Waking Up in the Middle of the Night
One of the Four Kinds of Insomnia.
Another common sleep problem is the tendency to wake up, sometimes repeatedly, in
the middle of the night. Many clients have come to me saying that they have no problem
at all getting to sleep—that they can fall asleep quite easily at bedtime.
The problem is waking up and then having tremendous difficulty falling back to sleep.
There are many theories about this issue, with some studies suggesting a failure
to reach the deepest level of sleep, the rapid eye movement (R.E.M.) level. Once
this pattern emerges it often triggers a certain thought process - a negative expectation.
Thoughts such as: “Oh no, here we go again...” or “Now I'll never
be able to get back to sleep...” occur and exacerbate the problem often becoming
self-fulfilling expectations.
My program works by interrupting this pattern on a subconscious level.
“I still wake up once in a while but nowhere near as often. And when I do wake up
I don't get so wound up about it because I know now I'll be able to get back to
sleep. Sometimes I listen to your CD to get back to sleep, but these days that's
not usually necessary. I just know I can get back to sleep so the whole issue has
just calmed down.”
Vernon Elliot