KAD

Just remembering what my sleep patterns were like when I drank. Falling asleep at night was fairly easy as I usually passed out. Then I would wake up after only a few hours feeling anxious, shaky, heart racing like I just ran 5 miles. So, I'd drink more, hoping to pass out again. When that wouldn't work, which was most of the time, I'd get on the computer (stimulate the brain even more). Usually, I wouldn't fall back to sleep until less than an hour before it was time to get up and go to work. Frequently, I would disappear from work to go steal a nap somewhere. I lived in such a constant state of fatigue, coupled with being drunk, I felt like I was either going insane or dying. Or both. And those were the better days, when I wasn't feeling sick as a dog on top of it. I wouldn't trade a month of sober insomnia for one day of that misery.

Mester

Still in the early stages of sobriety since my relapse. But in my 4 years of sobriety I averaged 6-8 easy

steve-in-kville

My sleep right now would rate about a 7/10 since I'm sober. I aim to be lying down by 8pm. Granted, I may read for 30 minutes to an hour, but I'm winding down by that time. Usually fall asleep within 10 minutes. I may get up about 3am to use the bathroom and then I sleep for another hour until I need to get up. If I start later, I seem to just lay there anyway.

Weekends I will stay up until 10 -11pm watching a movie. Even then, I am still up at 5 am or so.

Sunny27

I picked 8 to 9 as I am usually asleep by 11pm and up at 7am. However, this week The Vanishing Women is showing on the Investigation Discovery channel at 11pm so it will be less sleep for me this week

When I was drinking I slept much less. I love my sleep now. I have never been someone that can stay in bed and even when drinking I rarely slept in beyond 10am.

steve-in-kville

What's funny about watching stuff late in the evening: when I drank, I'd watch an entire movie, but could never remember the end. Now that I am sober, I get too tired about halfway and shut it off and hit the sack.

CAPTAINZING2000

My alarm is permanently shut off unless I have some appointment to make.
Whenever my dog wakes me up to go to the bathroom

Bunny211

Crap. The past few nights I have not been able to fall asleep til 1am-ish. And then I wake up at 2 or 3 and am awake (kinda drifting in and out) til 5 and awake til I get out of bed at 6.

So sick of this.

I'm 19 months in. I think my nervous system is still recovering.

LimeGreen

For some reason, if I have to get up early, I won't fall asleep until 4 in the morning, but if I don't have to get up early, I can fall asleep at 11 easily. However, I'm still new to the sobriety thing, so I wake up ALOT. Hoping that will change soon! :-)

BullDog777

I'm all over the place. In early sobriety it was 2-3 hours twice a day. Some days i'd go 48 hours with no sleep, then sleep for 14 straight.

After about 6 months, i started sleeping 4-5 straight with a 2 hour nap in the middle of the day and another hour in the evening.

Now, it's usually 5+ in a stretch and 1-2 naps during the day and evening.

I don't let myself think or obsess about it too much.

I did learn that sugar had a HUGE effect on my sleep. I was a diabetic for the first 9 months i was sober. If my blood sugar was off and it was too high or low, i'd twitch and jerk multiple times a night.

Now that i know how closely related they were, i got rid of my type 2 and make sure my numbers are solid through out the day.

Netflix is always on.

site1Q84

If I'm working a lot usually only 4-7 hours per night, but when I'm off work for a bit (I travel so I do a few months then a month off, etc.) I do about 12 hours a night. I'm definitely happiest if I can get between 10 and 12 haha

CODad3

Tough for me to get to sleep then I'm up every 45 mins or so to go to the bathroom or drink water.. I've noticed severe dehydration at night after I quit the juice.. so.. 5 hours or less I guess :/

idekbutimhere

I picked 8-9 but it's more like 8-12 hours of broken sleep.
At the beginning of sobriety I had a hard time sleeping, sometimes I still do... But it evened out somewhere along the lines and even though I wake up a few times in the night I usually fall back asleep pretty quickly (tonight is not my night though) and sum at least 8 hours of actual sleep.

Stellar45

I usually wake up after 3 to 3 and a half hours of sleep. I can stay awake anywhere from 15 minutes to up to 3 hrs once I awaken usually because I think too much. I hate that! I average anywhere from 5 and a half up to 7 and a half a night, depending on whether I am working or not the next day. I hope most of you are sleeping better than I do. For sure.

dafunbra

I sleep 6 to 6 1/2 hours a night. Would like to sleep more, it just isn't there. When I was living with my girlfriend at the time, I could sleep 8 easy with her beside me. I could really relax at her house. But now 6.5 is the max again, a lot of nights its less than that.

Stayingsassy

Too much, usually. When my diet is on track, a normal 7-8. When it’s not, more like 10-11.

kiki26

Briansy

Our patterns are v similar in that there is no pattern as to where the 6 hours come from but its rarely really enough - I'll add another variable to that and that is I take Nytol to get to sleep. Nytol is an otc sleep med in the UK. Diphenhydramine. I usually have 50-75mg. I am pretty booked bit at least I'm sober 14 days! I guess I'll figure out weaning myself off nytol when I've got this not drinking thing figured out for good. I'd like to think I'm there now but best not jinx it.

ScottFromWI

I'm glad to hear you are 14 days sober Briansy - but i'd be extremely wary of the OTC sleep aids too - they are extremely habit forming/addictive themselves.

SoberCAH

If the weather remains this cold, I hope to sleep from mid-December through around the middle of March.

RecklessDrunk

I don't sleep when I drink I pass out. It's like I just wouldnt seem to hit those deeper sleep stages. Many times I'd wake up a few hours completely exhausted and unable to really do anything. I remember at one stage I would drink early on saturday and pass out during the prime time college football game. Then I'd come to and the replay of it would be on in the middle of the night. I use to count on it after a while. Delighted I didn't miss the football game and have something to do now that I cant sleep. The part of the game I did see in real time I was probably in a blackout anyway.

These days I try for about 7 hours. Then I try for at least 20 minutes of meditation. My problem is i always want to watch just one more show on Netflix or something and I stay up late and have a long commute to work. I have even less time than i do money!