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Insomnia Coach® Podcast

Insomnia Coach® Podcast

By: Martin Reed MEd NBC-HWC CCSH CHES®
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Insomnia help and real success stories from people who got their lives back from insomnia Hygiene & Healthy Living Personal Development Personal Success Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Social Sciences
Episodes
  • How Joey went from missing his own birthday party because of insomnia to enjoying nights out again by making space for anxious thoughts (#82)

    How Joey went from missing his own birthday party because of insomnia to enjoying nights out again by making space for anxious thoughts (#82)
    Jul 30 2026

    After one sleepless night around his 17th birthday, Joey began to fear the next night. Soon, thoughts about sleep followed him through the day. He stopped going out, struggled to watch films, and sat inside with the curtains drawn.

    He tried herbal tea, meditation, rain sounds, earlier bedtimes, and forcing the thoughts away. The more he tried to solve sleep and silence his mind, the more stuck he felt.

    What helped was allowing the thoughts to be there while returning to the things that mattered. Joey went back to the cinema, gym, college, sports, and nights out. The thoughts did not suddenly and permanently disappear — but Joey learned he could bring them along and still live his life.

    Are you ready to get your life back from insomnia? Learn more about my sleep coaching programs at insomniacoach.com
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    55 mins
  • How Lu went from dreading the night to trusting herself by making space for anxiety and practicing kind self-talk (#81)

    How Lu went from dreading the night to trusting herself by making space for anxiety and practicing kind self-talk (#81)
    Jun 11 2026

    Lu spent most of her life as a great sleeper. Then, six weeks after having her first baby, a painful mix of pressure, anxiety, and one sleepless night made sleep feel difficult for the first time.

    Over the years, insomnia came and went. Medication helped her through some difficult periods, but Lu still felt stuck and afraid of the part of herself that struggled at night.

    In this episode, Lu shares how self-compassion, a more workable response to wakefulness, and adding meaningful actions back into her days helped her build trust in herself again — and allowed her to emerge from the insomnia struggle as a stronger, more confident, and more resilient person.

    Are you ready to get your life back from insomnia? Learn more about my sleep coaching programs at insomniacoach.com
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • How Casaundra went from struggling to control sleep to reclaiming her identity from insomnia (#80)

    How Casaundra went from struggling to control sleep to reclaiming her identity from insomnia (#80)
    May 18 2026
    Casaundra’s insomnia first showed up in college. From then on, it would come and go during periods of stress. After getting married, insomnia showed up and this time it didn’t go away. Before long, Casaundra would notice a feeling of anxiety as soon as her head hit the pillow. Nights started to feel like a battle. In an effort to fix her sleep, Casaundra tried blackout curtains, headphones, melatonin, medication, no screens, less water, strict routines, and even six kiwis before bed. The more she tried to control sleep, the more sleep seemed to control her life. In this episode, Casaundra shares how things changed when she started making life bigger than insomnia. As sleep got less attention, her evenings opened up. Her days opened up. She reclaimed her identity — and sleep took care of itself. Click here for a full transcript of this episode. Transcript Martin: 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: 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: ​Okay, Casaundra, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come onto the podcast. Casaundra: Thank you for having me. I’m super excited. Martin: Great to have you on. Let’s start right at the beginning as always. When did your sleep problems first begin, and what do you think caused those initial issues with sleep? Casaundra: Yeah, it’s been a long journey. I feel like, you know, as a kid I slept fine for the most part, but then you get to college and I think my like first bout of insomnia was probably like stress induced, it was like I was TAing for a class, I was training for a marathon. I was trying to keep really high grades and, and doing all these things. Casaundra: I’m like, I think I was just at the max and like it was just leading to me not being able to sleep because I was about all these things and all these projects and things to do. And so I think the stress kind of built and then that just started this like evolving journey of cycles of insomnia. Casaundra: So it would like come in different waves. Right. I remember leading my first team at work and. Going into another insomnia cycle. And that was like the first time I ever was put on Trazodone. then, you know, it went away. I think it would kind of ebb and flow, right? Like, oh, I, I would figure it out and it would go back to normal and then it would come back. but I had some really big life changes in like 20 22, 20 23. my, my grandmother who had raised me, had, had died. I had a relationship end that I’ve been in for years. And from all that I was also moving back to my home state, Ohio. And so you cram all of those things into a month and any normal person would probably struggle with sleep, but to me it wasn’t normal. Kind of put me into like this really bad insomnia cycle, right? And so I went back on Trazodone and it was like a year on Trazodone, which is a really long time to be on something like that. Then I finally like, we, we probably can talk more about how that went and what happened in it, but it kind of resolved a little bit. Casaundra: And then I married and I just went into like the hardest cycle of insomnia. And you know, for me it was like we didn’t live together before marriage. And so like having a person in my bed after I had just gotten my sleep, what felt like back on track was really like stressful to my body, I think. And it just was like, he could sleep anything all night long from like 8:00 PM on. And I was like trying to go to bed with him and like, you know, be married and, you know. Not stay up alone. And it just led to me trying even harder to sleep. And so those are, I think it’s been an ongoing thing, but those are kind of the most recent things. Martin: So there were these ups and downs. Maybe then you either adapted or you pulled back a little bit and then sleep had the chance to get back on track. Martin: But it felt like as time went on, when the sleep disruption showed up, it kind of morphed into its own thing. Like it didn’t respond quite as well to the changes that you made, the, the adaptions that you made, the efforts that you made to get things back on track. And ...
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    57 mins
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