Alcohol Cause or Cure Insomnia?

Well, here I sit at about 3:00 PM in the afternoon and I'm just getting up, moving around and trying to be halfway productive. I went to a Halloween party last night and actually contained myself pretty well. I guess I was a little too sober to have much fun (remember this is an alcoholic mentality that I have), so I went home early at around 11:30. Of course I couldn't sleep, so in a "zombie like" trance I walked to the refrigerator (I think I've did this routine before) and popped open a beer. Since I knew that sleep wouldn't be coming my way I put on some music, lit up a smoke, and continued with my habitual process.

So does alcoholism cause or cure Insomnia? Well, I think the answer is both, and both answers are a lose/lose situation. Alcohol can cure insomnia (for the night) if you drink enough, but any alcoholic can tell you is that it takes A LOT of booze to knock you out. It takes enough booze to cause extreme hangovers and literally ruin your next days productivity. How can you be on top of your game when your head is splitting in two, nauseous, and your head's spinning because you are still actually drunk for the first half of the next day.

Insomnia can also throw a wrench into your daily life as well. When your walking around in a distempered zombie like state of mind, embracing your life, work, and those around you can be quite a difficult task. So what do you do? Drink more alcohol? Take valium or sleeping pills? Take herbal formulas? The latter may be the best alternative, but I have found that when your battling an addiction with alcohol, taking a melatonin or something like that doesn't seem to do the trick.

So why would alcohol cause insomnia? Well, I don't have any doctorate degrees on my wall so I can't give you an authoritative answer. I can only speak from my experiences of dealing with both. Besides wouldn't you want an opinion from someone who actually suffers with these issues, rather than some man/woman in a coat who probably doesn't have a clue (other than what they have read in a book) of what they are talking about?

I believe that when an alcoholic abstains, or drinks in moderation for a night, the addictive "demons" of alcohol come to life and come knocking on your brain. I know some of you out there are nodding your head as if you can relate to what I'm talking about. If you don't suffer from this you are probably a bit bewildered. Addiction can actually speak to you inside your head. Speak to you INCESSANTLY until it gets what it wants. You can withhold all you want, but the addiction will still be sitting there with its greedy hands out.

So to refrain from rambling on for hours, I will come up with my "professional alcoholic" hypothesis. People suffer from insomnia that have never touched a drop from alcohol, but yes alcoholism does cause insomnia. If your an alcoholic and you can recall the days of sleeping like a baby, the bottle in your hand is the selfish culprit. So why don't I just stop drinking? Ha ha.. Well, you have to be willing to say goodbye to your life long best friend (however much of selfish jerk your best friend is), and I'm not quite ready to do that yet. We dance so well together. At least until we fall down on our face. Yet alcoholics are a stubborn breed. We get up to do the dance once again.

If you have just started reading this blog, do yourself a favor and start from the beginning. You can't just open up a book in the middle can ya? Well, until the next article my friends, have a good evening and be safe in this dangerous (often self induced) world we live in out there.

P.S. If you haven't decided to quit drinking, or if you have quit drinking and want to reverse some of the damage that you have done to your body over the years, I'd like to suggest the following book. I don't plug shameless ads of products that I haven't used (or read in this case) myself. Have a great day!
Eating for Recovery: The Essential Nutrition Plan to Reverse the Physical Damage of Alcoholism