Donnie34

Its been two weeks sober for me today and for some reason I'm still up most of the night tossing and turning. Is this normal? Even if I fall asleep i'm up in intervals of 30 mins all night long it feels like.

Fly N Buy

Took awhile for me to learn a new normal, but sleeplessness was part of the transition. Good for you on not drinking for two weeks.

What wasn't normal was how I lived before quitting - passing out instead of falling asleep and regaining consciousness vs. waking up.

Glad you're here

Dee74

I think it's within the parameters of normal for sure Donnie.

I tried to remember I was recovering from a serious life threatening health condition...it made the sometimes slow timetable of progress that little more understandable?

JK130

Maybe because I'm older than most of you, but, it took me much longer than "weeks" to sleep well. Now I try to accept it, but it's still frustrating. It's a good thing SR is worldwhile, and there's usually someone awake to talk with! Hang in there!

Forward12

Alcoholism is a slow growing monster and I'll assume you've been at it for years, possibly decades. Two weeks clean is great! Though there will still be some adjusting time back to normal after all of that abuse. Things will get better day by day!

trachemys

Yes, tossing and turning is normal. Some nights, I wake up every hour on the hour.

I would suggest that you learning some meditation and breathing techniques so that you can relax and at least get some rest when you can't sleep. I can't point you to any because I learned them decades ago. I can completely still my body and quiet my mind and rest while awake.

Look into this.

NoahJ

It was helpful for me to look at “getting better” on a weekly or monthly timeframe. It happened, but it was so slow, I couldn’t see improvement on a daily basis.

Congratulations on 2 weeks! Don’t be discouraged. It took me 3+ months for my sleep to get to “normal”, and even now I still have periods of sleep problems. But when I was active, “normal” was drinking every night until I passed out/fell asleep, so I had to recalibrate my baseline.

Hevyn

Me too - really a problem in the early weeks. Sometimes I'd put the radio or some music on low.

Congrats on your 2 weeks, Donnie - that's wonderful.

least

It took me a few weeks to establish a good sleeping pattern. But sober sleeping, and waking up, are so wonderful. Waking up feeling good never gets old.

notrealname333

part of the reason my drinking got so bad is because i didn't sleep well without it, would toss and turn til 3am and then be up at 6'ish for work. i think that's kind of just my natural "rhythm". with booze could be out cold at 11-12 and sleep til the alarm went off. and it was/is a sh-tty kind of sleep but before the withdrawal effects started it was better than getting 2-3 hours of "regular sleep"

the real solution for me is one i did a few months ago -- get rx'd an anti-anxiety / sleep med. but didn't keep up on it because didn't want to double up with booze. going to change that now.

TheDude8D

When I stopped drinking I'd get the uncontrollable feeling that I needed to die when I tried to sleep, all it took was time and sleep comes easy now. Hang in there!

Donnie34

I will look into meditation , I did yoga for awhile back in one my healthy phases and I remember after it being finished I felt so calm and at peace which wasn't normal for me but it was a great feeling. Thank you everyone who responded, I hope you're all having a beautiful sober weekend so far. Much love.

sfrn1968

Two weeks here too Donnie, not sleeping well , even with drugs. Totally normal.