Does alcohol affect sleep

Alcohol and sleep | Drinkaware

Alcohol might help you fall asleep, but even a couple of drinks can affect the quality of your sleep.

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How alcohol affects your sleep patterns

Regular drinking can affect the quality of your sleep making you feel tired and sluggish. This is because drinking disrupts your sleep cycle.¹

Some people may find alcohol helps them get to sleep initially, but this is outweighed by the negative effect on sleep quality through the night.

The alcohol in your system will mean you spend less time in the important Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage of sleep,² with the end result that you wake up feeling less refreshed. Even just a couple of drinks will have an effect.

Several sleepless nights can have an impact on your day-to-day mental function - for example, your mood, concentration and decision-making.

Of course, if you’ve had a lot to drink, you may well wake up with a hangover too. So, as well as feeling tired, you might find you have a headache, or you’re more stressed and irritable.

If you get a hangover, only time will help you sober up, but you could avoid getting one in the first place by limiting how many alcoholic drinks you have, and alternating with water or soft drinks, to help avoid dehydration.

Tips and advice to get started with drink-free days

Drinking can equal a disturbed night’s sleep

When you drink alcohol, you may find you have to get up in the night to go to the toilet.

Because alcohol is a diuretic, it encourages the body to lose extra fluid not only in urine, but through sweat too, making dehydration worse.

Drinking more than the UK Chief Medical Officers’ (CMO) low risk drinking guidelines (no more than 14 units a week, spread over three or more days with several drink-free days and no bingeing) may mean you wake up the next day feeling like you haven’t had any rest at all.

Having alcohol-free days can help - you should be sleeping better and find it easier to wake up in the morning. And the benefits go much further too – cutting back on alcohol and drinking in line with the UK low risk drinking guidelines is likely to lower your risk of serious diseases such as several types of cancer, heart disease, liver disease, high blood pressure and stroke and is likely to improve your overall physical and mental health.

Temporary insomnia is a common side-effect of alcohol withdrawal.³Find out more about alcohol withdrawal symptoms, and what to do if you experience them.

Alcohol, snoring and sleep apnoea

Drinking can also make you snore.⁴ It relaxes the muscles in your body, which means the tissue in your throat, mouth and nose can stop air flowing smoothly, and are more likely to vibrate.

More seriously, alcohol (as well as smoking and being overweight) increases the chance you will suffer from sleep apnoea⁵ – a condition that narrows your airways and can stop you breathing properly at night.⁶

Without treatment, sleep apnoea can lead to type 2 diabetes, depression, high blood pressure and increase your chance of having a stroke. It may also affect your mood and concentration, and make it more likely you will have an accident because you’re tired.

Find out more about sleep apnoea on the NHS website

Why you should avoid alcohol just before bedtime

If you choose to drink alcohol, try to avoid it too close to bedtime.

Giving your body time to process the alcohol you've drunk before you go to bed can improve the quality of your sleep.⁷

On average it takes your body an hour to process one unit, but this can vary widely from person to person. And the more you drink, the longer it takes – so, six units of alcohol would take the average person six hours to process.

How does your drinking compare? Take the DrinkCompare quiz

How to reduce the amount you and your partner drink How to cut down on alcohol at home How to stop drinking alcohol completely Low alcohol drinks

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References

[1] Roehrs, T. and Roth, T., (2001) Sleep, sleepiness, and alcohol use. Alcohol research and Health, 25(2), pp.101-109.

[2] Thakkar, M. M., Sharma, R., & Sahota, P. (2015). Alcohol disrupts sleep homeostasis. Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.), 49(4), 299–310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcohol.2014.07.019

[3] ibid

[4] Simou, E., Britton, J., & Leonardi-Bee, J. (2018). Alcohol and the risk of sleep apnoea: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sleep medicine, 42, 38–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2017.12.005

[5] ibid

[6] NHS website. Sleep apnoea. (Accessed 15 September 2022). Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/sleep-apnoea/

[7] Thakkar, M. M., Sharma, R., & Sahota, P. (2015). Alcohol disrupts sleep homeostasis. Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.), 49(4), 299–310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcohol.2014.07.019

Last Reviewed: 1st November 2022

Next Review due: 31st October 2025

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Tips to change your relationship with alcohol

How Does Alcohol Affect Sleep?

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. Understanding the effects of alcohol on sleep is the first step toward preventing alcohol-related sleep problems.

Although consuming alcohol before bedtime helps you fall asleep faster, the popular beverage negatively affects overall sleep quality. When you consume alcohol before bed, your body metabolizes the alcohol throughout the night. As blood alcohol levels rise and fall, alcohol exerts different effects on your sleep.

How Does Alcohol Affect Sleep?

Alcohol potentially causes a shorter overall sleep time and disrupted sleep, which lead to next-day fatigue and sleepiness. The more alcohol you drink, the greater the negative effects on your sleep.

