How Felicity transformed her relationship with sleep by practicing new sleep habits, being kinder to herself, and living life independently of sleep (#35)

Listen to the podcast episode (audio only) Felicity had struggled with sleep, on and off, for her entire life. Usually, her sleep would get back on track after a few months of sleep disruption — however, when sleep issues returned due to some big life changes, Felicity's sleep didn't recover. In an attempt to make sleep happen, Felicity started to spend a lot of time researching sleep. She gave up coffee, she experimented with medication and supplements. She even booked herself into hotels because sleep seemed so impossible in her own bed. Fortunately, Felicity was able to get her sleep back on track and change her mindset about sleep by implementing behaviors that created better conditions for sleep. She practiced self-care and did things that helped her continue to move toward the kind of life she wanted to live, independently of sleep. Felicity did get frustrated with her progress — she felt improvements were not occurring quickly enough. However, because she committed to techniques that help set the stage for sleep and because she was ready, willing, and able to explore her relationship with sleep, Felicity's sleep did improve. Perhaps most importantly of all, though, Felicity's entire mindset around sleep changed — she stopped identifying as an insomniac, she started to be kinder to herself whenever difficult nights occurred, and she learned that sleep doesn't require any effort and doesn't respond well to effort. Sleep is no longer something that gets in the way of Felicity's life — she lives her life independently of sleep and, as a result, she is sleeping well and living well. 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, Felicity. Thank you so much for coming onto the podcast today. Felicity Jackson: Thanks for having me. Martin Reed: It's great to have you on. Let's start right at the beginning, as always. Can you just tell us when your problems with sleep first began and if you've got any kind of idea what triggered that sleep disruption? Felicity Jackson: Yep. So, I've had issues on and off with sleep my whole life. So, I found, on your podcast, there's two types of people. There's the people who've had a short term event that's created their insomnia, and then there's the other people, like me, who've struggled with it on and off your entire life. So, I identified with that. Felicity Jackson: I remember as a young kid we had a family holiday house. All the kids slept in the same room, just stare at the ceiling and irritated by little noises. And then, I've had, during university exams or moving house or sleeping in hotels, I've always struggled a bit with having short term insomnia, but it always recovered itself.