A Monday. An easy day. I am so thankful for easy days, but they also worry me a little bit. I worry that I’ll forget why I’m doing this.

So today I’ll recall a few of the health problems I have been having. For the next several easy days, I’ll recall a few until I’ve gone over all of them. Many of these I know are created or negatively impacted by my drinking. Others are just possibly impacted by my drinking. All of them I hope will be improved by taking a good long (maybe forever) break from alcohol.

Headaches – This probably does not need a lot of explanation. I will add that I woke up most mornings with a headache. Actually, I woke up in the wee small hours of the morning with a headache. This headache often lasted until mid-morning or so. It was rarely really bad, but it was almost ever-present. I just functioned every day with a mild-moderate headache. Obviously these were a direct result of my drinking and I have had very few headaches since I stopped drinking.

Sleep – Most nights I could barely stay awake until 9. The alcohol I drank would just put me to sleep. Almost every night I would wake up sometime between 2 and 3am. I would lie awake, absolutely hating myself and my life choices, for about an hour to an hour and a half. Often I would would be a hot sweaty mess. If I had straightened my hair the day before, it would be curly when I woke up! Then I would fall asleep around 4, only to have my alarm go off at 5. If I was with it enough when going to bed, and worried I’d have a bad night’s sleep, I would take two Benedryl. This didn’t completely stop me from waking up, but it seemed to keep the awake portion shorter, and there was somewhat less self-loathing. My sleep issues were also a clear result of drinking.

Since stopping, my sleep has greatly improved. Most nights I have no problem falling asleep, although for some reason I always have a small worry voice in my head saying that without the alcohol I might have a hard time falling asleep. I have to say I haven’t had one night where I had a really hard time falling asleep. I (mostly) sleep through the night. My dog likes to wake me up periodically to have me put his blanket back on him (I know this is ridiculous, but not my biggest battle at the moment), but I am able to fall right back to sleep. I am having a LOT of dreams, and some of them are weird. While I don’t feel like I have crazy more energy during the day, I certainly feel more well rested.

That’s all for tonight. Time to fold my laundry, brush my teeth, and get in bed. Sober 🙂