The Sleep Guide - A practical Guide on How to Cope with Sleep in an Opiate Detox.

[Dickon]

I found this guide on to sleeping on the britlofex website - britlofex.co.uk - and thought it would be useful. The material is copyright, although permission is given to display it.

The Sleep Guide

DETOX
A PRACTICAL GUIDE
ON HOW TO COPE
WITH SLEEP IN AN
OPIATE BASED
DETOXIFICATION

SLEEP
Sleep is needed by everybody. It is part
of the natural cycle of life. Sleep can and
will be affected by what you think, drink,
eat, or do. If you have a worry or thought
that is playing on your mind, you may
find sleep difficult as you think your
problem through. If you drink too much
caffeine you will have a poor night’s sleep
as the caffeine will work as a stimulant on
the brain. If your body is used to having
an opiate in it, being without will affect
your sleep. When you undertake a detox,
all the things that affect your sleep will
be battling it out during the night to stop
you sleeping. What you eat, drink, think
and do will affect your sleep. The aim of
this leaflet is to try and give you practical
and effective hints on sleep whilst you go
through the detox process.
The return of a natural sleep pattern
does not happen overnight. It can take a
few weeks.

THINGS YOU CAN
DO TO HELP

Sight
The use of colour will help. If you need a
light on in the night, take out the white
bulb and replace it with a coloured low
watt bulb. The use of warm colours, reds,
yellows, blues, are best.
If you find that you cannot sleep, staying
in bed is not a good idea. If you can, get
in some videos or magazines. These will
help you not think about wanting drugs
in the middle of the night.

Sound
If you are awake at night, loud noises are
no good. Try headphones and relaxing
music; some people find sounds from
nature soothing.

Touch
It’s important for you to feel things
around you are nice. Try to start the
detox with fresh bedding. Have some
clean flannels to help you with the sweats
through the night.

Smell
Smell can make a big difference in the
way you feel. The use of essential oils has
been shown to help with sleep. Some can
be used in a bath, or in a burner. A few
drops of lavender oil on your pillow can
greatly help with sleep. Check with your
local retailer for oils that can help with
muscle cramps, headaches, nausea and
some of the other symptoms that can
keep you awake at night.

Taste
One of the last things that you will feel
like doing is eating big meals. Not only
will you feel like being sick, the thought
of cooking will make you feel worse.
You will need to eat food that is not full
of empty energy. Sweets will give you
temporary energy, however, afterwards
you will feel worse. Foods such as pasta,
potatoes and rice will give you longer
lasting energy. Try a quick ready made
meal, such as pot noodles/rice/pasta.


Points to remember
1. Your sleep pattern will return in
time. Your sleep has been affected by
chemicals for some time.
2. Sleep can be affected by other things
such as stress, anxiety, coffee, nicotine,
alcohol. No exercise or too much sleep
during the day can give you sleepless
nights.
3. If you have been prescribed
medication take it as directed. If you
have been given tablets to help you
sleep, take them twenty minutes before
bed and then go to bed.
4. Try to get into a routine. Go to bed
around the same time every night. Get
up in the morning. Don’t lie in your
bed.
5. Try to do something that requires
you to use energy. If you don’t do
anything during the day you will not
need to sleep at night.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	This is a super-awesome, helpful resource! Any chance the formatting might be widened?
	Thank you for this valuable information. Very helpful indeed!
	Good info as usual
	A good find on how to manage one of the most frustrating aspects of opioid withdraw and post withdraw. Thanks Dickon!
	A "must read" for anyone needing advice on sleeping difficulties. Thanks.

[ex-junkie]

you forgot about sunlight. its highly important in sleep therapy. sunlight asap every morning (even when cloudy/raining, just make sure the curtains/blinds are open).

alot of people mope around in the dark during detox/after detox, and this affects our recovery tbh. melatonin is free, it kicks in twelve hours after exposure, and its also important in getting that day/night routine happening again.

[miggeth]

Swim watched a lot of music videos; bright colours, interesting forms and content, nice sounds, and abstract concepts to lose himself in, but. He was constantly thinking, 'wow, this would be so much better on codeine'.

[rokman nash]

Alcohol may seem like a good idea during initial detox, but for this patient (Dave), it caused choppy troubled sleep. Avoiding alcohol seems the best way to go even if the alternative is staying awake.

When Dave drank during detox it seemed to do more harm than good. Dave would wake, usually shortly after falling asleep feeling worse than he did before. Again everyone is different, but natural sleep (when you can get it), even in small ammounts seems to help more than an alcohol induced stupor.


Good Thoughts

[missparkles]

All swim could do was crawl to the bathroom when necessary. Swim wishes this list had been availablre to her 15 yrs ago.
But sleep still seems to be a problem on occasion, so swim will cut-n-paste this advice and use in the future.
Thanks.

[soft.assasin]

Thanks again for the helpful thread Dickon. SWIM is not sleeping now and is ready to implement whatever she can to get there. And agreed with ex-junkie, good old Vitamin D/sunshine help too...at least SWIM hopes so!

[missparkles]

Swim agrees with the "sunshine" advice. Swim also got the doctor to prescribe Melatonin 2mg per night. That has helped swim enormously.

[Chica35]

My dog takes melatonin 3 mg. but i wonder if this works cause chica stays awake for along time.....she got Temazepam to get to sleep but ....that didnt work either ....used alot of weed before....stupid dog......hehe

Chica35 added 2 Minutes and 26 Seconds later...

The sun makes her sooooo exhausting (nog in a sleepy way) and cant walk a nother mile....xxx

[missparkles]

Swim takes 2mg of melatonin about 2-3 hours before she wants to sleep. In a couple of hours swim starts yawning and half an hour later swim is ready for sleep.
If swim has something on her mind nothing will put her to sleep.
Swim used to be on 150mls of methadone and 10mg of Diazepam x3 and 20mg of Temazepam at night and still couldn't sleep.
What has helped is keeping to the same routine every night and getting up at the same time each morning, regardless of how much sleep swim gets.
I hope this helps.
There's nothing more life destroying than sleep deprivation.
This has been one of swims biggest fears from her teen years.

[Chica35]

That is really terrific to read MS...cause my dog is always afraid she cant sleep but last night she tried without the sleepingpills and listend to music of Paul Collier (very relaxing on you-tube) and it WORKED!!!!
My dog is not scared for the coming night cause she knows now that she CAN do it without!!

[missparkles]

Swim listens to audio books at night too. It's like having someone read her a bedtime story.
Swims inner child is happy too.

[soft.assasin]

SWIM takes melationin too and it helps most of the time. Usually two 3mg pills at night makes a real difference. If SWIY adds that to a whole 'sleep' routine at night, it should help...