If you made the decision to have that couple of glasses of wine or a couple of beers at night, you’re telling yourself that you’re putting your sleep quality at risk; that’s the tradeoff. The more you drink, the more of a sedative effect alcohol has and the more withdrawal effects you will feel. The amount of alcohol you drink and how close to bedtime you drink impact how you sleep that night and how you will feel the next day. However, as alcohol abuse progresses, a person’s sleep pattern becomes shifted and disrupted, thus perpetuating the perception that you may need alcohol to help you sleep.
Select the option(s) below that best describes you to get communication that matches your interests. Whatever your goals, it’s the struggle to get there that’s most rewarding. It’s almost as if life itself is inviting us to embrace difficulty—not as punishment but as a design feature. To better understand how alcohol actually influences sleep, we spoke to Dr Paul Daidone, Medical Director at True Self Recovery, and Dr Leah Kaylor, a Clinical Psychologist who specializes in sleep and trauma.
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Additionally, staying hydrated by drinking a glass of water for every alcoholic beverage can help reduce the intensity of nighttime disruptions. However, the most effective strategy is moderation or abstinence, especially if you’re prone to sleep disturbances. Alcohol acts as a sedative, inducing sleep and in some promoting a tranquilizing effect. It interacts with several neurotransmitter systems which play an important part in the regulation of sleep. Alcohol just before sleep can therefore lead to decreased sleep onset latency – that is, it can make you fall asleep faster. However as the body processes the alcohol during the later sleep stages, the quality of sleep is affected and the sleep architecture is changed.
Two Hidden Ways Just One Drink Can Wreck Your Sleep
- Hot flashes or the need to go to the bathroom (as alcohol is a diuretic) fragment sleep and, therefore, more chances to suffer insomnia.
- All of which contributes to both snoring and worsened sleep apnea symptoms.
- The impact of alcohol on your sleep can run over to the next day in the form of grogginess and a low mood— leading to the commonly known feeling of being “hungover.”
Chronic alcohol use disrupts the delicate balance of sleep architecture, leading to long-term deterioration in sleep quality. Over time, this REM suppression accumulates, resulting in fragmented sleep patterns. Studies show that individuals who consume alcohol regularly experience a 20-30% reduction in REM sleep, even on nights without drinking. This chronic disruption not only impairs cognitive function but also contributes to mood disorders, such as anxiety and depression, further exacerbating sleep issues. Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, which means it slows down brain activity. While this can help you fall asleep faster, it also interferes with the brain’s ability to transition smoothly through sleep stages.
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For those over 50, who may face age-related sleep challenges, consulting a healthcare provider for tailored advice is crucial. Avoiding alcohol within 3 hours of bedtime can also mitigate its disruptive effects on sleep architecture. Remember, the goal is to retrain your body to achieve restful sleep without chemical crutches. Initially, alcohol’s sedating effects may help increase slow-wave sleep in the first half of the night, considered the deepest sleep stage. While alcohol may help you drift off quickly and deeply, it also disrupts your sleep later in the night, leading to more awakenings and increased light sleep.
Dependence Risks: Regular use of alcohol for sleep can lead to tolerance and dependency issues
Besides, drinking too much fluid before bed raises the chances an overnight bathroom break will interrupt your sleep. People who wake up tired every morning may be more likely to lean back in to drinking to help them sleep better. But this can create a negative pattern that leads to more serious, long-term effects of alcohol on sleep.
Essentially changes in the brain’s regulation of upper airway musculature lead to OSA. Alcohol aggravates OSA as it can increase the time between the breaths you take as you sleep. Drops in blood oxygen levels (desaturations) become more pronounced and can in severe cases lead to hypercapnia (increased carbon dioxide), a potentially fatal condition. “As alcohol metabolises, it promotes wakefulness, meaning you wake more frequently in the latter half of the night,” Dr Browning begins. “Alcohol also affects the normal progression of the sleep stages, meaning that any sleep you get after drinking is not as restorative.”
As the body metabolizes alcohol, typically within 3 to 4 hours after consumption, its sedative effects wear off, leading to a rebound effect. This metabolic process triggers the release of adrenaline, which can jolt you awake, often leaving you tossing and turning in the latter half of the night. Consider the process as a temporary override of the brain’s natural sleep regulation.
- This lets our users draw their own conclusions on whether a particular activity led to a poorer or improved quality of sleep and can also let them see certain patterns over time.
- Becky is a Sleep Staff Writer at Tom’s Guide covering all things sleep-related including product reviews, research studies, news and explainers.
- For humans, this translates to heightened irritability, poor emotional regulation, memory problems, and increased risk of anxiety and depression.
Dr Browning goes on to explain that the less alcohol you drink, the less disruptive your sleep should be. Alcohol can affect our body in a number of ways, such as causing disrupted sleep. The good news is that we can restore quality sleep by simply skipping the nightcaps. Becky is a Sleep Staff Writer at Tom’s Guide covering all things sleep-related including product reviews, research studies, news and explainers. Becky is a PPA accredited journalist who is keen to explore the intricacies of sleep, its effects on skincare, mental wellbeing and work performance. While not thinking of sleep, she can be seen reading in cosy bookshops or learning about global food culture.
It’s a sedative, so it can send you into a deep sleep quickly—but that’s not what’s supposed to happen. In other words, it throws off the first two stages of light sleep, and it can be difficult for your body to readjust during the remainder of the night. Because alcohol is a depressant, the body compensates by releasing stimulants like cortisol and adrenaline. When the alcohol wears off after the first four to five hours, we’re left with what feels like a “triple espresso” the body brewed to offset the sedative. To minimize the impact of alcohol on sleep, have your last drink at least 3 or 4 hours before bedtime. In addition to impacting your cancer risk, alcohol also affects sleep quality.
How to achieve better sleep and sleep quality without alcohol
In lab studies, rats deprived only of REM didn’t die, but they became severely impaired—aggressive, stressed, and unable to function normally. For humans, this translates to heightened irritability, poor emotional regulation, memory problems, and increased risk of anxiety and depression. After drinking, there’s not much you can do to keep your sleep from being disrupted.
Furthermore, alcohol slows and shallows breathing, relaxing the muscles of the throat and further causing the upper airway to collapse. All of which contributes to both snoring and worsened sleep apnea symptoms. When you’re in the first two stages, you’re in “light sleep.” When you’re in the third stage, you’re in “deep sleep.” And the fourth stage is your “vivid,” or dream, stage. While every person’s individual sleep does alcohol help you sleep no, sleep expert explains why cycle varies, it’s generally true that each of us goes through four to six rounds of it. Each cycle lasts around 90 minutes total, which adds up to between six and nine hours of sleep. Some people with insomnia may turn to alcohol as a quick fix to bring on sleep.
Alcohol consumption changes the function of these chemical messengers resulting in changes to your sleep patterns. Today, as a sober therapist and sobriety guide, I work with many clients who hesitate to give up alcohol because they’ll miss its “sleeping aid” effect. Knowing how vital sleep is to our physical and emotional well-being, I completely understand that fear. If you drink alcohol before bed, you – or a partner – may notice snoring. That’s because alcohol functions as a muscle relaxant which can cause your airway to be more relaxed or floppy.
However, this effect is short-lived and does not equate to improved sleep quality. In our review on drinks to help you sleep, wine made the author fall asleep, but she was wide awake in the middle of the night. Disrupted sleep is one known effect of alcohol consumption, but it also affects REM, which is an important part of the sleep cycle.