Sleep Restriction Therapy

I have tried Sleep Restriction Therapy on three separate occasions. The first time after reading about it on the internet. The second time after reading a book on the subject. And the third time after being referred to a psychologist for CBT-I. These three attempts were roughly a year apart from each other.

All three attempts failed miserably. When trying to pursue "something further" with my psychologist, I realized that SRT was really the only thing in his bag of tricks.

I know I'm not the only person who has faced this. So my question is: Is there a "next step" for a person for whom sleep hygiene, pills, and SRT have failed to bring relief?

Is your issue falling asleep, or staying asleep ?

BYEBYEINSOMNIA wrote:Is your issue falling asleep, or staying asleep ?

I am a middle of the night insomniac. I fall asleep easily, but wake up after a couple of hours, and have great difficulty falling back to sleep. Often, after getting up for a while, I'm able to get back to sleep. But often I never do get back to sleep.

I've tried embracing the idea of the "second sleep." That is, that for some people sleep comes in two waves, with a space of an hour or more in between. It's an interesting idea. And it takes some of the pressure off from me, in knowing that this is normal for many people.

I also recently learned that eating fried foods screws up my sleep, even if I don't have any discernible heartburn. So things are a little better.