The PTSD Sleep Repair Plan by Samuel Mirzakhani

The PTSD Sleep Repair Plan
Practical, Evidence-Based Strategies for Insomnia, Nightmares, Hypervigilance, CBT-I, and Restorative Rest
Trauma can make bedtime feel like a second shift. The room gets quiet, but your nervous system does not. Your body is exhausted while your mind stays alert. A small sound can pull you awake. Nightmares can make sleep feel unsafe. After enough bad nights, even the bed itself can become a cue for tension, frustration, and dread.
The PTSD Sleep Repair Plan is a practical guide to understanding that cycle and changing the habits, fears, and sleep patterns that keep it going. It brings together established sleep science, CBT-I principles, nightmare strategies, trauma-aware relaxation, circadian tools, medication safety, and guidance on when a sleep problem needs professional evaluation.
This book is built for readers who want more than generic advice to "relax" or practice better sleep hygiene. It explains why PTSD-related sleep problems can persist even when you are doing many things right, then gives you specific ways to observe the pattern and work on the part that is actually maintaining it.
Inside, you will learn how to:
- Identify whether your main problem is sleep onset, repeated waking, nightmares, hypervigilance, circadian disruption, or another sleep disorder that may need evaluation.
- Use CBT-I concepts such as stimulus control, consistent wake timing, cognitive work, and clinician-guided sleep-restriction strategies without turning sleep into another performance test.
- Reduce pre-sleep arousal with grounding, paced breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, mindfulness, and trauma-aware routines.
- Understand recurring nightmares and use imagery-based rescripting methods designed to change the pattern rather than simply endure it.
- Rebuild a sense of safety around the bedroom and respond to sleep-related fear without reinforcing avoidance.
- Recognize signs of sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, parasomnias, dangerous daytime sleepiness, and other problems that should not be treated as ordinary insomnia.
- Discuss prescription sleep medicines, prazosin, melatonin, supplements, and tapering questions more intelligently with a clinician or pharmacist.
- Evaluate sleep apps and trackers without becoming trapped by sleep scores, subscriptions, or health-data anxiety.
- Create a relapse plan for setbacks instead of treating one rough week as proof that recovery has failed.
The chapters include seven-day practices, tracking sheets, decision frameworks, composite examples, caregiver guidance, a glossary, a topic finder, and trusted resources for continued learning. The emphasis stays practical: understand what is happening, choose the safest next step, measure what changes, and bring better information into your care.
PTSD and poor sleep can reinforce each other for years. That cycle can be approached systematically. You do not need a perfect night to begin. You need a clearer map of the problem and a plan that respects both sleep science and the realities of trauma.
If nights have become a battleground, The PTSD Sleep Repair Plan gives you a structured place to start rebuilding rest.