Insomnia after heavy drinking can be explained simply: ethanol, which enters the body for a long time, disrupts the functioning of all organs and systems, including a negative effect on the brain. To recover from severe intoxication, the body needs some time. That is why a weakened nervous system makes itself felt for a long time with various symptoms, including preventing one from falling asleep and forcing the patient to look for the answer to the question: “How to fall asleep after a binge?”
What can insomnia be like after drinking?
When a person takes a large amount of alcohol and then suddenly stops drinking alcohol, he develops sleep disturbances, including sleeplessness due to the inability to fall asleep. The type of insomnia is directly affected by the amount of alcohol consumed and the duration of its use:
- Complete lack of sleep. The most severe type of post-binge detoxification of the body, accompanied by insomnia. The patient experiences nightmarish visions, terrible hallucinations, when a person perceives things, objects and events invisible to others. During this period it is the hardest, therefore it is especially important not to harm the body and correctly bring it out of this critical state, which can end in death. At this time, the desire to sleep is heightened to the maximum, the nervous system is at its limit.
- Unsteady slumber. A person falls into a very sensitive, short sleep without depth, because he can wake up from any rustle or loud sound, and also reacts painfully to bright sunlight or electric light. This is not even a dream, but a delusional state, which, moreover, is accompanied by a desire to drink. During such a period, a person has constant thirst and severe dry mouth, so it is imperative to take as much water as possible to help the body cope with alcohol intoxication by the breakdown products of alcoholic beverages.
- Restless long sleep. Nervous stress is complicated by severe pain, and the whole body, head, organs, and joints can hurt. The painful physical condition is complicated by psychological problems - a person is overcome by anxious thoughts and various fears that prevent the body from recovering after an alcoholic libation.
To eliminate insomnia after binge drinking, alcoholics who subsequently suffer from various manifestations of intoxication of the body take sleeping pills or a sedative in the maximum dosage. This is absolutely impossible to do; first you need to remove the breakdown products of alcoholic beverages from the body under the supervision of a doctor, and undergo a course of detoxification therapy in an inpatient setting. The doctor can prescribe not only valerian or motherwort, but also strong medications, which will be discussed in the next section of the article. Any drug can become poisonous if taken in large quantities inappropriately or if taken at the wrong time. Even if a person can fall asleep after a binge, it is not a fact that he will wake up safely.
Root causes of the problem
What is the reason for this effect of alcohol on our body? It's quite simple. The elements contained in alcohol begin to gradually poison the body, and at this time intoxication occurs. Ultimately, the nervous system begins to malfunction.
In itself, excessive consumption of strong drinks has a negative effect on the brain, interfering with the normal nutrition of neurons, which ultimately leads to oxygen starvation, and the consequence of this is the death of nerve cells.
Basically, those people who solve their problems by drinking alcohol also have the same attitude towards lifestyle and nutrition in general. Their body processes unhealthy, harmful food every day, without receiving the necessary complex of vitamins and nutrients. All this leads to decreased immunity. A person begins to have difficulties with the intestines, liver, and kidneys. In addition to all of the above, do not forget that constantly supplementing your diet with ethyl alcohol disrupts the correct course of your biological clock, and you begin to confuse day with night.
Main causes of insomnia:
- overeating immediately before bedtime;
- strong tea, coffee, drinks containing a high dose of caffeine;
- active training before bed;
- stress and aggressive environmental influences.
But what exactly causes alcoholic insomnia? Alcohol, when consumed systematically, destroys our nervous system. These disturbances lead to the fact that at first a person simply cannot sleep, and then the consequences become more dire.
How to relieve the condition
What do you need to know if you are solving the problem of insomnia as a result of drinking a critical amount of alcohol-containing drinks? It is necessary to create maximum conditions for restoring the body’s strength. This is the task of a toxicologist who will correctly assess the patient’s condition and prescribe the only correct drugs in this case. There are no universal solutions to combat post-binge insomnia, because many factors must be taken into account - existing diseases, the volume and quality of alcoholic beverages consumed, the body’s reaction to binge drinking and living conditions.
That is why it is not recommended to prescribe sleeping pills by non-specialists, since a mind clouded by alcohol and insomnia can play a cruel joke on its owner. It is in this state that many people take as many pills as will work, which is an absolutely unacceptable way out of this situation. How to sleep after a binge? Consult a toxicologist and follow all his recommendations, which will bring your body back to normal as quickly as possible.
