Alcohol and Sleep: What you need to know

If you’re asked about the link between alcohol and sleep, you’ll probably talk about how the former helps with the latter. Drinking is, in fact, done by around a fifth of the American adult population to make falling asleep much easier. Unfortunately, while alcohol is effective at inducing slumber, it has a number of negative effects on sleep quality.

Disrupting the Cycle

Say you often have a drink or two at night and you soon fall asleep after. But, why is it that you don’t feel as refreshed in the morning as you should? At times, it’s as if you haven’t slept at all, and that’s despite having spent more than eight hours in bed. There weren’t even any disruptions in your slumber—at least as far as you can remember.

What actually happens though, is that you end up waking more than usual throughout the night. And sometimes when this occurs, it doesn’t necessarily put you back in a state of full alertness. Micro-awakenings, for example, are too brief to be noticed yet they’re still more than capable of disrupting the flow of sleep.

If you’re wondering about the science behind these interruptions, you need to understand how adenosine works. Adenosine is the compound that makes you feel drowsy, and it’s typically at its most abundant when you’re exhausted—signaling to your body that it needs rest. Whenever you have a drink though, the adenosine levels in your brain get a sudden boost.

That’s why alcohol is potent at being a sleep inducer. But as to be expected, there’s a downside to having your adenosine levels surge in an unnatural manner. Once the alcohol has been metabolized (or in other words, broken down), your adenosine levels will plummet. And since you don’t have your own natural supply of adenosine, staying fully asleep becomes a challenge.

Why is that a problem? Well, to be truly effective in doing its job in maintaining growth, ensuring hormonal health, and facilitating healing, sleep needs to go through all its stages—with each stage lasting for a certain duration, as determined by your body’s needs. With even the slightest disruptions, you fail to get the most out of sleep.

On Further Difficulty

Aside from unnaturally shifting your adenosine levels and ruining your circadian rhythm, alcohol can cause further interruptions to your slumber by triggering breathing issues. To explain, breathing is a process that relies on muscle contraction and relaxation. When your diaphragm and other inspiratory muscles contract, they lower the pressure within your lungs.

This allows air from the environment to move into your body, supplying you with much-needed oxygen. Afterwards, muscle relaxation occurs, which in turn leads to the exhalation of carbon dioxide (a waste gas). But, what’s the link between these processes and alcohol? The answer lies in it being a potent muscle relaxant, meaning it can interfere with your oxygen uptake.

In fact, it’s been discovered that alcohol, even in moderate amounts, can cause or worsen obstructive sleep apnea—a disorder wherein breathing is repeatedly interrupted, potentially limiting oxygen availability within the body by a significant degree. It’s a serious problem that increases your chances of having a stroke as well as generally raising your risk of dying.

Though not as bad as sleep apnea, fluid loss is another sleep-interrupting effect of alcohol. Simply put, as alcoholic beverages serve as a diuretic, they force your body to increase urine production. With that, you’re more likely to wake up in the middle of the night looking to relieve your full bladder. And as you can imagine, that’s something that could happen more than once.

To make matters worse, diuretics also hasten fluid loss through sweating. So, in addition to finding yourself needing to pee, there’s the chance that you’d wake up from dehydration. And after you’ve finally had a glass or two of water and try to go back to bed, you might once again end up worrying about a full bladder.

Drinking Responsibly

As you’ve learned here, no matter how effective alcohol is in inducing sleep, it really isn’t worth the trouble. If you choose to continue to drink for that particular purpose, you’ll eventually suffer from fatigue as well as memory and concentration issues. In addition, you’re increasing your chances of developing serious health problems like heart disease and diabetes.

Of course, it would be best to reduce your alcohol intake in general. Limit yourself to three drinks weekly and you’ll surely notice a difference—physically, mentally, and even emotionally. And if you do decide to drink, don’t do it too close to bedtime. Ensuring a four-hour gap is a small price to pay for better sleep quality and overall wellness.