I’ve managed to cut down my drinking in the last 2 weeks. When I am drinking, sleep is pretty straightforward - falling exhausted in a bed (and waking up exhausted). After a few days or more sober, I wake up semi-remembering or even only feeling the outline of seriously crazy dreams. They are like movies, even trilogies, interweaving within each other. They can be insane nightmares or just well insane. Is this common when you sober up?
Sleeping while under the influence of alcohol, even a moderate to small amount, has a profound effect on your brain. You essentially are unable to reach deep, restorative sleep and as a result, dreams usually aren’t created.
The sober mind is an active mind. Dreaming means you are able to reach deep sleep and your brain is able to restore itself. This is completely normal and will likely be less intense as time goes on.
It’s not real sleep if you’re drunk, that’s just passing out, your body and brain doesn’t get real rest.
Intense dreams are quite common, you are not alone. The brain is processing a lot while we sleep. As alcohol hinders proper REM sleep the brain needs to adjust to being sober while sleeping like it needs to adjust in general to the absence of the neurotoxine alcohol. It takes a while.
You can help with a good sleeping hygiene, meditation and sport.
I suffer a lot from horrible nightmares, but mine are stress induced, especially emotional stress.
They are only dreams, sometimes I take a hot shower in the middle of the night and tell myself this episode was my soul vomiting crap I can’t handle when awake. A bit weird but it helps me
I have had also really vivid and crazy dreams while staying sober. Sometimes I hate to wake up from a bizarre but beautiful dream just to face the boring and unpleasant reality.