I hate not being able to sleep/insomnia

Has anyone else experienced insomnia after not consuming alcohol anymore? Its been a couple of days that I havent been able to sleep.

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If you search around, it comes up. A lot, lol.

Totally natural. Best advice I got is to give it time, and do all those boring advice things like dodging caffeine late in the day, try to have a regular sleep schedule even if it sucks for a while, etc.

For me it took me a while to notice I didn’t sleep as much, but the sleep I got was actually much better. At first I was only sleeping 6 hours/night at most. But it being actual sleep and not just a hungover black out, I felt more rested. I’d wake up and get straight to it without feeling all foggy for half the day.

Eventually I could sleep a bit more at a time and it was like I was mentally invincible again! So much more energy and calm.

Keep on keeping on, my friend! :v:

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Its been 4 days for me and yes. I was up from 2am to 4am lastnight.

I have a few coping skills for insomnia

  1. When its time to sleep for the night, get warm in bed and use posative self convincing such as ''this is comfy or this is perfect timming for rest.

  2. i dont know how scientificly proving this is but when u close your eyes, all you need to do is simply stair at the dark lightly. sometimes when i close my eyes i can se kinda like these light green streeks that come and go. dont fight them. just comfertly accept the darkness of your eyes being closed

  3. deffinetly avoid caffeen after 2pm. try ice tea or even water. i personally love lemmon water

:slight_smile:

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I use the Headspace meditation app. It has some great sleeping wind-down exercises. Basics focusing on your breathing. Counting backwards from 10000 works too!

A better question is who DOESN’T have a hard time sleeping after quitting. It usually take me a week, sometimes two before sleeping deeply.

If you can, take a magnesium and calcium supplement 1/2 hour before bed. Get a good nighttime routine. Bathing in Epsom salts, or with relaxing essential oils can help a state of relaxation, too. I love mediations, especially Yoga Nidra for sleep meditations. Insight Timer is an app, in addition to Headspace, that has thousands of free meditations, sounds, and talks.

Better tired than hungover. Keep it up!

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Not sure if this is of any interest but I use YouTube stuff for calming music for sleep. I project it from my phone to my tv. There are several that are 8 hours or longer. Helps me relax. This is an example… https://youtu.be/6h69W_Ymu8Q

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Just found this one. Images are pretty cool. Anyway, you get the idea. Just search for calming music for sleep on youtube and you will find a bunch. https://youtu.be/0VitIIDbV5U

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Thank you for the reply. Its very much appreciated! Im definitely going to try some of those out!

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Yeah… It’s pretty common. I was told it was because of my body chemistry is of balance due to substance abuse. Whatever the reason it took some time for my brain to find that balance. LOL

What helped for me was regular schedule and a routine in the evening. Dimming the lights and so on. Meditation (check out insight timer or headspace) also worked miracles. Oh and melatonine in the very beginning when I was clean and sober for just a few days.

More info on sleep hygiene can be found on various sites, but this one seems to have more or less what I was suggested at the time: https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/sleep-hygiene

Stop drinking makes one vulnerable to depression. To long without a good rest is killing for your mood and also increases the risk for depression. So if insomnia persists consult a doctor.