Waking up at 4 am after drinking

[Wannabsober]

When I would drink too much I would wake up at 3 or 4 am and not be able to go back to sleep. Other people that I would go out and party with pass out and sleep until 10 or 11 am solid. I was talking to a friend that used to have a drinking problem and she mentioned she quit drinking because she couldn't stand the fact that she couldn't sleep!
Has anyone else had this problem and do you know why it happens to some and not others?
Just curious as to what it is....

[Seacailin]

Waking up at 4 am after drinking

I am the same way. AL ruins my sleep totally. I do not know why, but I would love to know.

[A Work in Progress]

Waking up at 4 am after drinking

Whos, I woke up at 3:30 nearly every morning, unable to get back to sleep again, for maybe the last 6 months or a year, before I quit drinking, and the problem only gradually went away, over a couple of months, after quitting. Alcohol screws around with a lot of our brain systems, include the sleep/wake cycle...

I don't think anyone knows why some are affected in this particular way. I do know that I spent years of heavy drinking before the sleep problem began to emerge... maybe it gets worse over the years, with heavy consumption... ? It certainly contributed to how horrible I was feeling overall, by the time I quit!

[Lynnie]

Waking up at 4 am after drinking

Hi WYM - The same thing would happen to me. I think it's your body trying to work out the alcohol through your system....so you wake up and feel restless and agitated. What I started doing was take a sleeping pill before bed and this would get me through the night.....not a good habit to start though.

Are you currently trying to quit?

[Guitarista]

Waking up at 4 am after drinking

G'day WYM, and all. Good question. Same here. Don't really know why. And i'd also spend the next couple of hours feeling very anxious, knotted stomach, mind/heart racing, and saying to myself...gotta stop this merry go round! Thankfully i have. Thanks for the horrific reminder....Hope all's well........G.

[Wannabsober]

Waking up at 4 am after drinking

Yes I am trying to quit. Been 2 nights in a row AF. Today is day 3.
I would always wake up restless, agitated, mind racing, trying to remember the events of the night before. Feeling guilty, saying to myself today is the day I quit, etc.
I suppose I am glad I am one of those affected by that, because it was one of the worst parts of drinking. By the time I got back to sleep it was time to get up.

[Lynnie]

Waking up at 4 am after drinking

I hear 'ya. I know exactly what you are talking about! Then trying to get up to go to work and feeling lousy. Well congrats on being on your 3rd day. It only gets better from here. I've been sleeping amazingly well lately. Today is Day 9 for me and am feeling so optimistic. I feel so great! Have you been sleeping good the last couple of nights?


Hang in there!

[A Work in Progress]

Waking up at 4 am after drinking

Lynnie, I agree, going to sleep sober and waking up sober (and hangover-free) is just amazingly wonderful. Never imagined I'd feel so happy about sleeping!

[Lynnie]

Waking up at 4 am after drinking

AWP - So you're almost at 6 months AF! Wow! What are your plans/goals? Have you done this before? Are you finding it hard?

Lynnie

[Kid Shelleen]

Waking up at 4 am after drinking

Same thing...

When I was young and alcohol was still loads of fun, I also would be one to sleep deep and late from drinking alcohol. I could even take an extra drink at bedtime to sleep better. In the last 10 years I developed some moderate to severe sleeping problems that were starting to worry me. Sleep deprivation is bad for you on SO many levels (and it's depressing). I never associated drinking with waking up at 2:30AM as if an alarm went off at the same time every night; but that was it. If I drink nothing or 1 drink, I sleep. If I drink 2 or more drinks, I don't. I can't sneak it in;I can't fool my brain.
~Kid~

[A Work in Progress]

Waking up at 4 am after drinking

Thanks, Lynnie. I once did 3 years AF in AA... long time ago. I've gotten up to about a year AF on my own, a couple of times. I am VERY determined that this is the last time I will ever have to quit drinking! Once I made the decision, it wasn't really hard to follow through, especially with the support here at MWO... but getting to the point of making that decision was hellish. Alcohol really distorts everything, our thinking, our emotions, our behavior... And sometimes I do want to drink... but that's OK. Life is full of things we want that we cannot have! No big deal!

Plans/goals? To be permanently AF, to make the rest of my life "count" in terms of helping others, to be free of the chains and blinders that hold me back, and to have some fun in life!

How about you?

[CS04]

Waking up at 4 am after drinking

I am on day 4 AF and my sleep has sucked. Last summer, when I had some AF time off and on, I was waking up at 3 or 4 AM whether I was drinking or not. But I think that was because I was depressed, and the ADs had not kicked in yet. Now, I'm lying awake, can't sleep till 2 or 3 or 4, then wake up again at 6....

I know that doesn't help much. I know many people have trouble sleeping when they go AF -- we are so used to AL to anesthetize ourselves --also known as passing out. I was reeeeally tired this morning, but I made plans for my sister to come over and our kids to play, so that gave me some instant energy...a good thing.

[vlad]

Waking up at 4 am after drinking

Yep, whenever I drink (especially if it's been ALOT) I always wake up about 3.00am, get up and stagger to the toilet, then I get back in bed and don't sleep till 8.00am, sleep for an hour then have to get up because I have to get shut of my hangover.

[Lynnie]

Waking up at 4 am after drinking

AWP - My goals? Well I'm not too sure actually. I've never tried going Af before, but figure it's time. And with the brand new year I thought I'd give it a whirl! I'm 42 years old and tired of drinking....it's not so much fun anymore! I'm on Day 9 and feeling great. It has seemed a long road to get here though....not really because of cravings but just feeling like crap. Today is the first day I feel quite normal, happy, enthusiastic etc. I am keeping a journal of my progress. I plan to aim for 30 days AF right now and then aim for 60 days after that. Even if it's just to give my body a well deserved break! I don;t know how I will handle the summer though. We have a cottage and of course cottaging and alcohol go hand in hand right? My GF and I like to play Scrabble at the pic nic table by the lake and drink fruity wine. She always knows when to quit and rarely stays up late when we have campfires.....and then there's me! The party animal who never knows when to quit and feels shitty the next day!

[j-vo]

Waking up at 4 am after drinking

Whos,
Well, I'd wake up like that I think from the al wearing off, then I'd lay in bed anxious and getting myself upset about what I did while I drank - you know, the stupid stuff, the stuff that you hate yourself over and over for. So for me, it's the physical and mental . . . again.