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Former Insomniac by End Insomnia

Former Insomniac by End Insomnia

By: Ivo H.K.
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Welcome to Former Insomniac with Ivo H.K., founder at End Insomnia. After suffering from insomnia for 5 brutal years and trying "everything" to fix it, I developed a new approach targeting the root cause of insomnia: sleep anxiety (or the fear of sleeplessness). In this podcast, I talk about the End Insomnia System and I share tips, learnings, and insights from overcoming insomnia and tell the stories of people who did so you can apply the principles to end insomnia for good, too.Copyright 2025 Ivo H.K. Hygiene & Healthy Living Personal Development Personal Success Psychology Psychology & Mental Health
Episodes
  • Still Think Your Insomnia Is ‘Different’? Listen to This.
    Oct 18 2025

    I and 100s of others have used the End Insomnia System to recover from insomnia for good and sleep great again for life.

    Have you ever had doubts that a new system that goes after the root cause of insomnia - hyperarousal - might not work for you?

    If so, you’re not alone.

    Many people struggling with insomnia feel skeptical at first.

    And it’s understandable.

    You’ve probably tried countless things that didn’t help or, worse, made things more frustrating.

    But let’s explore some common doubts you might have and why they don’t mean the End Insomnia System can’t work for you.

    Objection #1: “I have insomnia, but I’m not anxious.”

    Maybe the word “anxiety” doesn’t feel like it fits.

    That’s fine.

    Instead, try focusing on what happens in your body at night when you can’t sleep.

    Do you feel tired but wired?

    Agitated?

    Frustrated?

    Is your heart pounding?

    Are your muscles tense?

    Are your thoughts racing?

    That’s not just “normal restlessness.”

    That’s a textbook fight-or-flight response.

    Your nervous system is reacting to a perceived threat.

    That reaction is anxiety - whether you feel mentally anxious or not.

    You don’t need to identify as “an anxious person” to recognize your body is stuck in high-alert mode.

    And that’s what’s interfering with your ability to fall and stay asleep.

    Now ask yourself:

    If you truly felt no fear about insomnia or its consequences, would your sleep still be an issue?

    In almost every case, the answer is no.

    Objection #2: “I’ve been disappointed so many times. Why should I trust this system?”

    Totally fair.

    Most people reading this have tried everything - supplements, sleep hygiene, CBT-i, and walked away frustrated.

    The difference here is that the End Insomnia System doesn’t focus on making sleep happen.

    Instead, it helps you dismantle the anxiety that prevents sleep from happening naturally.

    This system doesn’t offer a quick fix. There are none, trust me.

    It provides a step-by-step process for unwinding the nervous system patterns that keep you stuck.

    And while it takes time, the long-term results are real.

    If you’re tired of surface-level fixes, this is a different approach entirely.

    Objection #3: “Maybe I’m just broken.”

    This one hurts the most - and it’s one of the most common.

    You’ve had so many sleepless nights, you’ve started to believe something is deeply wrong.

    You’ve probably googled endlessly.

    You’ve read scary theories on Reddit.

    You’ve convinced yourself that something inside your brain or body is irreparably damaged.

    But here’s the truth:

    You are not broken.

    Your nervous system has been trained to associate night with threat.

    And it’s doing what it’s supposed to do when there’s danger: keeping you alert and awake.

    This is not a defect.

    It’s conditioning.

    And conditioning can be reversed.

    ​​

    Objection #4: “My insomnia is too unique for anything to help.”

    Maybe you fall asleep fine, but wake up at 3 a.m.

    Or maybe your mind races the second your head hits the pillow.

    Or maybe you feel calm at night, but still can’t sleep.

    The manifestations of insomnia vary.

    But the mechanism under the surface is almost always the same:

    A nervous system stuck in threat mode.

    A mind trained to over-monitor sleep.

    A cycle of fear and struggle that’s gotten deeply ingrained.

    This system addresses that cycle—no matter how your insomnia shows up.


    Objection #5: “My psychology is too complex for this to work.”

    You may...

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    5 mins
  • What Finally Helped Me Escape Insomnia
    Oct 11 2025

    I know how terrifying insomnia can be.

    I’ve lived through it myself for 5 brutal years.

    I created the End Insomnia System because nothing else worked.

    And I tried everything.

    This system wasn’t born in a lab.

    It came from my own desperation.

    Let me take you back to how it all started.

    My descent into insomnia

    It began after a particularly stressful period in my life.

    The stress eventually passed.

    But the insomnia didn’t.

    Even once the circumstances calmed down, my body remained on high alert.

    I dragged myself through each day, exhausted and tense.

    My brain was foggy.

    I was irritable, anxious, and scared.

    Scared of another night.

    Scared of how I’d feel the next morning.

    Scared this was never going to end.

    I kept telling myself it would resolve on its own.

    But it didn’t.

    In fact, things only got worse.

    The turning point

    I would lie awake for hours.

    Then finally fall asleep—only to jolt awake again, heart pounding.

    Sometimes I’d feel panic setting in as soon as I got into bed.

    Other times, I’d toss and turn all night in a kind of frozen dread.

    I couldn’t relax.

    I couldn’t think clearly.

    And I couldn’t find anyone who seemed to truly understand what I was going through.

