Since this is a topic that appears frequently in this forum, I thought I'd share some of my own experiences and hope that others add.
For those of you coming here while still in acute withdrawal (5-10 days AF), the insomnia can feel almost debilitating. I don't want to digress into a lengthy sidebar, but the biological reason for this is that our brains are overloaded with glutamate, an excitatory neurotransmitter, to compensate for the depressive effects of all that alcohol that we've been guzzling. Take away the alcohol and you can guess the effect. All that glutamate is what gives us the insomnia, and worse. Personally, I've been awake for as long as 80 hours continuously after particularly prolific benders.
Insomnia was one of the key reasons I became an alcoholic, but keep in mind that passing out and sleeping are two very different things. Continuing to drink to counter insomnia continues to disrupt neurotransmitter balance in the brain. Given that it takes about a week to fully detox from alcohol, continuing to drink to offset sleep difficulties is simply kicking the can down the road.
The good news is that once brain chemistry starts to normalize, sleep will once again return. During and shortly after detox, my psychiatrist had prescribed me trazodone, a pretty strong sleep medication to help offset the insomnia. Two months in, I am happy to report I'm having no sleep difficulties whatsoever and have not taken a sleep aid in many weeks, though I probably should mention I am on a medication called Campral (acamprosate), which accelerates the return of brain chemistry back to normal.
I also found fighting the insomnia also makes it seem worse than it really is. The body will sleep when it needs it. Instead of laying in bed tossing and turning and worrying about getting enough sleep, sip a cup of herbal tea and read a book, or something that isn't overly stimulating (for that reason, both the psychiatrist and therapist recommended against watching television or surfing the internet).
It does get better. As a lifelong insomniac, I never would have guessed that I would be sleeping better now, alcohol-free, than I can ever remember.
For those of you coming here while still in acute withdrawal (5-10 days AF), the insomnia can feel almost debilitating. I don't want to digress into a lengthy sidebar, but the biological reason for this is that our brains are overloaded with glutamate, an excitatory neurotransmitter, to compensate for the depressive effects of all that alcohol that we've been guzzling. Take away the alcohol and you can guess the effect. All that glutamate is what gives us the insomnia, and worse. Personally, I've been awake for as long as 80 hours continuously after particularly prolific benders.
Insomnia was one of the key reasons I became an alcoholic, but keep in mind that passing out and sleeping are two very different things. Continuing to drink to counter insomnia continues to disrupt neurotransmitter balance in the brain. Given that it takes about a week to fully detox from alcohol, continuing to drink to offset sleep difficulties is simply kicking the can down the road.
The good news is that once brain chemistry starts to normalize, sleep will once again return. During and shortly after detox, my psychiatrist had prescribed me trazodone, a pretty strong sleep medication to help offset the insomnia. Two months in, I am happy to report I'm having no sleep difficulties whatsoever and have not taken a sleep aid in many weeks, though I probably should mention I am on a medication called Campral (acamprosate), which accelerates the return of brain chemistry back to normal.
I also found fighting the insomnia also makes it seem worse than it really is. The body will sleep when it needs it. Instead of laying in bed tossing and turning and worrying about getting enough sleep, sip a cup of herbal tea and read a book, or something that isn't overly stimulating (for that reason, both the psychiatrist and therapist recommended against watching television or surfing the internet).
It does get better. As a lifelong insomniac, I never would have guessed that I would be sleeping better now, alcohol-free, than I can ever remember.
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