Tired After Quitting Drinking? Here’s How to Boost Your Energy Levels
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It’s very common to struggle with fatigue and brain fog when you quit drinking. Alcohol changes the structure of the brain, which then changes how the brain functions.
Why you feel tired in early sobriety
Alcohol can be used as an alternative fuel source for the brain. When you routinely provide your brain with alcohol, it can become the preferred energy source over glucose.
When you quit drinking, you are suddenly depriving your brain of a major source of fuel. It takes time for the brain to learn how to utilize glucose as fuel again. This is why you feel so exhausted in early sobriety. It’s not just alcohol being a major fuel source either. When we’re drinking, we aren’t taking good care of ourselves. We have low quality sleep and low quality or inconsistent quality nutrition. These things contribute to fatigue too.
Drinking the way we do is tiring.
Here are 5 things you can do to improve your energy levels in sobriety
One. Reduce your stress levels.
The emotions that we feel when we’re stressed take large amounts of energy. I’ve talked about high energy and low energy emotions before on this podcast and go into it in depth in The Sober Mindset Course, but high energy emotions, like anxiety and anger, don’t just feel high energy, they require lots of energy. When the emotion finally passes, you can feel depleted and exhausted.
Two. Sleep hygiene
If you’re feeling low energy, then you may be tempted to take a bunch of naps. That can actually make you more tired because if you nap for too long you enter deep sleep, so you can feel groggy when you wake up. Experts suggest a 20 minute nap is enough, but I don’t take naps at all.
Three. Watch how much caffeine you’re drinking.
I doubled, sometimes tripled my caffeine intake from pre-sobriety and I’m trying to back off now. A study I discussed in that episode found that 90% of people in recovery who attended AA meetings drank coffee daily compared to 62% of the general public. We develop a tolerance to caffeine and we get desensitized to that alert, buzz feeling so we have less of the feeling we’re chasing, but then we still feel tired after.
Four. Eat for energy
Sometimes when we’re tired we go to sugary or junky foods to get a quick boost in energy. High glycemic index foods are things that spike your blood sugar because the sugar from these foods are absorbed quickly. Just consuming the sugar doesn’t automatically turn it into energy though. Your cells can’t use glucose for fuel into insulin signals cells to let glucose in. Without insulin, sugar will just circulate in our bloodstream with nowhere to go. After the spike, your blood sugar levels drop which makes you feel tired and hungry again.
You need to figure out how you like to eat and what is best for your energy levels.
Five. Exercise
Exercise helps us sleep better and feel happier because it boosts dopamine levels, circulates oxygen through the body, and provides your cells with more energy to burn. There are many studies that have found benefits from just walking regularly. It doesn’t have to be intense exercise.
Listen to episode 175 to learn more about why you feel tired and how to increase your energy levels:
FAQs on Feeling Tired
How long does early sobriety fatigue last?
It’s different for everyone, but you should begin feeling better physically by the end of your first month of sobriety. There is a lot of healing that happens in the first month. If you’re still not feeling better after a month or two, then you should check in with doctor and focus on implementing the lifestyle tips I recommended above. Mental health conditions like depression and ADHD can also cause fatigue.
Does giving up alcohol make you tired?
Yes! Alcohol can become an alternative fuel source for the brain in addition to glucose. Overtime, the brain can even start using alcohol as the preferred source of fuel. When you stop drinking, you have deprived your brain of a source of fuel. It takes time for your brain to learn how to utilize glucose for fuel again.
Cite this article:
Tietz, G. Alcohol and Gut Health. Sober Powered. 2023
