Researchers have noted a link between long-term alcohol abuse and chronic sleep problems. People can develop a tolerance for alcohol rather quickly, leading them to drink more before bed in order to initiate sleep. Those who have been diagnosed with alcohol use disorders frequently report insomnia symptoms. While a drink now and then may have a sedative effect that causes you to drift off faster, research shows that it can impede sleep quality in the long run.
- The liver acts as a filtering system for the body, helping metabolize food and chemicals (including alcohol itself), and pulling toxins from the bloodstream.
- The most effective time of day for the body to metabolize alcohol, according to research?
- Alcohol is the most common sleep aid—at least 20 percent of American adults rely on it for help falling asleep.
- Research on older adults, aged 50 and older, found those who binge drank two days or less a week had 35% greater odds of insomnia compared to non-binge drinkers.
Suppressing REM sleep can have detrimental consequences for memory consolidation and other cognitive processes. The Well is Northwell Health’s commitment to the future of health care. The site connects with consumers to provide them with personalized content that reduces their stress, makes them laugh, and ultimately feel more confident and capable on their healthcare journey.
Better Sleep, Delivered
This can happen as your blood alcohol levels fall or with high doses of alcohol. Many people turn to alcohol to cope with difficult feelings, but alcohol may end up having the opposite effect if it interferes with sleep. For example, people with moderate or severe anxiety who use alcohol in hopes of sleeping better are actually more likely to have sleep problems. Similarly, studies on bereaved individuals have found that using alcohol to cope with grief increases the risk of developing major depression, which is itself a risk factor for sleep disturbances. Alcohol increases levels of adenosine, a key component of the homeostatic drive. The homeostatic drive is responsible for keeping our body balanced, and it’s one of the major mechanisms that regulates the sleep-wake cycle.
Before we look at the effects of alcohol on sleep in detail, here’s the basic bottom line. The more you drink, and the closer your drinking is to bedtime, the more it will negatively impact your sleep. Even moderate amounts of alcohol in your system at bedtime alters sleep can you drink alcohol while taking amitriptyline architecture—the natural flow of sleep through different stages. It also leads to lighter, more restless sleep as the night wears on, diminished sleep quality, and next-day fatigue. The relationship between sleep apnea and alcohol has been researched fairly extensively.
Alcohol may aid with sleep onset due to its sedative properties, allowing you to fall asleep more quickly. However, people who drink before bed often experience disruptions later in their sleep cycle as liver enzymes metabolize alcohol. This can lead to excessive daytime sleepiness and other issues the following day.
As your body metabolizes the alcohol and the sedative effects wear off, it can interfere with your circadian rhythm, and cause you to wake up frequently or before you’re properly rested. In the first half of the night, when the body is metabolizing alcohol, studies show people spend more time in deep, slow-wave alcohol and acute ischemic stroke onset sleep and less time in REM sleep. It may sound like a good idea to spend more time in deep sleep. 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.
Alcohol can also dehydrate you, and even mild dehydration can cause fatigue. What it does will depend on how much you drink and how close to bedtime you drink it. Plus, alcohol can affect us all differently depending on factors like our age, sex, and metabolism. If you’re having trouble falling or staying asleep often, see your healthcare provider.
Alcohol and Sleep Apnea
Improving your sleep hygiene can also help if you usually rely on alcohol to fall asleep. It works fast too — 80% of RISE users get more sleep within five days. Research shows the sleep-promoting effects of alcohol can start to wear off in as little as three days. Drinking more alcohol can lead to more tolerance and sleep problems, as well as alcohol dependency and health issues. Unsurprisingly, studies of people with insomnia have also found that heavy alcohol use exacerbates insomnia.
Alcohol is the most common sleep aid—at least 20 percent of American adults rely on it for help falling asleep. But the truth is, drinking regularly—even moderate drinking—is much more likely to interfere with your sleep than to assist it. Insomnia, the most common sleep disorder, is marked by periods of difficulty falling or staying asleep. Insomnia occurs despite the opportunity and desire to sleep, and leads to excessive daytime sleepiness and other negative effects. Enzymes in the liver eventually metabolize the alcohol, but because this is a fairly slow process, excess alcohol will continue to circulate through the body. The effects of alcohol largely depend important factors like the amount of alcohol and how quickly it is consumed, as well as the person’s age and body composition.
Tips for sleeping after a night out
Drinking to excess will typically have a more negative impact on sleep than light or moderate alcohol consumption. However, since the effects of alcohol are different from person to person, even small amounts of alcohol can reduce sleep quality for some people. Binge-drinking – consuming an excessive amount of alcohol in a short period of time that results in a blood alcohol level of 0.08% or higher – can be particularly detrimental to sleep quality.
Studies of chronic alcohol users have found that these individuals typically experience disrupted sleep patterns with less slow wave sleep and more REM sleep. But even if you thud into dreamland, there’s a good chance that too much alcohol will mean a fitful night of sleep. That’s because alcohol disrupts what’s known as your sleep architecture, the normal phases of deeper and lighter sleep we go through every night.
During the second half of the night, sleep becomes more actively disrupted. The rebound effect may include more time in REM—a lighter sleep stage from which it is easy to be awakened. Many of us have indulged in a glass of wine to help send us off to bed, and more than 1 in 10 people uses alcohol to beat stress-related insomnia and sleep better at night. However, the bulk of the evidence shows that alcohol doesn’t improve sleep. On the contrary, as alcohol passes through the body, it exerts a number of biochemical effects that tend to lead to poorer sleep.
Create a Sleep Profile to Access More
In the short term, these alterations to our sleep pattern can lead to a restless second half of the night. In the long term, frequent disruptions to our natural sleep cycle may alter the homeostatic drive in a more permanent way. People who abuse alcohol long-term don’t seem to display the deep recovery sleep that most people show after sleep deprivation, suggesting that the homeostatic drive is no longer functioning as it should. After a few drinks, these increased adenosine levels send us into a deep sleep. However, once the body realizes it’s had too much slow wave sleep, the homeostatic drive compensates by allowing us less deep sleep in the second half of the night. The gut and its microbiome are often referred to as the body’s second brain, and operate under powerful circadian rhythm activity.
In more serious cases, individuals suffer momentary lapses in breathing, followed by micro-awakenings that interrupt the progression of the sleep stages. During a normal night of sleep, we cycle through periods of light sleep, deep sleep, and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Each sleep stage plays an essential function, but deep sleep and REM sleep are considered the most important alcohol use and death by suicide stages for physical and mental restoration. If you feel pretty drunk, you’ll probably fall asleep quickly but have a restless night. Drinking a light to moderate amount of alcohol (one or two standard drinks) before bed may not have much of an impact. See how your sleep habits and environment measure up and gauge how adjusting behavior can improve sleep quality.