What do people usually complain about after drinking a lot of alcohol? “I can’t sleep after binge drinking” and “I have nightmares.” Special medications are prescribed here, including the following well-known:
- Powerful pharmacological agents, including such potent drugs as alzolam and Valium Roche with Elenium, Donormil and Diphenhydramine;
- Herbal remedies - herbal soothing sedatives, traditional valerian and motherwort in the form of tablets;
- Mild sedatives - Mexidol, or its analogues - the well-known novopassit, glycine, granaxin.
In order for the listed medications to help you return to full sleep after binge drinking, follow the main rules and when to take them:
- Complete a complete detoxification course to restore the body;
- Trust your doctor and take medications only as prescribed;
- It is forbidden to independently invent combinations of sedatives and sedatives.
Medicines that relieve insomnia from a hangover
Lack of sleep during a hangover can still be quickly overcome, and many different drugs are created for this.
Some people, in order to get rid of insomnia after drinking alcohol, without any doubt take sleeping pills, and most of them do not know how it works, but take everything that has a calming effect, or at least a sleeping pill.
List of medications that will help you:
- Donormil.
- Diphenhydramine.
- Sibazon.
- Amitriptyline.
- Imovan.
- Zopiclone.
- Sonnat.
- Sonovan.
- Piklon.
- Sonapax.
But I recommend that you never choose medications yourself. Why? Each has its own effect, while others may not be compatible with alcohol at all, and when mixed with alcohol may give a completely different effect.
To make the right choice for your specific case, you must have a medical education or deep knowledge in this field, because different drugs are compatible in different ways, each has its own contraindications and consequences. In other words, you need to correctly calculate the dose and choose the right treatment for you.
Falling asleep with the help of medications is not a problem, but it can cause not only advantages, but also consequences and complications after taking the medications. Risk is always present.
What is prohibited
There are some medications that are strictly prohibited as restorers of normal sleep after drinking large amounts of alcoholic beverages. What is the reason for this? Their composition contains such powerful chemicals that the effect becomes dangerously unpredictable on the body destroyed by alcohol, even leading to death.
What do you need to know to return to full sleep after binge drinking? The breakdown products of alcohol - ethanol - leave the body over a long period of time, up to a day at most, and the complete elimination of ethyl alcohol metabolites and restoration of metabolism to the previous level occurs within two to three days.
After binge drinking, the following medications are strictly prohibited:
- Phenibut. A narcologist will never prescribe this drug to you if the phase of an acute hangover syndrome has begun, since the effect of the drug can be unpredictable. Typically, this medication is prescribed when a person undergoes rehabilitation after a course of detoxification of the body, and then phenibut speeds up the recovery from a hangover and brings full sleep as quickly as possible.
- Afobazol. Taking the drug will only be effective if taken regularly. This drug is absolutely not suitable for quickly getting rid of insomnia after heavy drinking, since it acts only 3-5 days after the start of use.
- Preparations with phenobarbital - Corvalin, Barboval, Corvalol, Valocardin, Valoserdin and others. The effect of medications will be destructive to the body if there are still alcohol breakdown products in the blood. In this case, all functions of the central nervous system are disrupted, and the weakened body can even enter a comatose state.
- Medicines of the benzodiazepane group, including nozepam, sebazone, seduxen, elenium, diazepam, relanium. Such powerful tranquilizers are sold only with a doctor’s prescription and are not always available for sale, due to the powerful and dangerous effect on the body weakened by alcohol or drugs. In this case, these drugs provoke psychosis, which is often complicated by attacks of aggression and outbursts of suicide; a person may experience unreasonable strong fear and feel total disorientation in space with simultaneous hallucinations; a severe depressive state appears when the thought processes of the alcohol-poisoned brain worsen. It is especially dangerous to independently invent drug combinations and increase their dosage.
Methods for solving the problem
Most often, most patients with this disease do not even suspect that they have a problem, attributing everything to simple insomnia, and therefore do not carry out much-needed treatment measures. Patients simply turn to their general practitioner for a prescription for a strong sleeping pill, not knowing what to do. Patients attribute all their problems to stress, difficulties at work and in the family, and various general troubles. But a knowledgeable attending physician will always understand the true causes of these problems and will write you a referral for examination by a narcologist. After all, an explosive mixture of strong drinks and sleeping pills can globally harm an already weakened body, primarily the nervous system.
