steve-in-kville

As I read over the one sticky'd thread on how people quit, I noticed many mentioned the nightmares and/or dreams they experienced during the stages from an all out drunk to complete sobriety.

Myself, I noticed that when I drank every day, I do not remember anything. No dreaming, no nothing. When I detoxed cold turkey it was horrible!! I suffered from insomnia real bad... maybe an hour or so of honest sleep for the first number of days. When I did doze off, it was one nightmare after another!!

Am I alone in this? Was detoxing worse than just blacking/passing out drunk? How is it in sobriety for you?

Purpleskye

I've had nightmares, extraordinarily vivid ones. I usually get those once in a while, but detoxing they were nonstop. As time passed, they just became super vivid dreams. Sometimes uncomfortable but not always nightmares. The beginning was the worst though, nightmares every time I could catch a rare moment of sleep.

ScottFromWI

You are definitely not alone Steve, in fact I think just about everyone goes through a phase like that. When we are drinking, I don't think we sleep so much as just pass out. And since our brain is so depressed from the alcohol ( remember it's a CNS depressant ) we don't even dream may times because we never get real REM sleep. Once we quit drinking, that part of our brain "wakes back up" and starts doing things it hasn't done in a while...and it can be uncomfortable for a bit - but it does definitely get better.

leighbond

I never had dreams when I was drinking, I assumed because I never really got any REM sleep with so much alcohol in my system all the time. When I quit it was really intense. The first few days I didn't sleep barely at all, I still toss and turn a lot. I was getting the REM sleep sober, but I was also waking up constantly also and rolling around. So I would remember all of those crazy dreams. I still get them but less now after a two weeks almost. The majority of them were dreams that I had relapsed, I thought that was kind of funny, but they were terrifying at the time.

Purpleskye

What's most interesting to me about the vivid nightmares is that I spent the early withdrawal days getting lost in anxiety about people, situations, and experiences that bothered me or that I regret. Then I'd have nightmares about those specific things. So the brain tapping back into REM cycles actually makes a ton of sense to me. And now that I've said it's gotten better, tonight it will likely return haha.

The insomnia has not let up in the least, however. Just a bit over two weeks now.

Dame

leighbond makes a good point. From what I've read drinking too much deprives you of necessary REM sleep, so many of us were sleep deprived (and probably dreamless) for quite some time.
Insomnia: I was lucky to get 9 or 10 hours of sleep per WEEK for two months. The nightmares were so bad that I literally feared going to sleep.
I sleep now and the nightmares seemed to have stopped (I hope). As I understand, the nightmares are extremely common, but they eventually pass. I think it's a good idea to get up right away when you wake up from one. Look out of a window and see the world as it IS, or do anything to put yourself back in touch with the world you know is real.
Hope things get better soon

Dee74

I look at the drinking dreams and nightmares as a direct result of my drinking, not my sobriety...if I hadn't drunk so much for so many years, I wouldn't have been in withdrawal, and the dreams would have not happened

I wasn't a fan of waking up bolt upright at 3am whether it was because I'd passed out earlier, or because I'd had a bad dream.

I'm really glad to have left both behind

D

sugarbear1

I disliked those vivid dreams when I'd awaken in the middle of the night drenched in sweat with the dream STill Happening with my eyes open! Yuck!

Thank goodness those dreams Don't Last!

Jack465

I sometimes have dreams that I drank and broke my sobriety. It's always a huge relief to wake up and realize it didn't happen.

Gottalife

The skeletons in the closet kept me awake and alone too. I thought I must be the worst person ever. An afternoon's work with my sponsor and the God of my understanding was all it took. I've slept like a baby ever since.

sugarbear1

My vivid dreams were definitely a result of becoming sober, not from my past demons. For me, it was just part of sobering up and my body/brain healing.

KAD

Dreams were rare during my drinking days (years) but, yeah, especially during detox they were manic and often terrifying. They were audibly noisy, too. Loud explosions would wake me up just as I'd doze off. It's like others have said. We become accustomed to dulling our senses for so long, it's pretty dramatic when those synapsis start firing off again.

noneever

I've had some crazy nightmares since I no longer drink. Very vivid and involved. I woke up one night last week mid scream.
I figure it's just my brain healing and my newly tender psyche processing stuff. On the plus side I've had little insomnia.

D122y

Consider it takes a few days for booze to fully leave our system, and then months for our brain and body to adapt to being clean.

So, all of us drunks didn't get perfect real good sleep for years. Our poor brains and body will take a while to heal and experience normalized function. For me, a while was about a month.

After that, I found a new anxiety from my rested brain dealing w the world. Noises were too loud, lights were too bright, things moved to fast. Every day had this. It was like torture. That took several months to dissappear.

15 months here and the sleep I experience now is deep and restful.

I still have what I have read here as spatial disorientation sometimes. Not dizzy feeling, but an uncomfortable feeling when driving or walking on uneven surfaces. It is 1000x better than my first few months.

When I was drinking, I was exhausted 24/7. I was in a constant state of being drunk, hung over, and detoxing. Never normal.

All these months of suffering could have led to my relapse. This place saved me.

Forward12

I was the same way. When passed out drunk, I pretty much never had dreams. When sobering up, I could get maybe 30 minutes to an hour of sleep at a time, and had horrific nightmares pretty much every time for almost a week, until things settled down and I could finally get a full nights rest.

steve-in-kville

Thanks for the replies. I am on day 6 (last time around hopefully!!) and I actually spent a week tapering before I went dry, which I think really helped.

Optimini

Yes - vivid dreams and nightmares all week. A very scary zombie apocalypse nightmare, other weird stuff that mimics life - last night I was in a relationship with a robot? It's scary and sometimes annoying!