But alcohol also suppresses the production of glutamine, a type of amino acid and a natural stimulant. As your body metabolizes the alcohol, glutamine production kicks into overdrive and wakes you up. It’s one part of the rebound effect the body goes through as it clears alcohol from your system, which is linked with frequent sleep disturbances in the second half of the night.
The typical sleep cycle begins with three non-rapid eye movement (NREM) stages of sleep and ends with rapid eye movement (REM). During sleep, the body cycles through all of these stages every 90 to 120 minutes, with NREM sleep dominating the first part of the sober house night and REM increasing during the second part of the night. Each stage is necessary for sleep to feel refreshing and for vital processes like learning and memory consolidation to occur. Wine, especially red wine, has a higher alcohol concentration than beer. This can lead to greater suppression of REM sleep and more pronounced disruptions. Compounds in wine, such as tannins and histamines, may cause headaches or nasal congestion, further interfering with sleep quality.
Tips for sleeping after a night out
But even a regular, moderate routine of two to three drinks a day is enough to create sleep and performance problems for many people. For many people who drink moderately, falling asleep more quickly may seem like an advantage https://northiowatoday.com/2025/01/27/sober-house-rules-what-you-should-know-before-moving-in/ of a nightly glass of wine. But part of a smart, sleep-friendly lifestyle is managing alcohol consumption so it doesn’t disrupt your sleep and circadian rhythms. Once the body has metabolized the alcohol, there’s often a “rebound effect” in which the body tries to compensate for the alcohol-induced changes in physiological functions and sleep.
Understanding the Sleep Cycle
Alcohol is highly effective at suppressing melatonin, a key facilitator of sleep and regulator of sleep-wake cycles. Research indicates that a moderate dose of alcohol up to an hour before bedtime can reduce melatonin production by nearly 20 percent. Alcohol has a direct effect on circadian rhythms, diminishing the ability of the master biological clock to respond to the light cues that keep it in sync. Those effects of alcohol on the biological clock appear to persist even without additional drinking, according to research. Yules, Freedman, and Chandler (1966)studied three young non-alcohol dependent, men over 5 nights of drinking, with 1g/Kgethanol administered 15 minutes before bedtime. Yules,Lippman and Freedman (1967) studied four young men over three or five nights ofdrinking with 1 g/Kg ethanol administered 4 hours before bedtime.
- It can have a relaxing effect, but research shows that too much alcohol can lead to a lack of sleep or insomnia.
- Generally, the more a person drinks, the more their sleep quality suffers.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that no amount of alcohol is safe to consume.
- If you feel pretty drunk, you’ll probably fall asleep quickly but have a restless night.
N2 stage
The more you drink, and the closer your drinking is to bedtime, the more it will negatively impact your sleep. Even moderate amounts of alcohol in your system at bedtime alters sleep architecture—the natural flow of sleep through different stages. It also leads to lighter, more restless sleep as the night wears on, diminished sleep quality, and next-day fatigue. This form of REM rebound cannot explain theincreased REM in those who have been abstinent for a long time, relative to controls. It ispossible that increased REM sleep may represent a predisposition to altered sleep ratherthan a consequence of alcohol abuse; although REM is not elevated in adolescents with apositive family history of alcoholism (Tarokh et al.2012).
Health Conditions
But over the course of the night, it can wreak havoc on your sleep architecture and lead you to toss and turn. Rather than sipping red wine, consider instead having a glass of tart cherry juice, which is a good natural source of melatonin. It’s that transition period from wakefulness to sleep that generally only lasts a few minutes. Alcohol has been shown to increase stage 1 sleep during the second half of the night, especially for those who’ve been drinking heavily.
- 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.
- If you find you’re really missing the taste of alcohol, there are plenty of zero-proof versions on the market to consider.
- Depending on how much alcohol is consumed, however, what seems like falling asleep may be something closer to passing out.
- This, too, can wake you up in the middle of the night, sometimes more than once.
Head over to our About page to learn more about the team behind Sleepopolis. Consuming alcohol and experiencing restricted sleep reduces alertness during the day. It can have a relaxing effect, but research shows that too much alcohol can lead to a lack of sleep or insomnia. Alcohol can increase the quantity of non-REM sleep during the first half of the night, but it decreases REM sleep in the second half. Overall, your sleep is likely to be shorter, lighter, and more interrupted when you have alcohol in your system. REM sleep has a restorative effect and plays a role in memory and concentration.
Sleep Apnea in Older Adults: Diagnosis and Treatment Options
To understand how alcohol affects sleep, it helps to know exactly what the body does once you’ve started to drink. As alcohol is digested, it’s absorbed into the bloodstream and carried into every organ. The body circulates blood in just 90 seconds, so you start to feel the effects of alcohol fairly quickly (cue the drowsiness!). Your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) starts to rise, but just how quickly that happens depends on many things, like whether you’ve had a big meal, how much you’ve had to drink, and certain genetic factors. Scientists have been studying the relationship between alcohol and sleep since the 1930s.
While there’s still more research to be done to understand exactly why alcohol affects different components of sleep – particularly in those who drink large amounts on a regular basis – we do know of a few mechanisms linking alcohol consumption to sleep. This is significant, as REM sleep – sometimes called “dreaming sleep” – is thought to be important for memory and regulating emotions. Having a drink or two with dinner or when you’re out with friends is still a big part of our culture in many parts of the world. A few drinks here and there shouldn’t hurt your overall health, but your drinking habits could be worth a second look if you find they’re impacting your sleep schedule or any other parts of your life.
The timing and amount of melatonin that’s released and a decrease in core body temperature are important for sleep. If you’re finding that alcohol may in fact be the culprit behind your restless sleep—or you’re realizing you’re consuming more than you’d like to overall—there are some steps you can take to cut down your consumption levels and get your sleep back on track. So while cutting out drinking will likely benefit your sleep, there may be other factors affecting your shuteye. People with alcohol in their systems are also generally harder to wake, which means that they’re less likely to experience “arousals” that help them recover from OSA- and CSA-related pauses in breathing.