Speaker: Kara Z., Insomnia Clinic Patient
Describe your sleep problem before coming to The Insomnia Clinic.
Kara Z.: Hi, I'm Kara Zebrowski. I came to Dr. Glidewell suffering from 16 years of insomnia. It started when I was probably close to 40 years old or so. I would wake up in the night not being able to fall back to sleep. I'd be awake from 2 to 4 hours in the evening. That went on for quite some time and it just progressed.
Describe your experience trying to fix your sleep problem before coming to the clinic.
Kara Z.: I also had trouble falling asleep and I'm a person that really prefers natural remedies and I just tried everything I could get my hands on all the tips and tricks. I read books. I read things on the internet that I could find. I tried all those things and just nothing really seemed to work. So I got desperate enough that first of all I went on trying things such as Tylenol PM. Which would help some, but I would just wake up feeling horrible after taking it, just so groggy and have to will myself out of bed. So then I tried Ambien, which over time gave me short term memory loss and that was really scary. So I went off of that, spent some time just being miserable, and then eventually I tried Lunesta, which also was helpful but there was a hangover aspect to that and it still didn't completely help me. I would still have trouble falling asleep, I would still wake up sometimes and so it just progressed to the point that I literally was so bad, I had to find a solution. My husband was getting so worried, you know about me taking the medications and just the toll that it was taking on my overall, physical and mental well being. So I really needed an answer.
What was different about The Insomnia Clinic?
Kara Z.: So something that I really liked after meeting with Dr. Glidewell was the fact that his program was going to be something to literally retrain your body and your mind, how to sleep. And it wasn't about medications and, just short term fixes, like really getting to the root of what your sleep problems are and having a solid program that you walk through, to get your sleep back on track.
Take us to the moment you realized our program was working for you.
Kara Z.: I realized after getting to the point with Dr. Glidewell's program where first we shrank my sleep, or I shrank my sleep. And I think I started with about 5.5 hours a night. And when I fairly quickly, I think 4-5 days in, I was able to sleep that stretch, I was like maybe this was gonna work! It gave me hope. And as I started to expand it bit by bit, and I'm seeing that my sleep is expanding as well. It was so exciting.
Tell us what life looks like now that you're sleeping and feeling better.
Kara Z.: So I am now, I think three years out from completing Dr. Glide well's program, and I am happy to say that it is one of the best decisions that I ever made for my health and wellness. After completing the whole course and going through the shrinking sleep and expanding it out, I got to the point where I could sleep 7-8 hours. And I woke up feeling so good, so refreshed, and I'm here to tell you it still is working. There have been times over the course of the last few years due to some business things that I've done, where I'll get in that really creative mode because that was part of my problem, my mind spins a lot. And so if I break the rules like, working too late on my computer, staying on my phone too late or something like that. And not taking that break before I go to sleep, I can find and see how that starts to kind of mess it up for a few nights. And I have to go, nope, can't do that. And as long as I just go back to doing what I need to do, I am so good. I just am so pleased. I would highly recommend this program to anyone. As a matter of fact, I actually have a wellness business myself. I work with women in midlife and I am so excited to be able to share Dr. Glidewell's program with my clients as well. So I highly recommend it. If you are considering walking this road, it will be worth it.
