How Does Alcohol Impact Sleep?
💙 Engage in gentle movement with Mel Mah’s Sleep Routine guided exercise to release excess stress and energy to promote deep rest. Discover enjoyable non-alcoholic beverages you can drink in situations where you might typically consume alcohol. This could be non-alcoholic beers, mocktails, or sparkling water. Also, research shows that people can develop a tolerance to this boozy method within three nights, causing you to need a larger amount of alcohol to get the same effect. First, alcohol affects everyone differently because of a slew of factors, like age, biological sex, and body composition, just to name a few.
Deceptively Drowsy
Sleep architecture is biologically driven and finely calibrated to meet the body’s needs during nightly rest—changes to the natural, typical structure of sleep aren’t generally good for health or well being. REM sleep, which gets shortchanged in the first half of the night under the influence of alcohol, is important for mental restoration, including memory and emotional processing. For many people who drink moderately, falling asleep more quickly may seem like an advantage of a nightly glass of wine. But alcohol goes on to affect the entire night of sleep to come. For people who snore or who have sleep apnea—a disorder that causes repeated pauses in breathing during sleep—drinking alcohol tends to aggravate symptoms.
Know when to contact your health care provider
Since using alcohol routinely to fall asleep leads to disrupted sleep, people can experience chronic daytime sleepiness. That can then create an unhealthy cycle of using stimulants such as caffeine to stay awake, then self-medicating at night with alcohol to fall asleep again, according to the Sleep Foundation. It’s easy to understand why sipping a glass of wine might sound like the perfect way to wind down before bed at the end of a busy day. Alcohol slows down the brain and has a sedating does alcohol help you sleep effect, explains Sara E. Benjamin, MD, medical director of clinical operations at Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep and Wellness in Columbia, Maryland. But while alcohol may help you feel relaxed and sleepy, it can ultimately lead to disrupted sleep and make you more likely to be tired the next day.
Why Can’t I Stay Asleep After Drinking Alcohol?
Having alcohol before bed is not recommended if you’re aiming for quality sleep. While an occasional drink might not have severe consequences for everyone, regular consumption can lead to disrupted sleep patterns. If you do choose to drink, do so moderately and not close to bedtime so your body has time to metabolize the alcohol before you go to sleep. “First of all, it increases our initial deep sleep, disrupting our sleep stages’ overall balance,” he said. Breathing problems — Since alcohol’s sedative effect extends to your entire body, including your muscles, it may allow your airway to close more easily while you’re asleep. This can greatly increase the risk of sleep apnea especially if you drink within the last couple of hours before bedtime.
Our editors and medical experts rigorously evaluate every article and guide to ensure the information is factual, up-to-date, and free of bias.
