Alcohol helps me sleep– NOT

Do you think that having a drink or two helps you sleep?  This is a very, very common idea.  In fact, I have come across many people who drink alcohol for the sole purpose of sleeping.  Unfortunately, alcohol is doing more harm than good where your sleep is concerned.  And it doesn’t matter what kind- liquor, beer, wine, mead, sake, mixed.  I’m going to walk you through what happens.  

Let’s say you have a few drinks in the evening.  Early on, at a relatively low “dose” of alcohol, your frontal lobes (the newer, decision-making part of your brain) are the first to be affected by the drink.  This means you start becoming more social, less inhibited, and even energetic.  The frontal lobes have a “brake” function on your emotions and pleasure-seeking mode.  When your frontal lobes aren’t working well, you are likely to drink more.  It also means you’re likely to eat more and seek out other rewards.  

As you drink more, alcohol starts to have a sedative effect on other parts of your brain.  So you start feeling sleepy.  This is what causes the perception that alcohol helps with sleep, and you do tend to lose consciousness faster–even effortlessly.  The problem is, your sleep isn’t normal.  It’s fragmented as you metabolize the drinks.  Your REM (dream) sleep is blocked.  You’re more likely to snore and choke off your airway because alcohol inhibits the airway muscles– especially your tongue.  So your sleep isn’t restorative.  But you aren’t consciously aware of the disruptions because of the sedative effect.  This is where the misperception comes from. 

Ever notice you have a middle-of-the-night awakening after a few drinks?  Yep, one reason is a full bladder and relative dehydration that often shows up as cotton mouth, sometimes a headache, or fast heart rate.  Women are more likely to have hot flashes with alcohol on board.  Then it’s harder to get back to sleep and you do tend to perceive choppy sleep for the remainder of the night.  You’re also likely to have more vivid dreams, even nightmares.  This is the REM sleep effects again- and not getting healthy REM sleep affects your memory, learning, and emotional processing.  

How to mitigate these effects?  One option is to drink alcohol earlier in the day, stopping four hours or more before bedtime.  Another option is to drink less, but know that even one serving of alcohol can affect your sleep negatively.  Not drinking is also an option, and if you’ve been wanting to cut back it may be worthwhile to start that process. 

If you have been drinking to sleep, I hope I’ve dispelled the illusion.  You’re not getting what you really want.  And you may have just pushed the issue to the middle of the night when it’s harder to get back to sleep anyway.  Whatever changes you want to make, realize that it takes practice to make them stick and get to the benefits that are waiting for you.