Pines Recovery Life · Blog

Does Alcohol Withdrawal Cause Insomnia?

You quit drinking and now you cannot sleep. Insomnia is one of the most common parts of alcohol withdrawal, and your body has more than sleep to readjust…

Published May 27, 2020 · Reviewed by Sergey Litvinov, MD · ~1240 words

You quit drinking and now you cannot sleep. You lie there wired and worn out at the same time, watching the hours go, until the idea of one drink to knock yourself out starts to sound reasonable again. Insomnia is one of the most common parts of alcohol withdrawal, and your body has more than sleep to readjust. That is why going to an alcohol detox facility or rehabilitation facility to stop using or misusing alcohol is so important. If you want to get over an alcohol addiction, we are here to help at Pines Recovery Life Detox.

Symptoms of alcohol withdrawal

Withdrawal is different for every person. What someone goes through depends on:

How much they drank each day
Whether the alcohol misuse was constant or binge drinking
How long they drank consistently
The type of alcohol they drank
How healthy the person was when detox and recovery began
The length of time since the last drink

Everyone giving up alcohol will face similar symptoms. However, they may range from mild to severe, depending on the factors above. At the milder end you get agitation, irritability, insomnia, and a gut that will not settle: nausea, indigestion, diarrhea. For some people it goes further than that:

Tremors or shaking anywhere in the body, uncontrollably
Uncontrolled changes in the body’s temperature (too hot or too cold)
Uneven heartbeat or breathing
Rapid changes in blood pressure

In some of the worst cases, someone may get Delirium Tremens (DTs), hallucinations so convincing that the person cannot tell they are not real. Most people come out of it quickly. Some are in it for weeks. If withdrawal happens without medical supervision of some type, seizures or death could also happen. These symptoms are infrequent, but they are the biggest reason that going to a detox center is highly recommended when giving up alcohol.

Is insomnia common during alcohol withdrawal?

A lot of people going through alcohol withdrawal cannot sleep. For some the insomnia came first, and the drinking started as a way to shut the brain off at night. For others it shows up only once the alcohol stops. Insomnia that appears under stress is called acute insomnia. Trouble falling asleep in the first place is onset insomnia. There are many types of insomnia, all of which could become exacerbated by recovery.

Why do some people struggle to sleep when giving up alcohol?

Alcohol is a sedative, and your body comes to depend on it. Drinking changes how the body works, especially the brain. It starts treating alcohol as something it needs to get up, get through the day, and fall asleep. Take the alcohol away and it does not know what to do.

Heavy drinking throws the rest of your body off too. You have probably not been eating real meals. Your liver and kidneys are carrying far more than they should, which makes them slower to remove toxins since your body’s ability to filter them out decreases. Years of heavy drinking can end in liver or kidney failure. It also changes how your body handles sleep once you stop.

How to get through the sleep problems

Quitting alcohol is hard, and sleep is what separates hard from unbearable. Too little sleep raises your agitation and makes every other symptom harder to sit with, and that is where relapse starts. If insomnia is what is wearing you down, speak with us. A few things that help people sleep during alcohol withdrawal:

Medications
Restrictions around bedtime
Therapy to alter behaviors
Meditation and relaxation
Stimulant avoidance
Routines that ease the body and mind to sleep

What you get back when you stop drinking

Picturing life without alcohol is hard while you are still drinking. Knowing what comes back helps. If you want something to hold onto as your reason to give up drinking, consider these facts:

Your body resets slowly once the alcohol is gone. If insomnia was part of your drinking or part of your first weeks sober, your sleep tends to come back.
Alcohol is a significant factor in many traumas that occur each year. By giving up alcohol, you reduce your chances of being part of one.
By giving up alcohol, you also reduce your risk of developing some alcohol-related cancer in the future. The sooner you give this up, the lower your long-term chances become.
Most people who give up alcohol also notice that they can focus better. This is because there is no longer the depressant acting on your mind each day, stifling your thoughts.
The longer you stay sober, the more your health can return. This means that your heart will get stronger, as will your liver and kidney function.
Many people repair relationships once they stop drinking. The damage alcohol does to the people closest to you is often the hardest part to look at.

Detox is uncomfortable at first. The discomfort passes, and your health comes back with the right support around you.

We are here to help with insomnia and the rest of alcohol withdrawal

At Pines Recovery Life Detox in South Florida, the medical and clinical staff know what your body is doing right now, and they know how to take the edge off it. Care here is built around the person in front of us. For alcohol use disorder and other substance use disorders, our addiction treatment programs include:

Call us at 800.263.3869 and we will tell you what treatment here would look like. There is more to recovery than detoxing from alcohol and getting through the withdrawal symptoms. We start with you on day one and stay with you until you can carry your own sobriety.

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