If you or someone you know is in crisis, contact the Military Crisis Line at 988 and press 1, or Text 838255. You can also call 911.
How Does Alcohol Affect Sleep?
Many people drink alcohol to help relieve stress and relax. Maybe you decided to drink alcohol to relax and help you fall asleep but were surprised when you woke up feeling tired. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), alcohol acts to slow down brain activity, initially causing feelings of relaxation and sleepiness. However, with continued alcohol drinking over the course of a day or through the night, the alcohol becomes absorbed in their bloodstream from the stomach and small intestine, typically leading to fewer hours of sleep, and poor sleep quality for the hours you do get.
Research has also shown that the more alcohol a person drinks, the more their sleep quality and duration will be affected. A recent study conducted by NIH’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) compared sleep quality among subjects who consumed various amounts of alcohol. They found negative effects of alcohol on sleep for men and women:
How Alcohol Affects the Human Sleep Cycle
Because alcohol is like a sedative (a drug that can help people fall asleep), it often takes people who drink less time to fall asleep than people who don’t. Our normal sleep cycle consists of four different stages: N1 (lightest sleep), N2 (light sleep), N3 (deep sleep) and REM (Rapid Eye Movement; the stage of sleep where you dream). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), alcohol can disrupt these sleep cycles. Specifically, alcohol can disrupt REM sleep, the deepest stage of sleep. There is also evidence suggesting that alcohol disturbs the release of melatonin, a hormone that tells your brain it’s time to sleep. Because alcohol can stay in your system for a while, it can lead to a poor night’s sleep even if you were initially able to fall asleep faster.
These abnormal sleep cycles caused by alcohol can lead people into vicious cycles in their daily lives of feeling sleepy the next day, drinking caffeinated beverages to stay awake, then drinking more alcohol at night to fall asleep and having alcohol disrupt their normal sleep cycles again.
How You Can Get a Good Night’s Rest
To help minimize sleep disruption, you should stop drinking alcohol at least four hours before bedtime to give your body sufficient time to process the alcohol in your bloodstream and other areas of your body before you go to sleep.
