Why does drinking alcohol affect your sleep?

Gillian Tietz is the host of the Sober Powered podcast and recently left her career as a biochemist to create Sober Powered Media, LLC. When she quit drinking in 2019, she dedicated herself to learning about alcohol’s influence on the brain and how it can cause addiction. Today, she educates and empowers others to assess their relationship with alcohol. Gill is the owner of the Sober Powered Media Podcast Network, which is the first network of top sober podcasts. Consuming balanced meals throughout the day, avoiding caffeine, sugar, and heavy meals close to bedtime can go a long way in improving sleep quality. Creating a consistent pre-sleep routine can also be effective for dealing with insomnia after quitting alcohol.

• Yet, much of this workforce faces setbacks while on this sobriety track.
• Many people report having some good nights interspersed with difficult ones.
• We ask the experts about the health consequences of mixing alcohol with sex.
• This adjustment creates a calming, sleep-like condition, helping you relax even though it doesn’t provide the restorative benefits of real sleep.
• However, studies have shown that a continuous lack of REM sleep can negatively affect memory and learning, may impact our emotional abilities and increase the chance of migraine.

Learn More About Nutrition and Sleep

• Over time, the sleep-inducing effects of alcohol become less pronounced, requiring larger amounts to achieve the same sedative effect.
• One study shows that this is the reason about 10%of people drink alcohol.
• Once you find out which herbs work best for you, they’ll become part of your anti-insomnia (and anti-anxiety) arsenal for years to come.
• Your total sleep time generally increases as your body adjusts, though sleep quality often remains variable from night to night.
• Throughout the night, your brain will cycle through all of the sleep stages multiple times to give you a good night’s rest.

How long this takes can depend on many factors – including the amount of alcohol, your age, how much you’ve eaten, your sex, and your body type. If left untreated, insomnia can affect an addicted person’s recovery and contribute to relapse. People with co-occurring medical conditions have an even higher risk of developing insomnia and/or substance use disorder. Working on your sleep hygiene is another way to https://sajcoscale.com/2022/02/11/ethanol-addiction-and-symptoms-overcoming-etoh/ help prevent or reduce insomnia.

• For those seeking addiction treatment for themselves or a loved one, all phone calls are confidential and are available for 24/7 help.
• Drinking alcohol can affect the quality and length of your sleep, leading to sleep disorders — such as insomnia and sleep apnea — in some.
• Insomnia may reinforce depression or anxiety, creating a negative cycle that aggravates recovery.
• Serotonin helps the brain with willpower management and delaying gratification – meaning it can help curb the appeal of alcohol.

There’s No Such Thing as a Pain-Free or Easy Sobriety

This creates a cycle where individuals feel they cannot sleep without drinking, leading to increased consumption and insomnia after drinking further sleep deterioration. Normal sleep occurs in distinct stages that cycle throughout the night, including light sleep, deep sleep, and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Each stage serves important functions for physical and mental restoration.

Can Alcohol Help You Sleep?

Sleep onset insomnia happens when your biological clock or circadian rhythm has been interrupted in some way. Jet lag, moving to a new time zone, and even stressful events can drug addiction treatment be causes. Withdrawal symptoms are a whole different world than alcohol-induced sleep problems. Because on top of sleep disturbances, you can also experience anxiety, shakiness, headaches, brain fog, and a range of other detox symptoms. It’s true that drinking alcohol can make the first few hours of your sleep more restful. It increases your slow-wave sleep (SWS) stage, a dreamless state in which your body repairs itself and regulates the immune system.