nova84

I am on day 9...and as each day passes I am finding it harder and harder to get out of bed in the mornings because I feel so tired. I am getting at least 7 hrs sleep a night and have been trying to eat healthily and keep hydrated. I have not been experiencing any physical withdrawal symptoms. I was wondering if it could have something to do with the 4,000 (at least) calories a week I was getting from alcohol that I am no longer having...especially the sugar contained in alcohol?

least

Fatigue is common in early recovery. Give yourself some more sober time to normalize and treat yourself well in the mean time.

Meraviglioso

Hi Nova, I have been fortunate (up until now) to only really suffer tiredness and weakness as I withdrawal, nothing more serious. But it is a serious interference in my day to day life.
I think you are spot on that a lot of it has to do with the sudden absence of calories and sugars. I think there are other things at work too, your body adjusting in other way, but the calories and sugars are missing and could be making you tired.
I found that a piece of fruit or a large glass of fruit juice really gave me an immediate boost. It is full of sugar and some calories. Right now oranges are in season, you could get some oranges and make a fresh squeezed juice. This would provide you with some vitamin C as well. I found summer fruits to be much more appealing/helpful (peaches, plums, apricots and the like) the winter fruits don't seem to give me as much of a boost, but juices still do.
You could also make a fruit smoothie with some plain yogurt, a banana and some fresh berries.
Some good quality vitamins would probably help as well.
Take care.

Dropsie

Glad to hear its not just me.

Seven hours is not a lot of sleep -- can you try to get to bed earlier....

NZK9Lady

I was sleeping between 9 and 10.5 hours up until a week ago, then going to work and needing to nap at about 11am. I cut down my caffeine intake to try and minimise the crashes which seemed to help even things out. Now I'm getting around 7.5 - 8 hours and while I'm still ready for nap time at 11 I think that's more due to starting a new job and having to learn a lot of new things. I've not even got 30 days yet but already have gone through a lot of changes in energy levels. Hope it evens out soon

stevepearce

Hi. I was very tired too to start with. I'm on day 33 and I am virtually over it. Stick with it. It gets better.

ALinNS

You are good, as noted above it's par for the course, first week with me was ok to good, second to fourth weeks I quite often had to take a one hour+ nap in the afternoon, I could just not stay awake, was sleeping 7.5 to 10 hours a night.

I am 6+ weeks sober, sleep and energy has been back on track for some time now. We are all different but the same in many ways, just takes the body time so give it what it needs (except for the booze).

All the best
Andrew

SoberinSyracuse

That does kinda sound like a slow-motion sugar crash. Try handling it as such and let us know if it helps at all. OJ, cup of java if you need it, eat frequently throughout the day and don't be too hardcore about dietary purity just yet.

Obladi

I have a hard time getting out of bed at 15 days. Seems to me like our bodies are working hard at the task of rejuvenating now that they are suddenly free of alcoholic toxins. You know how much kids need to sleep because their bodies are working so hard on growing? Maybe it's the same.

Seems to me like having a hard time getting out of bed because I have been sleeping so soundly is a hell of a good trade-off for sleeping poorly because I drink so much. I was tired, then, too. Plus I felt like crap all of the time.

Soberwolf

Congrats on day 9 Nova how about having 5 pieces of fruit per day

Ariesagain

Day four I made it out to walk the dogs, barely...and spent the rest of the day on the couch. It took nearly three weeks before I could drag my way through my regular 4-mile run and I was just flat, down, and knackered most of the rest of the time. It's finally beginning to get better now, at day 25. Pink cloud? Can I have one please?

From what I've read, our bodies process alcohol first in order to rapidly eliminate the toxic threat to our systems, so we burn all those alcohol calories for fuel first. Once that stops, it's a major metabolic adjustment to start processing actual food, so we're on fumes for a while.

This too shall pass...

Dharma33

Hi Nova-

Congrats on 9 days! In my early days, I was extremely fatigued also. I was sleeping 9-10 hrs a night and sometimes still needed a nap a lot of days. I just listened to my body and it did pass. Still, I get 8 hrs when I can.

IWalkTheLine

It could be the calories for you but I got mine after I stopped opiates exactly the same sort of fatigue but there was no sugar in me pills. Do you get the restless legs? That can keep you up, mine was really painfull, baths help.

dogslover2016

So glad to hear I'm not the only one. I'm right there with you, day 10 for me and Sunday night I slept almost 11 hours!! :| What the heck is *that* all about?

Yep.

SunnyDenver

I'm on Day 12 and really dragging today. The sleep cycle is not regular by any means, it takes me a long time to fall asleep and I wake up several times a night. But, I've been drinking and disrupting my normal sleep pattern for years, I don't expect it to turn around in less than two weeks so I will be patient. I am forcing myself to exercise daily now, which I hope will help. All that being said, I will take lethargic and 12 days sober over drinking in a heartbeat. What a feeling to wake up and add one more day to the sober life.

mecanix

my sleep was all over the place in the early days.

Sometimes about 4 hours and sometimes 11 on a work night and 18 at the weekend .

Mine sorted itself out eventually after a month or two , we're all different .

These days i use a SAD light to help kick start me in the mornings because a northern winter is so gloomy , that made a big difference .

m

RallyAly

I'm sleeping more than usual (I'm on day 13) and I'm usually napping after work hours. Sugar is probably part of it but I had it worse a few months ago when quitting smoking. What helped for me was thinking of it as a natural side effect of all the cell repair going on - similar to mention above.

jryan19982

Getting out of bed... good luck. I struggle with that every day. But Ive been like that my whole life. The times I would be excited about getting out of bed would be to take a bong hit.

Eating healthy is great! But dont starve yourself of calories either! Sure eat salads, eat healthy cereals and grains but dont cut out meats and proteins. Splurge sometimes and eat fried chicken. The early recovery is the hardest and if you try and cut out alcohol, and eat healthy, and cut out fried and fatty foods your body goes into WTF mode. It doesnt know what to do.

So take it slow! Slow and steady. Just focus on alcohol now, and maybe a few more fruits and veggies a day. Then after a while get into the healthier foods...

SunnyDenver

I agree JRyan, there will be plenty of time to get back on the healthy train, but for me, in early recovery I just want calories. I am taking vitamins and eating fruits and veggies, but I am not too worried now about the calories from the rest of the stuff. I've already cut out 1000+ per day just not drinking.

jryan19982

Exactly! my smoothie I make in the morning is at least 500 calories. More if I put some more stuff into it. I used to drink more than 500 calories a day so the smoothie is kind of making up for that since I rarely ate anything for breakfast before... you know hard to eat when you have that hangover feeling in your stomach.