First 5 days of consecutive sleep in over 2 years......
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Join Date: Feb 2014
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First 5 days of consecutive sleep in over 2 years......
Day 46.
Monday March 31st was the first night i actually fell asleep with no drugs or alcohol, I slept on my side and slept around 5-6 hours.
I have been able to repeat for the last 4 days, im sooooo glad my body is finally starting to get back to it's "rhythm", I am so relieved
Yesterday I hit the sack around 10:30 pm, I took no Chamomile tea or sleeping aid pill. I guess-timate I was asleep by about 11:15 PM...... i didn't open my eyes as i find that causes me to "stress out" over the time on the clock in the corner. Kept my eyes shut the ENTIRE time and slept on my side due to the extra weight on my belly, I woke up and the time on the clock was 4:37 AM. So from that I gather that I got in around 5 hours of sleep. Not bad considering no booze or sleeping pills.
I have only been able to achieve around 5 or 6 hours of sleep consistently........ regardless of whether i use sleep pills or do it on my own, I think i still have a ways to go before i am sleeping the "standard" 8 or 9 hours that sober people get.
If you are a new person and you are reading this, you might think "it's just me who cant sleep, everyone else is sleeping fine"......... im here to tell you you are wrong, you are NOT alone with the insomnia. As I have learned during my after-the-fact "crash course" education regarding alcohol withdrawal, acute insomnia is probably one of the more COMMON symptoms. A good analogy someone explained to me was as follows:
"When you drink heavily over a long period of time, it is akin to pushing down on a giant spring coil. The alcohol, being a depressant, 'pushes down' on your nervous system and this is what gives you the 'happy and relaxed' euphoria. For every action there is an equal but opposite reaction...... the brain, acting like a 'coil spring', starts 'pushing up' to counter the 'pushing down'....... this creates a lot of 'stored energy' and as long as you keep ingesting the alcohol depressant, nothing happens....... your brain simply continues to adapt to the incoming depressant. When you suddenly 'quit' alcohol and 'get off' the metaphorical giant coil spring, there is a VIOLENT reaction........ the 'up energy' is no longer being 'kept down' by alcohol. The 'up energy' shoots up suddenly and then lingers for a while as the brain becomes hyper-excited without the alcohol depressant to keep it 'down' or calm. This is where withdrawal symptoms like anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia, high blood pressure, hand shaking, etc come from."
You new people should just beware that you most likely WILL experience trouble getting to sleep or getting to sleep AT ALL the first few weeks, but remember that it will pass. At least it seems to be starting to pass for me, i feel more rested this week...... and i attribute that to not using drugs to get to sleep. Sleeping aids are nice, but a lot of them are like alcohol in that they give you a "hangover" into the next morning. Forget the "stronger" ones like the poisonous Ambien crap my doctor prescribed me, those make you feel like crap........ i only took 3 pills over the course of like 4 days and i felt absolutely horrible...... by the 3rd pill i was experiencing bizarre side effects like diarhhea, lightheadedness, and loss of appetite.
Hang in there new people, insomnia might push you to the brink of caving or making a trip to the ER.......... its just the body re-adjusting, and only t.i.m.e will correct it
Monday March 31st was the first night i actually fell asleep with no drugs or alcohol, I slept on my side and slept around 5-6 hours.
I have been able to repeat for the last 4 days, im sooooo glad my body is finally starting to get back to it's "rhythm", I am so relieved
Yesterday I hit the sack around 10:30 pm, I took no Chamomile tea or sleeping aid pill. I guess-timate I was asleep by about 11:15 PM...... i didn't open my eyes as i find that causes me to "stress out" over the time on the clock in the corner. Kept my eyes shut the ENTIRE time and slept on my side due to the extra weight on my belly, I woke up and the time on the clock was 4:37 AM. So from that I gather that I got in around 5 hours of sleep. Not bad considering no booze or sleeping pills.
I have only been able to achieve around 5 or 6 hours of sleep consistently........ regardless of whether i use sleep pills or do it on my own, I think i still have a ways to go before i am sleeping the "standard" 8 or 9 hours that sober people get.
If you are a new person and you are reading this, you might think "it's just me who cant sleep, everyone else is sleeping fine"......... im here to tell you you are wrong, you are NOT alone with the insomnia. As I have learned during my after-the-fact "crash course" education regarding alcohol withdrawal, acute insomnia is probably one of the more COMMON symptoms. A good analogy someone explained to me was as follows:
"When you drink heavily over a long period of time, it is akin to pushing down on a giant spring coil. The alcohol, being a depressant, 'pushes down' on your nervous system and this is what gives you the 'happy and relaxed' euphoria. For every action there is an equal but opposite reaction...... the brain, acting like a 'coil spring', starts 'pushing up' to counter the 'pushing down'....... this creates a lot of 'stored energy' and as long as you keep ingesting the alcohol depressant, nothing happens....... your brain simply continues to adapt to the incoming depressant. When you suddenly 'quit' alcohol and 'get off' the metaphorical giant coil spring, there is a VIOLENT reaction........ the 'up energy' is no longer being 'kept down' by alcohol. The 'up energy' shoots up suddenly and then lingers for a while as the brain becomes hyper-excited without the alcohol depressant to keep it 'down' or calm. This is where withdrawal symptoms like anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia, high blood pressure, hand shaking, etc come from."
You new people should just beware that you most likely WILL experience trouble getting to sleep or getting to sleep AT ALL the first few weeks, but remember that it will pass. At least it seems to be starting to pass for me, i feel more rested this week...... and i attribute that to not using drugs to get to sleep. Sleeping aids are nice, but a lot of them are like alcohol in that they give you a "hangover" into the next morning. Forget the "stronger" ones like the poisonous Ambien crap my doctor prescribed me, those make you feel like crap........ i only took 3 pills over the course of like 4 days and i felt absolutely horrible...... by the 3rd pill i was experiencing bizarre side effects like diarhhea, lightheadedness, and loss of appetite.
Hang in there new people, insomnia might push you to the brink of caving or making a trip to the ER.......... its just the body re-adjusting, and only t.i.m.e will correct it
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