    Even people trying to help didn’t get it.

    Sleep was becoming the central force in my life.

    And it was wrecking everything.

    I stopped enjoying things.

    Stopped seeing friends.

    Stopped feeling like myself.

    It was a lonely path to walk.

    So I started chasing solutions.

    I tried everything

    Here’s just some of what I tried:

    • Sleeping pills
    • Sleep hygiene
    • Herbal teas and tinctures
    • Relaxation apps
    • Exercise
    • Weighted blankets
    • Blackout curtains
    • Pre-bedtime routines
    • Cold showers
    • Hot showers
    • Vitamin D
    • Vitamin B12
    • No caffeine
    • No alcohol
    • No screens 2 hours before bed
    • Sunlight first thing in the morning, blue-light glasses
    • Sleep restriction therapy and CBT-i

    Some helped for a few nights.

    Most didn’t help at all.

    None of it lasted.

    After CBT-i failed me—despite being “the gold standard”—I knew I had to do something different.

    I wasn’t willing to spend the rest of my life sleep-deprived and afraid.

    What finally made things click

    I started researching what actually causes long-term insomnia.

    What I found changed everything.

    Insomnia almost always starts from stress.

    But it persists because of sleep anxiety and nervous system activation.

    When you’re afraid of not sleeping, your body goes into survival mode.

    And the more you worry about sleep, the more you unknowingly train your nervous system to stay alert at night.

    This is called conditioned hyperarousal.

    And it explains why you can feel calm all day, but your heart still pounds the moment you lie down.

    That insight finally helped me understand the real problem.

    But I still didn’t have a clear path to fix it.

    What helped me finally escape insomnia

    Around this time, I found an approach called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

    It had been proven effective for anxiety, trauma, and hyperarousal.

    But it had barely been applied to insomnia.

    So I teamed up with a therapist.

    We studied the research.

    We filled in the gaps.

    We added in tools from nervous system work, psychology, and mindfulness.

    We tested everything.

    I experimented on myself.

    And slowly…

    Things began to shift.

    I began to feel calm at night—even if I...

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    5 mins
  • Why Nothing Has Worked for Your Insomnia
    Oct 4 2025

    If you’re like many people with long-term insomnia, you’ve probably tried everything.

    Pills. Teas. Blackout curtains. Supplements. Sleep hygiene checklists.

    You’ve rearranged your bedroom, created the “perfect” nighttime routine, and cut caffeine completely.

    And yet here you are, still not sleeping.

    • You’re exhausted, frustrated, and on the verge of giving up.
    • You want to sleep more than anything, but nothing seems to work.
    • Your nights are filled with effort.
    • Your days are shadowed by dread and fatigue.

    And maybe, deep down, you’ve started to wonder if there’s something uniquely wrong with you.

    Something no book, protocol, or expert has been able to fix.

    Here’s the truth:

    You are not broken.

    But you have been misled.

    Most approaches to insomnia try to make sleep happen.

    They focus on control and effort.

    But sleep is not something you can force or have any control over.

    And trying to control sleep is exactly what keeps you stuck.

    This is where the End Insomnia System comes in.

    A new solution based on what actually causes insomnia

    Insomnia doesn’t persist because of blue light, a bad mattress, or the fact that you haven’t tried magnesium glycinate.

    Long-term insomnia is driven by a very specific combination of two things:

    1. Sleep anxiety
    2. A chronically activated nervous system

    This combination creates a loop where your fear of not sleeping keeps your nervous system alert, which prevents sleep, which fuels more fear.

    The End Insomnia System is designed to break that loop.

    It teaches you how to calm your nervous system, reduce sleep-related anxiety, and stop making sleep into a performance you need to nail.

    Therapy, mindfulness, nervous system regulation, and real-world results from people who’ve used it to sleep again—naturally, without gimmicks.

    This is probably you if any of this sounds familiar:

    • You constantly think about sleep and how to fix it
    • You feel stuck in a loop of exhaustion and dread
    • You’ve tried every tip and trick and still can’t sleep
    • You obsessively Google sleep solutions but nothing sticks
    • You’re scared this is how your life will be forever

    You are not alone.

    There is, in fact, a real path forward.

    This system is not about hacks

    It’s not a miracle supplement, ritual, mental exercise, or secret herbal tea.

    It’s not about tricking your brain into sleeping.

    And it’s not Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I), which way too many people find too rigid and ineffective.

    Instead, you learn how to:

    • Build your body’s natural sleep drive
    • Lower your nervous system’s alertness at night
    • Reduce the pressure you put on sleep
    • Respond differently to tired days
    • Handle setbacks without spiraling
    • Stop trying to make sleep happen—and let it be

    This is a long-term shift in how you relate to sleep.

    It’s a process of retraining your body, rewiring your thoughts, and reclaiming your life from the grip of insomnia.

    Yes, there are ups and downs.

    This isn't a straight line.

    But as you begin to suffer less and react less, sleep starts to return.

    Not through effort—but through letting go of it.

    To peaceful sleep,

    Ivo at End Insomnia

    Why should you listen to me?

    I recovered from insomnia after 5 brutal years of suffering. I also wrote a book about it. I've now coached many on how to end their insomnia for good in 8...

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    4 mins
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