The recovery process can be a challenging and tedious process—one that requires great strength and willpower to achieve. Though Many people quit midway through the recovery process, especially during the detoxification process due to its intense symptoms. In detox, addicts experience drug withdrawal symptoms such as increased anxiety, heightened blood pressure, headache, nausea, fatigue, and insomnia.
Insomnia is an especially egregious symptom not only because the body needs rest, but lack of sleep can trigger additional symptoms like anxiety and nausea. As a central element of health, lack of sleep needs to be dealt with promptly. When denied a key pillar of health, your body can quickly fall apart and deteriorate. However, there are ways to encourage and even perpetuate healthy sleeping schedules and practices.
By adopting new habits during the detoxification process, you may not only overcome withdrawal but encourage new healthy habits overall.
Establishing a Proper Environment
Insomnia may not be a conscious action, but people do practice unhealthy habits that encourage it. In today’s society, people often work and think around the clock constantly. Due to this, our minds continue to race and struggle to settle down for the night. Therefore, people must practice establishing an environment and mindset to relax and fall asleep.
First, the bed must be established as a place for sleeping: not watching TV, reading, playing games, or any projects. This also includes using computers and smartphones, something many people are guilty of on a daily basis. When you train your mind that the bed is for sleeping, the body will respond as such laying in it. Nevertheless, you should also schedule relaxing activities of some kind to calm down, such as meditation or yoga, before bed.
Before bed, you should also turn off and turn down as many lights as possible, especially blue lights. Blue lights are naturally emitted by the sun in the daytime, and your brain recognizes them to cue activity. Additionally, the brain will not release melatonin—a natural hormone for sleep—if too many lights are on.
Adopting an Exercise Routine
Though exercise may not be the secret fix for every addict, it has many benefits regardless. Providing a better and healthier sleep is one of many benefits, exhausting your body for a good night’s rest.
These activities may not even need to be particularly intense; in fact, a half-hour of simple weightlifting, jogging, or even a peaceful walk each day can make a difference. Perhaps you maintain a strict and stressful schedule, but setting aside minimal time exercising can make for restful sleep.
Keeping a Schedule
Many addicts struggle with similar attributes in their lives—chaotic, disorderly, busy, stressful, and completely out of their control. Because of this, keeping a consistent schedule is likely the last thing on an addict’s mind. Yet it may be more important to your life than you realize.
Regardless of your schedule, every human being lives by their body’s circadian rhythm, or more commonly, the “internal clock”. This rhythm lets you know when you are supposed to be asleep and when you should be awake. Unfortunately, for many people and addicts especially, this schedule frequently becomes thrown completely out of order.
The solution to maintaining the circadian rhythm in a healthy manner is simple in concept but more difficult in execution. Ultimately, this natural clock boils down to consistency and structure—waking up and falling asleep at the same time frames. Whether a workday, holiday, or weekday, there must be organization in your daily routine.
If you or a loved one is struggling with drug or alcohol addiction, contact Discovery Place‘s Treatment & Rehab alternative in Tennessee. You might be interested in Discovery Place’s own treatment center alternatives, such as our 30 Day Residential Addiction Alternative Recovery Program or our Long Term Alternative Recovery Program in Burns, Tennessee. Call us for a free consultation at 1-800-725-0922.
