Nightmares
 

Those who had vivid nightmares during recovery, and early sobriety, how long did they continue for you?

I have been through multiple relapses now, over the last 4 years, and never had nightmares after the first week, or so... but, when I got sober on Jan 2nd, the nightmares never went away :(
I relapsed on St.Pattys Day, and am now 5 days sober again. The Dr gave me low dose xanax for day, and trazadone (anti anxiety/ sleeping aid med) to take at night. It worked for about three nights, but now the nightmares have returned.

It's too early to tell, but seeing as whether I'm sober, or drinking heavily, I still have awful sleep and nightmares, have I permenantly damaged my brain maybe? 😣Wondering others' experiences with this.

Withdrawals and nasty effects from the alcohol just get worse and worse the more you keep on with it. I did have pretty vivid nightmares for a first week or so, likely just the demons of alcohol getting out of my system.
It takes a little time, but it will pass, and your body will get back on track to learning how to sleep normally, and not passed out in a drunken stupor.

Thanks... I hope you're right. Between January, and March, (sober) they never went away. Again, while drinking between March, and Sunday (4/23), still never went away. I dunno, felt very encouraged and happy to have a break, those 3 nights, but last night was so awful. I barely slept :sad2:

They do eventually subside my friend

I was VERY sick when I quit. For the last six months of 2015, before I quit I had incredibly vivid nightmares despite taking a nightly rx for sleep and anxiety. I am sure the alcohol in my system ALL the time was why this was my norm.

As I got sober- 430 days ago- I had all kinds of withdrawal then significant PAWS. As for sleep, I had sweats and tremors during the night, and my nightmares slowly turned into equally vivid dreams (but not nightmares) then to "regular" sleep. This process took a few months. I had a few "drinking dreams" once the regular sleep started; relief to wake up to find those hadn't happened! Now, I occasionally have dreasm that are detailed and I remember them.

I still take the nightly sleep med. I would say hang in there and talk to your doctor. Sleep is still my TOP priority and concern as far as keeping my emotional sobriety stable.

Yeah its crazy, I get these too when I binge and then stop drinking, depends how bad the binge was. For me it's always the first three days, then it gets all lot better from there. I have found that tapering off alcohol works best to prevent all these bad affects from withdrawal, but I know when you're an alcoholic it's not easy to gradually ween off.

Nightmares can be a result of a million different things. I do know that people here talk about them quite a bit when in early sobriety. I have them to this day, but I know for a fact they are not caused by alcohol.

Hi asthecrowflies :)

For me, the nightmares lasted off and on for a couple of weeks - the vivid dreams continued for a little while after that, but no horrible elements to them :)

D