Alcohol-Induced Insomnia: Causes, Effects and Treatments

Insomnia is usually not an ailment in itself, but a result of some other problem suffered by the patient. That is to say, the symptoms of insomnia – difficulty in getting to sleep, or staying asleep, or the feeling of getting up without having rested or slept enough – are due to some other underlying problem. Discovering this underlying problem, and treating it, will often be the key to eradicating our insomnia.

In many cases, this underlying cause may be alcohol. Fortunately, insomnia resulting from alcohol is one of the problems that can be eradicated. Most people believe that drinking alcohol is comparable to a sedative, but in reality it can put you to sleep for a couple of hours just to wake you up in a terrible state. Alcohol insomnia will then make you uneasy throughout the rest of the night.

Combating Alcohol Insomnia

A person who is very stressed may use alcohol as a means to calm the anxiety they are suffering from. This eventually becomes a cycle and the pattern of alcohol insomnia will begin to take effect. Two or three hours of sleep and then open-eyed, agitated nights, generally with intense, frightening dreams is what alcohol insomniacs eventually get used to. Eradicating the alcohol before bedtime is the central factor in reducing alcohol insomnia.

Teaching the individual different techniques with which to manage his anxiety before bedtime is very important. Sleep disorder behaviorists call this proper bedtime hygiene - in other words, readying the brain and body for sleep. Eliminating alcohol from an individual’s diet or at the least restricting it to one cocktail or glass of wine prior to dinner will begin the process of proper bedtime hygiene. The process will then go deeper to discover the reason behind the anxiety. Some of the times it is merely a transient sleep insomnia, which means that an individual is stressing over an approaching job review or wedding or some other similar event in their life. This stress will pass off soon, but for others it is not so easy and anxieties may reach much deeper into their souls.

Some individuals suffer internal conflicts, fears and phobias which can only be resolved with suitable psychiatric counseling. These people will use alcohol as a crutch to assist them to sleep, but, in fact, are only making their alcohol insomnia worse. Convincing these people that they do indeed have a serious anxiety that necessitates psychological counseling, and not alcohol, to remedy their troubles is their first step in reducing their alcohol insomnia. But it is an extremely important first step in the return to normal sleeping patterns by breaking the vicious circle of anxiety-alcohol-insomnia.