How Wayne improved his sleep by thinking of sleep as a friend that doesn’t need to be controlled (#36)

Listen to the podcast episode (audio only) Wayne's experience with insomnia began when he was preparing for his board exams. Because he needed to get up earlier than usual, he started going to bed earlier than usual. Unfortunately, this made it harder for Wayne to fall asleep — and, as a result, nights started to become stressful and he began to experience a lot of sleep-related anxiety. In an effort to address this sleep disruption, Wayne started implementing a number of sleep hygiene rituals. He experimented with sleep supplements and started to record, analyze, and evaluate every aspect of his sleep. Unfortunately, these actions — although completely understandable — served only to perpetuate his insomnia. Ultimately, Wayne got his sleep back on track by recognizing that sleep is a natural process that doesn't require or respond well to effort. He started to go to bed later at night. He started to make some space for difficult thoughts, feelings, and emotions rather than trying to fight them, and he reminded himself that sleep always happens in the end. This process took time but today, Wayne thinks of sleep as a friend — not as an enemy or something to be feared. He no longer puts pressure on himself to sleep and he no longer puts any effort into sleep. As a result, he sleeps well and is living the kind of life he wants to live. Click here for a full transcript of this episode.Click here to hide the transcript. Martin Reed: Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that by changing how we respond to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it, we can move away from struggling with insomnia and toward living the life we want to live. Martin Reed: The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided "as is" and without warranties, either express or implied. Martin Reed: Hi, Wayne. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come onto the podcast. Wayne Tan: Thank you for having me. Martin Reed: I'm really excited to go through everything we've got planned to discuss, but we're never going to get anywhere unless we start at the beginning, so let's start there. If you could just give us an idea of when your sleep problems first began and what you think maybe caused those initial issues with sleep. Wayne Tan: Okay. Yeah. My sleep problems started back in March of 2020, right around the beginning of COVID. It all happened around the time when I was preparing for my board exams for optometry school. I remember at the time I had given myself a very strict bedtime that I wanted to meet in order to basically prepare myself, not only mentally and also academically for boards, but I wanted to have a good sleep schedule. Typically, I was a person who went to bed at 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, a little bit later. You could consider me a night owl, but for this exam that I was preparing for, I had to get up basically around 6:30 or 7:00. To me, that was very daunting. I told myself I need to get the bed by 11:00 at the latest. I put this pressure on myself to really get to bed around that time. That was around March when the test was going to be. That's when it all started.