To ask how long it took for sleep to become normal when sober?

[Cryingbutstilltrying]

It’s taken me a good few years to accept I have a problem with alcohol.
I would drink half a bottle of wine every night, sometimes more, sometimes with spirits after. This was every night for at least 5 years.
I would go to bed at midnight and drop into a dead sleep immediately. I know it wasn’t a good healthy sleep but it meant I would be up at 7am no problem and deal with the kids, school run, then work.
I was gradually feeling more and more crappy in the day so decided to try not drinking.
After a few false starts where I would go a few days, then slide back into it, finally I had a moment where I was drinking what should have been a nice white wine, and I didn’t really like it, and then the next day I felt like shit and wasted my one day off that weekend. It was a wake up.

Here’s the thing. I’ve not had a drink for 2 weeks but my sleep is awful. It takes forever for me to drop off, I wake at the slightest noise and I’m groggy as hell when the alarm goes off at 7am. I’m tired all day though resisting naps or anything like that.
I’ve stopped drinking caffeine after lunch to see if it helps but so far nothing.
I’ve been exercising earlier in the evening and making sure I am tired and my room is dark, cosy, etc etc.
I’m at a loss.
If you’ve given up drinking, how long did it take to sort your sleep out? I’m absolutely not wanting to go back there but right now the lack of sleep making me feel like drinking tbh. If I’m still feeling this shit what’s the point?

@Burnamer. Thank you so much.

Well done Op!! Nearly 4 years here. Sleep took a few weeks, and like others have said, it might be an idea to avoid any meds to help you sleep as they can become habit forming. What helped me was a hypnotherapy app - Alan Johnson I think it was, and it's especially for people giving up drinking. It was very soothing.

You are doing great - and every time you resist the urge to drink, it reinforces neural pathways of recovery, making it easier and easier. And I never woke up in the morning thinking " well - I wish I'd had a drink last night..." Keep going!

Unsure if yoga is your thing but try some YouTube bedtime yoga routines - they are relaxing for mind and body. Kassandra does some good ones.
Your sleep will eventually resume but yoga will help it.

Well done OP, stick with it!!

Sleep for me took a few weeks, but once I got there I started having the most relaxing, deep, refreshing sleep ever. It IS worth it and you can do it.

Please consider getting some over the counter sleeping pills just for getting through this stage. Lack of proper sleep is a killer, and is a massive alcohol trigger for me too. You just have no willpower or mental strength when you're tired. Don't make things hard for yourself, get some Nytol or similar, it will really help you stay on track.

As an aside, I think sometimes people don't understand that this sort of thing is one of the reasons alcohol is so hard to give up. People think you just down lots of booze because you're undisciplined or can't say no or whatever. A lot of the times when I've slipped off the sober wagon it's because I've had so little sleep over so many days that I've "had" to make the conscious decision to drink, because I started falling asleep at work, and on the bus and things. It is very hard when you need alcohol to function.

So well done OP, you can do it, this phase doesn't last forever and it will be so worth it once you're through the other side xx

This is exactly me and where I have been. Never hit any kind of rock bottom, always functioned. What has stopped me is that alcohol actually ended up making my sleep awful. I have always been a good sleeper but post 45 found myself waking all night, horrendously anxious and on edge. It has happened to a few friends of mine and I guess it may be linked to peri/menopause. But if you are younger than I am keep in mind this may have happened anyway.

I'd second Epsom salts and evening yoga bit it is definitely a q of finding what works for you.

I was the same when I stopped drinking. Give it a month or so. I'm having the best sleep of my life now (over a year sober) and well done for stopping 😊

Exercising in the evening maybe the problem as you will have been hyper from that and have to come down from that high which maybe why you cant settle when you want to. I have to exercise in the morning/early afternoon to get a good nights sleep.

You need a good set of vitamins to replace what alcohol can strip you of. I think the book 'alcohol lied to me' has a brilliant chapter on it and a list. And mag 365 every night a bed builds up a nice calm. It can take a while though for sleep to settle (5 months for me) but you won't know yourself bouncing out of bed like Laura Ingalls