. The turning point came when Rachel changed her approach. She stopped focusing on trying to create the perfect conditions for sleep and she stopped trying to control her thoughts and feelings. She started being kinder to herself. She practiced making space for difficult thoughts and feelings and she practiced building ..read more

Listen to the podcast episode (audio only) Eric’s insomnia journey began after he woke in the middle of the night and experienced a huge panic attack. From then on, sleep became very difficult. As he tried to fix things, Eric stopped watching TV in bed with his wife — something they both enjoyed. He tried napping, even though he never used to nap in the past. He tried sleeping on the couch. He tried sleeping in a chair. He tried blue-light-blocking glasses. He stopped traveling. He isolated himself as he became convinced that his struggles were reflected in his appearance. He would beat himse ..read more

Listen to the podcast episode (audio only) Gerry struggled with sleep for decades. The more he struggled, the more effort he put into sleep, and the more effort he put into sleep, the more he struggled. Eventually, Gerry realized that trying to make sleep happen was only making things even more difficult. With this realization, Gerry changed his approach. Instead of trying to force sleep, he practiced being kinder to himself when insomnia showed up. He practiced experiencing wakefulness and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that can come with it with less struggle by being more of an ob ..read more

Listen to the podcast episode (audio only) As a business owner, Anne-Claire began overextending herself and her sleep started to suffer. She reduced her workload and experimented with supplements and medication but her sleep seemed to get even worse. After deciding that she didn’t want to continue using medication, Anne-Claire began to explore whether changing her approach to sleep and her response to insomnia might be helpful. Like most people, Anne-Claire had tried to fight or avoid the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with insomnia — and this got her tangled up in more of a s ..read more

Listen to the podcast episode (audio only) The stress of COVID and the breakup of Jessy’s community created a period of sleep disruption that she couldn’t shake off, no matter how hard she tried. At first, she found it really hard to fall asleep and soon after that she started to wake during the night and found it hard to fall back to sleep, too. Difficult nights became more frequent — at first they would show up just once a week, then twice a week, then a few times a week. As sleep got more difficult, Jessy started to get really scared and things spiraled from there because no matter wh ..read more

Listen to the podcast episode (audio only) A couple of years ago, Maria experienced anxiety and panic attacks. When she didn’t sleep for over 72 hours, she felt that something was wrong with her. She feared that the chemistry of her brain had changed and her days became dominated by sleep-related thoughts and worries. Medication didn’t seem to help. Maria felt lonely, confused, and afraid. She felt that she couldn’t even leave the house because things were so difficult. She withdrew from doing things that she enjoyed. She found it hard to focus on anything other than sleep. Feeling completely ..read more

Listen to the podcast episode (audio only) Leah’s insomnia showed up around puberty and was a consistent presence throughout her teenage years. As an adult, Leah found that insomnia would often come and go in response to the stress and anxiety that comes with being a human being — until it showed up and stuck around for several weeks. What that happened, Leah found it harder to be the person she wanted to be and live the life she wanted to live. Sleeping pills no longer seemed to be the solution and she found herself really struggling. Like most people who struggle with chronic insomnia ..read more