“I really thought that I was a hopeless case. That I was doomed to poor sleep for the rest of my life. But Dr. Oexman showed me I can be normal too. These are tools I can take with me for the rest of my life.”
– Ivey

…

“Hi, my name is Ivey and I’m currently working towards a career in the outdoors. I got back from Chile in March, I had been on two long expeditions. Each of them was about 38 days and one of them involved a lot of sleepless nights. My team and I were conducting an exploratory traverse of the Northern Icefield and we spent one 24 hour day walking and a couple of nights walking too just so that we had better snow to walk on. In addition to these sleepless nights, some of our days lasted about 14 hours leaving us only about four to sleep. While traveling to and from Chile, I had overnight flights, which I did not sleep on. I chose to watch movies instead because I just knew that I’d never be able to sleep on a plane. By the time I got back from Chile, my sleep schedule was so messed up that for about three weeks I didn’t hardly sleep at all.

I might’ve gotten one or two hours a night and of course I would panic about it. In the past I had tried everything to get good sleep. I tried supplements. I tried melatonin. I tried going to bed earlier, spending more time in bed, going to bed later, meditating, yelling at the wall, screaming into a pillow, crying, everything, and sleep just wouldn’t come, which was really frustrating. And I am a person that struggles with anxiety and when I don’t sleep, my anxiety definitely gets worse. And so then I’m anxious about not sleeping, and then I’m anxious about being anxious about not sleeping, and that’s pretty much the story of my life. When I was a kid, I didn’t sleep well either, couldn’t fall asleep before midnight. I would panic and go get my parents and ask them to fix it, and of course they couldn’t and all that did was serve to annoy them.

So by the time I got back from Chile, I had just had it. Felt like I had tried everything short of being prescribed medication to sleep, and I didn’t really want to do that because I was really holding out hope that I could be a normal sleeper. So when I stumbled across Somly it kind of seemed perfect because this Cognitive Behavioral Therapy program for insomniacs promised just that, natural sleep. It didn’t say I had to take any extraordinary measures, or totally rewire my brain, or restructure my life. If I followed the steps, it seemed like I would get results. So I filled out the online questionnaire, set up my discovery call with Dr. Oexman and upon having that phone call with him, I felt really hopeful. It seemed like just the program for me.

So now I finished the program about a week ago and after the first two weeks, which involved just filling out a sleep diary, and watching some videos, and getting some knowledge, my sleep drastically improved. I followed the simple steps that Dr. Oexman laid out for me and I was ready to make the change. So I really did all of the steps very carefully, which I highly recommend if you decide to do this program, and I got the results. So I’ve been sleeping well, really well, every night since. I’ve probably had about six weeks of good sleep at this point, and I’m falling asleep within 10 to 30 minutes of laying down in bed, which is unheard of for me, consistently. Occasionally in the past, I might get a night of sleep like that, maybe, if I was so completely exhausted that my body just couldn’t function anymore. But most of the time I would just lay in bed, exhausted, not sleeping.

So this is a really amazing change for me. Some of the things that Dr Oexman recommended were having a regular bedtime and wake up time. I’m allowed to go to sleep later or wake up earlier, but it’s not recommended that I go to bed earlier or sleep in. And that’s okay because I learned about building up the sleep drive, and achieving sleep efficiency, and all of these things made so much sense to me that I was willing to make the changes. Another benefit to completing this program has been a reduction in my anxiety. This program is not for people with anxiety. However, I’ve noticed that when I’m able to sleep better, my anxiety is less. When I don’t sleep I’m an emotional volcano. So getting good sleep has enabled me to function in life like a normal human should, or I think, and I’m just really grateful for it.

One big takeaway from the program was that I’m not an anomaly. There are plenty of people that sleep just as poorly as I did, and I think it’s really important for those people to know that there is an option out there for them. I think Somly is the best option. I really thought that I was a hopeless case, that I was just doomed to poor sleep for the rest of my life. But Dr. Oexman showed me that I can be normal too, I can sleep well, and these tools are tools that I can take with me for the rest of my life. It doesn’t mean that I have to stop expeditioning and that I can’t spend nights sleepless walking. I totally can, but when I am ready to get back on my sleep schedule, all I have to do is implement these steps and I will sleep. That is such a relief.

I really am eternally grateful for this program. I can’t believe how affordable it is and it fit in really nicely with my schedule. It wasn’t a crazy commitment that I was worried about keeping. I found time to watch the weekly videos, and I really appreciated my weekly phone calls with Dr. Oexman. He always made himself available if I was struggling and he really was excited to help me find solutions. He seemed to really enjoy working with me and figuring out how to best structure my sleep so that I can sleep well for the rest of my life. So big thank you to Somly, so happy I went through the program. I would totally recommend it for anyone who is struggling to find sleep. There’s a solution out there for you. It’s not hopeless.”

Do you feel like there’s NO solution for your insomnia? Most of our patients did. But we can help.