Can't sleep after quitting alcohol

Quitting alcohol often makes your sleep worse to begin with, and people who sleep badly in early recovery are more likely to start drinking again. For most people sleep does get better, but how long it takes varies a lot. After years of heavy drinking it can stay unsettled for months, sometimes longer, even with no alcohol at all.

If you drink heavily every day or most days, talk to a doctor before you stop. That matters most if withdrawal has been bad for you before, with the shakes, a seizure or hallucinations, or if you also take sleeping pills or anti-anxiety pills.

Withdrawal usually starts within hours of the last drink and often peaks one to three days in. At its worst it means seizures and severe confusion, and it can be life-threatening. If you've already stopped and you're shaky, sweaty, being sick or your heart is racing, get medical advice today, and don't spend those first days alone. Call 911 or your local emergency number if you or someone with you has a seizure, a fever, sudden confusion, an irregular heartbeat, or sees, hears or feels things that aren't there.

Why sleep gets worse at first

If you drank most nights, alcohol was doing part of the work of getting you to sleep, even while it broke up the second half of the night, and your brain got used to that. Now your sleep has to manage without it. Expect to lie awake longer before you fall asleep, and lighter, more broken nights for a while.

Dreams often get more vivid, and some can be upsetting. Alcohol holds back dream sleep, and once you stop there's often more of it than usual for a while. The dreams usually ease with time, though for some people it takes months.

What helps in the meantime

Get up at the same time every morning. It keeps your body clock steady while the rest of your sleep is all over the place, and a full day awake builds the sleepiness you're missing at bedtime.

After a bad night you'll want to be in bed by nine, but going to bed early mostly adds time lying awake. Stay up until you're sleepy. If you feel sleepy in the day, don't drive until it passes.

On nights when lying there starts to get to you, get up for a while and go back to bed when your eyelids are heavy. Sit up in bed with a low light instead if you're unsteady at night or taking anything that makes you drowsy.

A drink may have been how your evening ended. Swap it for something you can do every night, like a shower, a cup of herbal tea, a walk around the block or the same show at the same time.

Coffee, cola and energy drinks can creep in to fill the gap. Keep them before 2pm while your nights recover.

Getting help

CBT-I, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, is a talk therapy that guidelines put first for long-term insomnia, and it helps with sleep in alcohol recovery too. In a trial with veterans in alcohol treatment, five weekly sessions eased insomnia more than a single session of sleep advice did. The researchers concluded there's no need to wait until someone has stopped drinking.

Whoever you see about your sleep, tell them about your drinking, since it changes what's safe for them to suggest. If you take anything for sleep, prescribed or from the pharmacy, take it only as directed and never with a drink.

For help with the drinking itself, SAMHSA's National Helpline in the US is free, confidential and open around the clock, and can point you to treatment and support near you: 1-800-662-4357.

If you're struggling with low mood or cravings, or having thoughts of suicide or harming yourself, call or text 988 in the US, any time. If you're in danger right now, call 911 or your local emergency number.

In the app

Most of the habits on this page are in Goodmorrow, and we coach them one at a time while the rest of recovery happens elsewhere. A morning note that says "no drink last night" is kept as a tag.