Alcohol Alters Sleep Stages

For most people, alcohol induces a deeper-than-usual sleep in the first half of the night, followed by disrupted sleep in the second half of the night.

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 stages for physical and mental restoration.

Alcohol initially acts as a sedative, increasing the proportion of deep sleep at the beginning of the night. However, as the alcohol’s effects start to wear off, the body spends more time in light sleep, which is not as sound and may lead to more nighttime awakenings. As a result of these frequent awakenings, people tend to clock fewer hours sleeping after drinking alcohol.

Studies have found conflicting information about how alcohol affects REM sleep. Alcohol appears to consistently delay the first REM sleep episode, and higher doses of alcohol appear to reduce the total amount of REM sleep. Suppressing REM sleep can have detrimental consequences for memory consolidation and other cognitive processes.

People who consistently drink too much alcohol may eventually build up a tolerance to its initial sedative effects. Studies of chronic alcohol users have found that these individuals typically experience disrupted sleep patterns with less slow wave sleep and more REM sleep.

Alcohol Affects Levels of Adenosine and Sleep Homeostasis

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. The homeostatic drive prompts sleep by boosting levels of adenosine when we’ve been awake for too long.

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.

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.

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Alcohol Alters Melatonin and the Circadian Rhythm

Alcohol may also exert some of its effects on sleep by influencing the circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is responsible for keeping the body anchored to a 24-hour cycle. As part of this 24-hour cycle, the body releases a hormone called melatonin to prepare us for sleep in the evening. Older studies have found that drinking alcohol before bedtime lowers melatonin levels and interferes with core body temperatures, which in turn impacts sleep quality.

A newer study found that one dose of alcohol had no effect on the circadian rhythm in rodents. However, the researchers proposed that perhaps these effects on the circadian rhythm are only seen after several consecutive days of alcohol consumption. In support of the alcohol-melatonin connection, researchers have noticed that individuals suffering from severe alcohol withdrawal tend to have less pronounced melatonin levels and release.

Alcohol Increases Snoring and Symptoms of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Substantial evidence suggests that alcohol worsens symptoms of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea. These sleep-related breathing difficulties occur when soft tissues collapse and block the upper airway. In mild cases, breathing difficulties lead to snoring sounds. In more serious cases, individuals suffer momentary lapses in breathing, followed by micro-awakenings that interrupt the progression of the sleep stages.

Alcohol is a muscle relaxant, so consuming alcohol at bedtime can make a person more prone to experience a blocked airway. People who typically snore or who have obstructive sleep apnea tend to display more severe snoring and lower blood oxygen levels after drinking alcohol, especially when they drink close to bedtime. People who regularly drink alcohol are 25% more likely to have obstructive sleep apnea, although the connection may be partly due to other shared risk factors such as obesity.

Alcohol Exacerbates Existing Health Conditions and Sleep Disorders

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.

Unsurprisingly, studies of people with insomnia have also found that heavy alcohol use exacerbates insomnia. People who wake up feeling unrefreshed may be more likely to rely on alcohol again to help them sleep the next night, leading to a counterproductive pattern of alcohol use.

Can You Drink Within Certain Limits?

Proceed with caution when drinking before bedtime, as alcohol may be affecting your sleep more than you realize. This may be especially true if you drink alcohol to help you fall asleep faster, and then experience disrupted sleep later in the night without realizing it. Since even small amounts of alcohol can affect your sleep, the overwhelming consensus in the medical community is that alcohol is not an appropriate sleep aid.

Since alcohol affects everyone differently, it’s important to understand where your limit lies and how much alcohol you can drink before it starts to affect your sleep. If you’re looking for ways to improve your sleep, an easy place to start is by adopting healthy sleep hygiene habits such as keeping a consistent sleep schedule and creating a calming bedroom environment.

References

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Accessed on March 17, 2021. https://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Understanding-Sleep
Accessed on March 17, 2021. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31128400/
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About The Author

Michael Breus, Ph.D is a Diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine and a Fellow of The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and one of only 168 psychologists to pass the Sleep Medical Specialty Board without going to medical school. Dr. Breus is a sought after lecturer and his knowledge is shared daily in major national media worldwide including Today, Dr. Oz, Oprah, and for fourteen years as the sleep expert on WebMD. Dr. Breus is the bestselling author of The Power of When, The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan, and Good Night!

Position: Combination Sleeper
Temperature: Hot Sleeper
Chronotype: Wolf

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How alcohol affects sleep

July 3, 2021 Health

You will sleep soundly, but in the morning you will not feel rested.

According to the US National Sleep Foundation, one in five American adults sometimes drinks at night to help fall asleep. There are no statistics for Russia, but it can be assumed that they are at least close to foreign ones.

But this, admittedly, effective way to fall into the realm of Morpheus has at least one side effect.

Why you want to sleep after alcohol

First of all, alcohol affects the brain and disrupts the normal production of chemicals that many processes in the body depend on.

