day 7, better but SO exhausted because i can't really sleep...

[stretch62]

so today marks my 7th day of detoxing/being sober & i feel SO much better.. physically, but i'm so exhausted. when will i be able to sleep longer than 3-4 hrs.?? it's really driving me nuts!! i've tried melatonin, sleepy time tea & even benadryl but nothing is working. i've had to work 4 out of these last 7 days & have a physically demanding job, coincided with a grueling detox & still can't sleep. i'm starting to feel delirious. is this normal & how long can i expect this to last?? because i don't remember having this much of a problem with sleep the last time i detoxed.. but that was over a year ago.

[OpenMind24hours]

No sleep begets no sleep. During detox we fight the insomnia so much that we get sleep anxiety. We get so anxious that it keeps us awake. Just know that your body will sleep when it needs to and relaxing by not fighting the insomnia will get you back into a good sleep pattern sooner than fighting a frantic battle. Relax in a tub of hot water and epsom salts. What I did was sit in my most comfortable chair and watch tv or some s--t. I'd doze off for an hour or two. Sleep eventually came back. All of this, for me, was in the first month of clean time.

A bit of caution from my personal learning experience: Anything I take for sleep will always need to be paid back with further insomnia. I took Ambien for 9 months and it took me well over a year to recover natural sleep patterns after detoxing from it. That was all after a 4 month slow taper program. Any drug I take to get "calm" like a benzo, will be paid back with anxiety (depending on amount taken). I borrowed serenity from my future in the long run. I saw it as "instant teaching machine. Insert pill and learn lesson".

[Clong45]

Yes....this is normal....and it will pass.  I didn't sleep for almost 10 days before.  I felt suicide was the next step cause I didn't see anything was worth living for feeling like that.  Eventually my body just shut down and I finally got some sleep.  It's like your clock resets.  That's insomnia for ya!  Don't overdo it with the sleep meds.  Actually, I wouldn't take the Benadryl at all.   It can actually have a reverse effect if you take it too much.  Try to slow down a bit.  Take a long Epson salt bath.  Listen to some relaxing music.  Have a friend or spouse give you a massage.  It's good that you are working like you are.  It's speeding up the process for sure.  Keep it up 7 days is great!  

[Amandag78]

Hey congratulations on 7 days, well done to you !!!
Although it seems very difficult for you at the moment, a week is a week and the hardest part of detox. You have done so well to keep going during this stage.
The next week should improve for you.
I never had a problem with loosing sleep in detox, mainly because i was prescribed valium.
Acting Brand New and others have some great remedy's for natural sleep and should be on soon.
Take care, be proud of yourself, your here, your alive, your sober and we are here for you always !!!   : )

[dirtydirk]

pending on what u werer takin and how much will decide but i went from getting 15 min a sleep a time the first week up 2 my first 8 hrs of sleep on day 35 and somewhere in between gradually going up every cpl days so by 17 days i was gettin roughly 4-5 hrs a night maybe......some ppl on here taking methadone and subs say its takes longer than that but for pills and heroin its usually somewhere around 30ish days i would say!! hope this helps if u can go back 2 bed sometimes i would jump in a hot shower for 10 min or so then climb back in bed usually got me another 1-2 hrs after that .....good luck 7 days is amazing most ppl can even do that so your above the hump so 2 speak at least with the phy aspect!! keep on fighting!