I'm on day 10 and I can't sleep. I either wake up every hour or I wake up an hour early.

For those who have quit, how long did it take you to start sleeping like a normal person?

TIA

I had the same issue and then read numerous posts on this site discussing the connection between caffeine intake and nicotine -- the short of it is, when you give up nicotine, you've got to throttle way back on caffeine (others here have explained much more scientifically the connection, which I'm sure you can find if you look around a bit). Personally, in the second week of my quit, I cut back to one cup of coffee per day and cut out soft drinks altogether. almost immediately, I started getting to sleep, and sleeping regularly, like I've never slept before. So if caffeine is currently in your equation, give it a shot.

I had similar issues, and I don't drink coffee. I would either wake up alot during the nite or wake up early in the morning. What felt the most unusual was that I felt rested regardless.

Sleep patterns for me got back to normal after 2-3 weeks. Hang in there, EVERYTHING gets better as you stay quit.

I slept poorly for somewhere between 2 and 3 weeks. It was kind of an annoying cycle of needing coffee to stay alert because of lack of sleep while the caffeine keeps you up at night. I did use half a Unisom a few times to give me an artifically caused sleep at night. So if you can cut the caffeine it will help you, if not gut it out. A few weeks of annoyance to save the rest of your life is an easy call.

I think Jack Daniels would agree with me that some excercise will help also.

I have been taking Valerian Root (you can get this at most health food stores or pharmacies or grocery stores) and that helps me relax a bit before I go to sleep. I have also been exercising like crazy so I am bone tired before I go to bed...that seems to help the most.

When I started my quit part of what I wanted to do was get back into shape as well. One of the vets put me on to the Health and Fitness board and there I learned about crossfit.

Crossfit Home

It is a VERY rigorous program. I can guarantee two things is you do it: 1. sleeping problem will go away - you will be tired and in a better mental state 2. You will get dyanmite results. Check em out it you want and it you have any questions or want more info hit me or any of the guys on the Fitness board up with a PM.

Another helpful relaxer is:

Tension Tamer herbal tea

I'm going on 19 days now. The first good night sleep I got was last night. I feel rested today for the first time since my quit. I never have had trouble sleeping before and I am hoping this is a good sign.

Donnie

Sleep has basically returned now. I don't wake up every hour like I did the first few weeks. The surprising thing is that I always took a long time to fall asleep (at least as long as I remember which is basically as long as I have dipped). Now I fall asleep pretty quickly. If only I could keep the kids in bed later I could catch up on some sleep.

benedryl will help you sleep.

I am on day 8 and feel I fall asleep faster than I ever have in the past (34 yr. addiction). Caffeine intake has been greater than in the past also. I can't figure it out. I do wake up 2-3 times during the night, but seem to go right back to sleep.

Be careful with the caffeine because, when we were dipping, nicotine halved its effect on us. So, taking in the same amount will double the effects of caffeine when you first quit. I was drinking more coffee and diet soda when I first quit and before I knew this. I suffered what I thought were a few long & hard craves that turned out to be a high dose of caffeine!

Tylenol PM seemed to help me.

I could not believe how much my sleep was affected. I usually go to sleep relatively fast and sleep through the night. The 6th night of my quit (after a string of unusually restless nights), I literally did not sleep at all. I was driving around town at 5am on a Saturday morning. I was walking around in WalMart at 5:30am...I could not believe it. I have been sleeping better, but not as well as before I quit.

Yeah my sleeping time has been altered since I decided to quit. I am naturally a night owl and stay up til later hours any ways, and am used to operating day to day on 5-6 hours of sleep. But once I decided to quit the bed time hour changed from 11-12 to 3-4. And naturally I started sleeping later etc. So in an effort to try and get this working the way it should, was I noticed a pattern and decided to alter than pattern. So last night (Day 2) I decided I was going to bed rather I tossed and turned at 10pm, period. And I did and I slept until about 3am this morning when I woke up. Result, my normal 5 hours. Tomorrow night I'm going to do the same thing, nice dinner, nice shower, nice cool down and goto bed. Skip the emails, skip the internet, skip the shows, movies etc and hit the sack. Then if I wake up at 3-4 am I'm going to start taking that hour or two of downtime and turn it into productive time and start jogging/runing/walking.

Things like sleep are all effected because your addiction has been replaced by something. Some people turn to coffee, tea, or colas! SO watch your intake especially the closer you get to time for bed. Remember one day at a time.....one day at a time, don't worry about tomorrow's schedule goto bed get what you can and get up and do it tomorrow. The end result is eventually your body will tire to the point it will not stay awake and you will go out like a light after a day or two of not getting good sleep. The biological clock is a hard one to reset but it can happen, one day at a time.