The sleep of abstinent pure primary alcoholic patients: natural course and relationship to relapse
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 27, 2026

Chronic Intermittent Ethanol Vapor Exposure Paired with Two-Bottle Choice to Model Alcohol Use Disorder
Published on: June 23, 2023
S P Drummond1, J C Gillin, T L Smith
1Department of Psychiatry, University of California-San Diego and San Diego V.A. Medical Center, 92161, USA.
Abstract:
Sleep in male pure primary alcoholic inpatients was examined at a mean of 16 days (n = 29), 19 weeks (n = 29), 14 months (n = 9), and 27 months (n = 4) of abstinence. Results were as follows: (1) the sleep of abstinent alcoholic patients is short, fragmented, and shallow early in abstinence; (2) a patient's sleep improves slowly over at least the first year of abstinence; however, (3) some facets of a patient's sleep remain abnormal even after 27 months of abstinence; (4) insomnia and sleep fragmentation after approximately 5 months of abstinence may be related to relapse by 14 months. The mechanism underlying the relationship between sleep and withdrawal in alcoholic patients is not well understood, and the issue of treating sleep problems as an adjunct to prevention of relapse warrants further investigation.
More Related Videos
15:27Construction of Vapor Chambers Used to Expose Mice to Alcohol During the Equivalent of all Three Trimesters of Human Development
Published on: July 13, 2014
13:24A Procedure to Observe Context-induced Renewal of Pavlovian-conditioned Alcohol-seeking Behavior in Rats
Published on: September 19, 2014
Related Concept Videos
Substance Use Disorders Affecting Sleep
Understanding the concepts of physical dependence,...
CNS Depressants: Alcohol and Nicotine
Classification of Illness
An illness is a response to a disease in which the person's level of functioning is changed compared with a previous level. The general classification of illness includes acute and chronic.
Acute illness is severe and...
Insufficient Sleep and Sleep Deprivation
Sleep deprivation is a more severe form of sleep loss...
Stages of Sleep
Before sleep begins, in wakefulness, the brain exhibits primarily beta waves, which are high in frequency and low in amplitude, indicating alertness...
Sleep-Wake Cycles
NREM Sleep
NREM sleep comprises four progressive stages that seamlessly merge: