Alphabet

First off, I'd like to say hi to all the newcomers who are struggling right now. Hang in there, guys; we're all in this together. You can get through this <3

Getting some sleep on day 3; I was able to sleep last highly and had strange, disturbing dreams. I just woke up myself after falling asleep for a short while from an even more upsetting/disturbing and violent dream that's left me afraid to go back to sleep (and kind if afraid of the dark...). I've noticed that because my body won't let me fully go to sleep yet, these dreams are somewhat lucid, wherein I can kind of control what's happening. Makes it even more creepy and real! Anyone else get this part?
I know this is not an uncommon thing, and I know it can last a while. I just wanted to start a thread throwing it out there that: THIS SUX!

Hope you are all well

Django

I had the same last night which was also day 3.I won't go into detail as it really wasn't nice,but just remember it will pass.Whats helped me in the past is if you have a tv in your room,put something happy on before you go to bed.Or even listen to some happy music before as well.Thats what I'm doing tonight!

Thepatman

Ho my, I don't miss those!

I had the vivid nightmares of absolute terror with some nice sleep paralyses in the mix. I was therefore stuck in the horror movie, knew I was dreaming could t wake up or if I did, I was in my room, tough I was awake but still in a dream.

Freaked the crap out of me. They will leave you in a few days. When they happen just take a walk in your house, drink some milk or something.

I would also avoid mirrors. At least you didn't get the Alien in the corner of the room like my good friend LaTheVerte. LOL!

DisplacedGRITS

I've been struggling with sleep paralysis and night terrors recently. I spoke with my psych today and he said I need to get back to healthy sleep habits. No caffeine after 3PM (dude, I live in Seattle. This is gonna be tough!), go to bed around the same time, no sugar before bed, turn off electronics early (as I type this on my phone in bed, haha)...pretty basic stuff. I hope this passes soon for all of us.

LadyBlue0527

It does pass. I remember in the beginning I would have to have 2 full bottles of water next to the bed. Once I did get to sleep (after laying there tossing and turning) it was a disturbed pattern. I would wake up every hour so dry I would down almost half a bottle of water. Rinse and repeat all night long. I remember being soooooooo exhausted every day. Weird dreams, the whole gamut. When I did get into bed I had to keep the tv on because silence was deafening and just kept me awake longer.

At around three months that began turning around where the waking up became less frequent.

Fast forward to now. Within 20 minutes (if not far less) of getting into bed I can't keep myself awake if I'm trying to watch the news. I shut the tv off and there's no laying there, I am gone. Not only that but the quality of sleep is the best. I wake up refreshed. I still bring one bottle of water to bed and leave it on the nightstand but I can't tell you the last time that I needed it.

It does get better, everything gets better!

Croissant

Hi Alphabet. Yep, horrible nightmares....felt like the Devil himself was coming to get me at night.

I did dread sleep for a bit...but waking up hangover-free was worth it!

nymets86

Yeah, I've been having this issue too, and on Day 10 now. Not sure if it's the lack of alcohol, or the fact that I've also quit caffeine and been weaning myself off ambien. Also have to take benadryl at night because of my bad seasonal allergies. I'm sure it's some combination of all, but what it comes down too, as croissant said, is it's better than waking up hung over!

Fortunately I haven't had any dreams that were too horrifying, mostly just very, very, very weird dreams, though last night I did wake up in a bit of a panic having no idea where it was and taking like a minute or too realizing I was in my own bedroom.

Anybody else had dreams where you've used alcohol and/or drugs? I keep having those, and it's a bit strange.

Verte

Hi Alphabet...the intense dreams were such a challenge in the early days for me - mostly because the residual feelings would hang out through the following day. I think I had my last nightmare around 2 weeks and the had a doozy of a 'special' guest appearance at 4weeks. Just like ThePAtman, Croissant and Lady Blue wrote, stay hydrated, for sure. nymets - I have not had the alc/drug dreams but many here have written about their experience Django's happy music or TV show is a great suggestion. I'm going to try. OK, back to you.

Try not to worry about sleeping with a light on if it works for you

There are a few SRers here who have excellent insight into why these dreams and sleep disturbances/paralysis occur when alcohol is removed from the body. Has something to do with alcohol suppressing REM and then...oh well, cannot remember. Hopefully the brain smarties will post soon for great insight share.

Alphabet, you are doing a great job! Keep pushing through. Stay strong. LOVE your avatar.

bigsombrero

Hi there,

Yep - vivid, often spooky dreams are very common.

I believe this is due to the fact that alcoholism has created a large, 4-lane highway that leads directly to your addictive rewards center....and now it's completely empty and devoid of traffic.

When you sleep, your brain is busy working on construction: it's building new roads so that those neurons can find safe transport. Building these new pathways means that these roads are going to have to be build upon some little-used areas. These areas haven't seen activity for a while, so when they are activated, some strange dreams will occur. It's completely natural and nothing to worry about!

wpainterw

Alphabet: I've been told that alcohol tends to depress so called REM (Rapid Eye Motion) sleep and when alcohol is removed from the body the brain tends to make up for lost time by having an unusual amount of REM sleep. That, and anxiety which comes from the initial phases of recovery, tend to produce an unusual amount of dreaming and sometimes these dreams are vivid and disturbing. It's funny that the issue arises this morning because, even after 26 years of sobriety I had a particularly disturbing dream last night. But with sobriety these disturbing dreams generally are less frequent. Hang in there and things will get better

W.

Alphabet

Thanks guys!

As I said, I know it's common and will subside, just wanted others to share their experiences

As for the rest of my night; I was able to snuggle up to a half awake fiancé and fell asleep having an extremely vivid, yet not horrifying, dream. And it was not lucid!

Starting day four feeling... pretty fantastic, actually

Alphabet

Thank you, Verte!

Jupiters

if I only I could have dreams of winning the lotto and riding around on a unicorn. oh man, that would be awesome.

JensDestiny

Good morning. I am starting on Day 6 and have had similar experience with very vivid dreams; that is when I can actually get some sleep.

[QUOTE=wpainterw;4709814]Alphabet: I've been told that alcohol tends to depress so called REM (Rapid Eye Motion) sleep and when alcohol is removed from the body the brain tends to make up for lost time by having an unusual amount of REM sleep.

I couldn't agree with you more painter... I used to just pass out nightly and didn't remember dreaming at all for years. I think my imagination was dumbed down by the alcohol and now that it is gone... it's in full swing!

*edited but not sure how to properly quote someone on here. At work now so I will have to figure it out later.