Not sure if this has been asked before but I figured i’d give it a shot.
Recently I made the choice to go sober (for the 2nd time, fingers crossed it sticks this time), I’m on day 5 and going strong, but lately my sleep has been horrid.
I’ve been averaging maybe 4 or 5 hours a night of broken sleep and either really strange dreams or more often than not nightmares.
First time around I didn’t have any of this.
Has anyone else has a situation like or similar to this? How did you overcome it or did it just pass on its own?
Totally normal! Your body is just adjusting to the lack of alcohol. It took me several weeks to start sleeping normally, although I’ve always had trouble sleeping in the first place.
There have been a bunch of threads on this topic in the past that might help you out too, here’s just one example
You can use the spotlight thingy at the top of the app to search for others. Hope this helps!!
It took me a while to figure out you could search for stuff too lol
Yeah I’ll still use melatonin every once in a while if I really can’t fall asleep but after a few months I was falling asleep nightly with little to no problems.
I’d say that out of everything I tried, setting an alarm getting up early every morning was the best thing I did to improve my sleep. That, and working out regularly really helped tire me out in a productive way.
I’d also recommend trying to stop caffeine intake a long time before bed. I do my best to have my last caffeine of the day about 10 hours before bedtime.
I’ve had sleep problems for a long time prior to this, just seems worse since I stopped drinking.
Tried melatonin before but for whatever reason that stuff super charges my mind lol.
Actually I did get up early today and stayed up, totally exhausted now and I plan to start working out again within the next week or so, so maybe that will help.
Caffeine is another demon for me, gonna try and knock that one out next
That sounds exactly like me in terms of sleep issues. I figured I was just forever doomed to not be able to sleep through the night but after a few months I actually started sleeping really well.
I think a lot of that also had to do with how much my anxiety issues improved after I stopped drinking. I’m not kept awake all night by my racing mind like always used to happen.
When I was drinking sleep wasn’t a problem… If you wanna call it sleep haha. But it was always garbage rest.
Oddly my anxiety isn’t keeping me awake.
I’m one of those people that I need the tv on to sleep, a habit I wanna try and break at some point down the road. So like always I put on something I’ve seen a dozen times over, turn the volume down to the point where I just just hear it and close my eyes. My mind is blank, I feel relaxed and comfortable, just sleep doesn’t come, and when it does either I roll over and wake up or my crazy dreams/nightmares jump me awake.
If the TV helps you sleep then maybe try a white noise app?
You can pick a ton of different sounds to play on your phone and it’s super relaxing. Plus it doesn’t come with the annoying light that TV does so you can leave it on all night.
Hi,
Chamomile tea really helps me if i drink a cup or two 40 mins before i would like to be asleep.
I had really disturbing nightmares of past trauma reliving it through my dreams, along with nightmares or dreams that were totally random lol.
I found also that slowly my sleep got better and less broken in around 3-4 weeks but i still have to work on getting up early and making sure i do something during the day to use up some energy, this just helps keep me on track and hopefully make my sleeping pattern normalise and consistent.
Nightmares and shit sleep are completely normal in the process.
When withdrawing/initially getting sober I have extremely realistic, graphic and horrible dreams.
This time around, I was averaging 1 hour of sleep a day, sometimes no sleep at all. Other times that I’ve tried, i have overslept. It took over a month for my sleep to start returning to normal this time.
I hear chamomile and melatonin work for some people.
Personally, it doesn’t work for me.
I have always struggled with sleep as well. I have recently been put on an insomnia and depression med but I had to stop that while they try to find something else that doesn’t turn me into a rage monster with lucid dreams… in the meantime I have found that sleepy time tea has been successful for me. The active ingredient is valerian root which is pretty much natures muscle relaxer. Fortunately the tea is much better than the smell of the supplement itself hot tea and a hot shower with eucalyptus salts puts me right out. Sorry I don’t have anything more to offer, I hope you find a solution that works for you!
Well the past few sleeps have been, almost decent so I am thinking I may be getting past the problems, but I am always open to suggestions. Totally gonna pick up some of that tea!
My fiancée and I are on days 3 and 4 of our detox of our relapse. My first one I did in treatment and thought the nightmares were from the medications. This time I’m realizing it’s just a part of it. We are both doing the exact same thing. It sucks but I feel it’s part of what I need to remember to not drink again.
My nightmares seem to have stopped and my last two sleeps have been really good and long. I slept from about 10am to 7pm today (I’m working the graveyard shift tonight) and dont recall waking up at all!
Guess all I needed was a bit of patience lol
I’m only on day 14 but I’m still not really sleeping even with the melatonin, I still wake up alot and only sleeping about 5-6 hours. According to the people on hear who know alot about this it just takes time for your mind to get back to normal. As far as dreams go I had nightmares the first 4-5 days that would make you not want to shut your eyes anyway. I’m still having crazy dreams but I guess that’ll pass too. Good luck
hot tea and a hot shower with eucalyptus salts puts me right out. Sorry I don’t have anything more to offer, I hope you find a solution that works for you!