emmsie

Hi everybody,

Hope you are all happy, sober and safe. Does anyone experience insomnia or difficulty 'winding down' at night? If so, what has helped you? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks,


Emma

BradJustBrad

I find regular exercise to be very helpful in keeping to a regular sleeping schedule. Now that the weather is nicer I try to run five days a week.

YouTube has a lot of guided meditation videos for sleep and relaxation that you might want to check out.

The following video has been posted here by others, and I have found it very effective at getting me to sleep (once you learn to accept the odd pronunciation of "anxiety").

Healing Spirit: Guided Meditation for Relaxation, Anxiety, Depression and Self Acceptance - YouTube

BrendonM

I have always been a bad sleeper - throw in withdrawal and its a nightmare. I'm lucky if I need only 3 hours to fall asleep. I also have awful hypnic jerks, I will wake up with a violent sensation of falling up to 10 times a night.

Exercise will help, herbal teas (lemonbalm/chamomile) can help, don't stare at a monitor too close to bedtime. Also, don't do what I do and freak out because you want to get to sleep! I freak myself out and get more revved up.

Nonsensical

http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...ml#post4299777

Good Luck!

SolitaryThinker

I'm having this problem every night and it's driving me insane...

KenHendrix94

Meditation before bed time with praying at the same time..

emmsie

Thanks, everyone - these suggestions are very much appreciated. Been finding that exercise, meditation and prayer has helped me. Sometimes it's still difficult though. Solitary, I hope that you find things that help you and that you manage to start having a better time of it sleep-wise. It's not nice and I wish you all the best with that.

SolitaryThinker

Thank you...I need to find ways to just relax in general, even during the day...

LBrain

emmsie, yes, I have had a lot of difficulty with sleeping patterns early into sobriety, aside from all of other suggestions I can only offer time as a solution, it gets better after time, just don't let it freak you out too much, it will pass

OverTheUnder

I'm going through the same thing, but I'm still very early on in my recovery... Got 4 hours of sleep last night.

I just embrace two facts: One, that I'm probably not going to get much sleep tonight and two, that I'll start getting a little more sleep as the days and weeks go by.

I just settle in bed and out on some good music and meditate.

Aellyce

For me what has helped:
#1: No alcohol of course
#2: ACTION. Addressing my problems and trying to deal with them head on. Stop procrastinating, do things outside of my comfort zone. All these usually take me several rounds of motivations, trials and errors.
#3: Relaxation techniques (eg. meditation), exercise, more social life.

Oldselfagain

Lots of exercise and lots of exercise. Also keeping to a schedule helps. Allowing time to wind down before bed too.

OpioPhobe

Emmsie - ditto on the exercise suggestions. Hot baths would help too. Also, if I didn't fall asleep within 15 minutes I would get up and do a light activity (e.g. reading under a lamp). Once I found myself getting sleepy I would then go back to bed for another bite at the apple. I found that to help because I needed my mind to associate the bed with sleep not tossing and turning.

The other thing that helped tremendously was acceptance that I was going to have bad / no sleep for a while. The more I wanted to go to sleep the harder it became to go to sleep. It was almost a mental block at points because I would lay down and try to mentally force myself to sleep which is frustrating and basically impossible. As soon as I stopped worrying about when I was going to get sleep it all the sudden got much better.

Dee74

Glad things are a little better Emmsie

D

trikuza

I pass out at like 4 am, plus I have really vivid nightmares every night. I've always had this problem, but it seems to have gotten worse since I stopped drinking. I've been waking up feeling really groggy, even when I do get sufficient sleep.

I still feel way better during the day now that I'm sober though. It's worth it! I'm sure ill sleep better soon.

emmsie

Thanks again, folks for sharing all of these experiences and tips with me. I hope that anyone who is having trouble settling/sleeping finds that it gets easier soon. Trikuza - Being sober is always worth it! :-)

Tetra

I always thought that I NEEDED a bottle and a half of wine to sleep.

Now at almost six months sober I realise I don't.

I start winding down before bed by turning off all machines, laptop, phone etc. I make some camomile tea and I read a book. Sometimes I light a few candles and I feel really sleepy.

I hope you feel better soon x

SolitaryThinker

Status update:
After a few more wrestles nights, I had the opportunity to sleep in the next day so it didn't matter when I woke up. I slept well past noon and haven't done that sense I was a teenager. It's around 1am where I live and I'm laying down quite sleepy, I was wide awake well past 3 all my sober nights. I think stressing about sleeping actually makes it worse, at least for me. You won't stay awake forever! Enough wrestles nights in a row will eventually lead to a night where the head slams the pillow hard with no booze or pills..

jvanderk

I suffered from insomnia loooong before I became an alcoholic. And my Mom had some pretty good advice about not freaking out about not sleeping. She used to say, 'Even if you don't sleep all night, you're body is resting and you will be okay." whether or not this is true, I dunno, but the comfort I would get by the notion that I didn't HAVE to sleep was enough to prevent the freaking out and thus get to sleep. Hope that helps

LBrain

I have about 110 days. Last night I tried to watch the late hockey game but was getting sleepy so I went to bed - fell alseep right away. Woke up about 6 hours later, looked at clock and went straight back to sleep. I have been getting around 8 hours of sleep regularly now. Not sure exactly when it started. I can to go bed and fall asleep and sleep straight through the night now. Two months ago I couldn't fall asleep to save my life. Then I would sleep for 12 hours or six. There was no constant to my sleep. Sometimes I would just lie in bed not wanting to get up. It was madness. I felt tired a lot but I still couldn't sleep. Nothing made sense to me.
Without my even realizing it, I was starting to sleep normally. I am getting 7-8 hours of sleep. And when I wake up, I get up. I don't just stay in bed, I'm ready to hit the day.
Hope this helps.