So, it is known that a glass or two increases the production of adenosine. This substance tells the brain that the cells of the body are tired, they do not have enough energy and it is time to rest. The more adenosine, the more sleepy.

But falling asleep in this case does not mean having enough sleep.

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How alcohol affects sleep , becomes smaller. And it's significant. 50 grams of vodka (200 g of weak wine or 400 ml of beer) is enough to reduce melatonin levels by almost 20%.

For the body, this means the following. The biological clock, which is directly dependent on melatonin, begins to fail. The architecture of sleep, that is, the alternation of its main phases, is violated.

Normal sleep consists of two phases.

Non-REM sleep. It starts right after falling asleep and lasts about 90 minutes. Slow-wave sleep is similar to anesthesia: the body is as relaxed as possible, the brain is inactive. No dreams, no movements, complete relaxation, necessary for physical recovery.
REM sleep. Follows the slow one and lasts 5–20 minutes. During this period, the brain is actively working, we have dreams. If slow sleep is needed more for physical recovery of the body, then fast sleep helps the nervous system: relieves mental stress and fatigue, refreshes memory, improves concentration.

They follow each other, two phases - one sleep cycle. On average, we go through five cycles per night. This is enough to feel cheerful and rested in the morning.

But alcoholic sleep is different from normal sleep. After drinking due to a malfunction in the production of melatonin, we fall into a deep slow sleep without dreams. It lasts longer than usual. But the phase of REM sleep, on the contrary, is reduced or completely disappears.

As a result, when we wake up after drinking, we feel overwhelmed. Reactions are inhibited, it is difficult to concentrate on something, memory fails, nerves go to hell. The reasons are clear: the nervous system simply did not have time to recover.

These are not all sleep disorders caused by alcohol. Here are a few more.

Morning insomnia. You wake up at or before dawn and can no longer fall asleep, although you obviously haven't had enough sleep. This is due to the same fallen level of melatonin.
Sleep apnea. This is called stopping breathing during sleep. It most often occurs during non-REM sleep, when the muscles relax. And slow-wave sleep, flavored with alcohol, is especially deep.
Frequent awakenings in the second half of the night. By this time, the body begins to actively get rid of processed alcohol through the kidneys and bladder.

How to drink to get enough sleep

The best way to sleep is not to drink alcohol at night. If for some reason you cannot refuse alcohol, follow the safety rules.

1. Don't overdrink

The medical standard is quite clear: no more than one drink per day for women and men over 65, and no more than two drinks for men younger.

"One drink" in this case is:

355 ml of beer, about 5% ABV;
237-266 ml malt liqueur, about 7% ABV;
148 ml wine, approx. 12% ABV;
44 ml alcohol, 40% alcohol.

2. Drink slowly

This is necessary so that the liver has time to neutralize and remove alcohol before it seriously affects the biochemical processes in the body.

3. Have a snack

Food in the stomach slows down the absorption of alcohol and thus facilitates the work of the liver.

4. Drink no later than 3-4 hours before bedtime

During this time, melatonin levels will return to normal, which means you will have a healthy sleep.

5. Do not mix alcohol with sleeping pills

Alcohol depresses breathing, like most sleeping pills. This combination is extremely dangerous, as it can lead to respiratory arrest.

This article was first published in July 2017. In July 2020, we updated the text.

Scientists: No sleep after drinking alcohol

Image caption,

Alcohol interferes with various stages of sleep

There is scientific evidence that drinking alcohol at night can help you fall asleep, but it also disrupts your natural sleep-wake cycles.

According to the London Sleep Centre, alcohol reduces the duration of falling asleep and induces deep sleep. However, the cycle of "REM" sleep, during which dreams appear and which is essential for recuperation, suffers.

Prolonged alcohol abuse can lead to insomnia.

Until recently, a dose of alcohol before bed was not considered so dangerous - patients in nursing homes and hospitals were sometimes even offered to drink alcohol at night.

According to Dr. Irshad Ebraim, Medical Director of the London Sleep Centre, people who drink before bed are at great risk.

"A glass or two can help you fall asleep in the short term, but if it becomes a habit it can lead to serious sleep problems," he warns.

"If alcohol cannot be avoided, it is better to drink two hours before bedtime, because during this time the effect of alcohol weakens," the scientist believes.

But this is a dangerous business, because alcohol not only causes a habit, but also leads to the suppression of natural rhythms in the activity of the brain, which accompany dreams and are a condition for a good sleep.

Photo caption,

Alcohol-related breathing problems can be dangerous

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In addition, alcohol causes breathing problems. As a result, people begin to suffer from snoring, and chronic snoring can lead to a dangerous violation of the rhythm of breathing and even stopping it. This condition is called apnea.

Based on a detailed study of 20 cases, Dr. Ebraim and his colleagues concluded that alcohol affects three aspects of sleep.

First, alcohol speeds up falling asleep. Secondly, it induces very deep sleep. These symptoms closely resemble the abnormalities seen among patients taking antidepressants.

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