How can this disease be cured? The answer is obvious. If the root of all evil is alcohol, then you must categorically stop drinking it, and after the harmful effects stop poisoning your body, your sleep problem will immediately be solved. But not everyone can immediately overcome a malicious habit: people who have not had a very long history of drinking alcohol usually get rid of addiction.
If a narcologist indicates a diagnosis of “alcoholism” in your chart, then from that moment on you should think about professional medical help. In fact, it is better not to leave treatment for alcoholism to chance, but to immediately undergo a course of treatment from a professional. After a thorough examination, the doctor will prescribe special medications, the effect of which will significantly improve the general condition of the body. After regularly taking medications, a person will be able to sleep normally and wake up truly rested and full of energy. The positive result will be that such a word as “insomnia” will completely disappear from your vocabulary, and you will forget what fatigue is for a long time.
The most important thing is the presence of willpower and motivation. Pull yourself together and say no to alcohol!
How to restore sleep and get rid of insomnia
There are excellent folk remedies that help a person at home quickly return the body to a normal state with minimal consequences of drinking alcoholic beverages. This method of restoring sleep can be adopted if it is impossible to undergo a full detoxification course in a hospital setting under the supervision of a doctor.
To avoid delirium tremens a day or two after stopping alcohol-containing drinks, it is necessary to quickly rid the body of alcohol poisons. You will have to drink at least three liters of clean water in the first 24 hours. The diet should be rich in minerals and vitamins, since these substances are washed out of the body by alcohol to the maximum extent. Sauerkraut and cucumber pickle are suitable as well-known standard folk remedies.
If you want to use tinctures of valerian or motherwort, remember that they are made with ethyl alcohol, which is strictly forbidden to be taken during the period of detoxification of the body after heavy drinking. In this case, find motherwort or valerian in tablets; they can be washed down with water or regular, but weak tea. It is recommended to walk in the fresh air, visit the bathhouse for a short time or take a contrast shower, depending on your health condition and blood pressure. These activities at home will allow you to finally fall asleep and relax after a period of heavy drinking.
Carefully monitor the condition of the body. If more than 5 days have passed and insomnia does not go away, immediately seek medical help.
Phases of alcoholic insomnia
First phase. During the period of heavy drinking, a person sleeps, but the quality of sleep is already reduced: sleep is no longer strong.
Second phase. After waking up, you feel a strong craving to drink a new portion of alcohol; only after taking the required dose is sleep possible, most often it is very deep (uninterrupted).
Third phase. The person arrives in a phase of absolute insomnia. Now the quality of his sleep is zero, the time of real rest is very short, and hallucinations, disorders of the vestibular system, a feeling of falling or falling into nowhere are not uncommon.
There are also the following types of alcoholic insomnia:
- Poor sleep. It is very difficult for a person to fall asleep, the headache does not leave him, stress and tension increase.
- Just a disturbing dream. The sleep is very sensitive, it is possible to wake up from the slightest rustle.
- Absolute insomnia. The type that occurs after a long binge. Hallucinations, increased anxiety, and, as a result, delirium delirium.
The importance of healthy sleep
Sleep is a normal physiological process during which the human body restores lost energy, as well as:
- rests from the stress received during the day;
When exposed to alcohol, a person’s central nervous system is disrupted, which is why after falling asleep he has nightmares or cannot sleep at all
- actively fights various minor ailments;
- restores immunity;
- consolidates new information in consciousness and long-term memory;
- getting ready for a new day.
Dreams can be called confirmation of the passage of all the listed processes, consciously or not, but both adults and children see “report” dreams all the time. When exposed to alcohol, all of the above processes are disrupted, which is why the alcoholic either cannot fall asleep at all, or after falling asleep he has nightmares. The thing is that ethyl alcohol:
- prevents you from falling asleep quickly and deeply;
- makes sleep short and restless;
- gives rise to difficult, terrible dreams;
- causes a person to sleep shallowly, intermittently, with frequent awakenings.
It is obvious that without normal sleep, the normal functioning of a living being is impossible, and if, in addition to problems with night rest, mental and psychophysiological disorders develop after prolonged contact with alcohol, it’s time to start doing something.
