When was the last time you had a drink before going to bed? Maybe you had a cocktail (or two) after dinner, or relaxed with a cold glass of chardonnay, right? That evening cocktail hour can backfire. Ironically, although drinking can make you drowsy, experts agree that it is kryptonite for a good night's rest.
Alcohol can cause you to lose consciousness quickly, but it will not help you achieve a normal, healthy sleep. In fact, it suppresses many of the positive and restorative aspects of sleep.
Why does alcohol make it easier to fall asleep?
Initially, alcohol has a sedative effect. Acute alcohol intake induces the release of adenosine, a substance naturally produced by the body to promote sleep. As a result, you are more likely to fall asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow.
Drinking also suppresses anxiety . If you tend to have trouble shutting down your racing mind at night, alcohol helps you relax. It is an anxiolytic, so it relaxes you.
Sounds good right? But drinking into the arms of Morpheus can have dangerous consequences.
3 dangerous effects of drinking alcohol before bed
When tolerance to alcohol develops, a person needs more alcohol to achieve the same effects that promote sleep.
People become tolerant to the sedative qualities of alcohol in as little as three days , according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Not to mention, increasing your intake can trigger a host of other problems, including potentially putting you on a slippery slope toward alcohol use disorder.
Getting drunk before bed spoils your sleep cycle
Throughout a typical night, your brain alternates between light sleep, slow wave sleep, and rapid eye movement sleep (or REM, the stage of sleep in which sleep occurs). But drinking alters this architecture.
In the first half of the night, alcohol increases the amount of time you spend in slow wave sleep. This type of sleep is the deepest stage , which seems like a good thing to take advantage of. This type plays a vital role in repairing tissues, consolidating memories, building bones and muscles, and strengthening the immune system, according to a January 2013 review in Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research.
Slow wave sleep is also when your body produces growth hormones . Growth hormones are essential for bone strength, immune function, and injury recovery.
Now here's the bad news: alcohol can interfere with these benefits. Consumption before bed results in the suppression of growth hormones despite the increase in slow wave sleep.
Additionally, alcohol dramatically reduces REM sleep in the first half of the night and potentially throughout the night. REM sleep is related to cognitive ability, including memory, learning, and concentration. Discontinuation of REM can be problematic in optimizing health and performance.
You will wake up more often
After initially dozing off in a few hours of deep sleep, alcohol triggers a series of interruptions during the second half of the night.
It takes about three hours to metabolize alcohol . At that point, you will probably find yourself taking trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night, as alcohol suppresses vasopressin, an antidiuretic hormone.
Also, alcohol could interfere with breathing. Drinking is associated with a 25 percent increased risk of obstructive sleep apnea (when the tissues in the throat block the airway during sleep), perhaps because it increases the collapse of the upper airway and contributes to a higher BMI , according to a February 2018 review in Sleep Medication.
Studies have also shown that alcohol consumption leads to a longer duration of apneas, along with a more dramatic drop in oxygen levels.
You'll be tired and grumpy in the morning
Fragmented sleep means that you could be out of the game the next day. You are more likely to be tired and disoriented and have difficulty concentrating.
And keep in mind that nighttime awakenings fueled by alcohol reduce your overall amount of sleep. So even if you're in bed for 7 hours or more, as recommended by the American Sleep Medicine Association, you're actually getting less rest.
Disruptions in the overall quantity and quality of your sleep can negatively impact your cardiovascular health, cognitive function, and metabolic outcomes.
Three ways to mitigate the effects of alcohol at rest
Stop drinking a lot before bed
Give yourself a limit of at least three hours before going to bed (more if you drink more). That's roughly the time it takes an adult to metabolize a drink on an empty stomach.
That comes to 4.5 hours to process two drinks, 6 hours for three drinks and 7 hours if you have had four drinks. You want to give yourself a buffer that your body can metabolize alcohol into before going to bed.
Eat while drinking
Eating a meal that includes fat, protein, or carbohydrates can reduce the total amount of alcohol absorbed by your body and help you metabolize it more quickly, according to a November 2013 Clinical Liver Disease review.
Just keep your overall intake in mind. Sometimes when there is less alcohol absorption, you end up drinking more.
Take it easy
Although even a single cocktail affects the quality of your sleep, the less you drink, the better.
You will never meet someone who has stopped binge drinking and has not noticed a positive change when it comes to the quality of their sleep and the way they felt the next day.
Low alcohol intake (less than 0.25 grams per kilo of body weight) reduces physiological recovery during sleep by about 9 percent on average, according to a January 2018 study in JMIR Mental Health. That rose to 24 percent with moderate consumption (between 0.25-0.75 g / kg) and to 39 percent after heavy drinking (more than 0.75 g / kg).
Bottom line: the more you drink, the less your body recovers from the effects of alcohol while you sleep.
4 tips to fall asleep fast (without wine)
According to the National Sleep Foundation, up to 20 percent consume alcohol as a sleep aid. Instead, try these healthier strategies:
- Maintain a consistent sleep and wake schedule, in which you go to bed and wake up at the same time, seven days a week.
- Develop a regular relaxation routine, with relaxing activities, to prepare yourself for sleep.
- Minimize the use of technology 1 to 2 hours before bed.
- Make sure your bedroom is cool, dark, and quiet.
