Sleep is an important part of the healing process.

1. You are still in physical pain after detox: A common symptom of detoxing from drugs and alcohol is physical aches and pains. Going through the detox process includes not only physical pain but a lot of physical activity which can create soreness. Symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, shaking, and restless legs require a lot of physical activity which can be exhausting over a few days. Sleeping is difficult when your body isn’t comfortable, no matter what you do.
2. You are experiencing mental stress: Cravings don’t have a schedule. Nighttime is a triggering time for most people in early recovery. Trying to go to sleep hungry is always a challenge. Cravings feel like a particular kind of hunger. You go to sleep with a gnawing feeling in your mind and your body that make it difficult to sleep.
3. You are having night terrors/using dreams: When you do sleep, your cravings follow you there. In early recovery, using dreams are common. As the brain starts to work out the programming from addiction, it will create dreams in order to process cravings. Dreams about relapsing, using drugs and alcohol, or just thinking about drugs and alcohol happen all the time. They can be incredibly disturbing. When you’re struggling during the daytime to stay sober and you want to sleep to rest, feeling your sobriety threatened in your dreams is upsetting and frustrating, as well as scary. Thankfully when you wake up, the relapse isn’t real. You might have a really hard time falling back asleep.
4. Your body doesn’t react to sleep medication well: Sleep is important during the first few months of recovery. Patients are often prescribed sleep medications in order to make sure they get a deep, full night sleep. Not everyone responds to sleep medication well. You might experience difficulty staying asleep or focusing the next day if you aren’t agreeing with your medication.
5. You don’t feel comfortable in treatment: Going to treatment for recovery from a drug and alcohol addiction, or any mental health issue, is a very big change. Adjusting to being in treatment can take time. If you aren’t feeling safe and comfortable yet, you might toss and turn or find it difficult to sleep.
6. You’re keeping yourself awake: Trauma, even the trauma of getting sober, can cause nightmares and intrusive thoughts during those fragile moments in between sleep and awake. When you aren’t yet equipped to regulate those thoughts, they can feel overwhelming. Keeping yourself awake will cause you to get more anxious and make those thoughts worse.