Alcohol & Sleep
Bulletin Health Topic - 112
Alcohol is a sedative that many people take to enable them to fall asleep quicker. The problem is it has a major impact on the quality of our sleep. Alcohol will make you lose consciousness quicker, but we shouldn’t confuse consciousness with sleep. Losing consciousness from alcohol is like being knocked out. You don't get the restorative nature of sleeping.
There are many physiological affects of consuming alcohol before sleep.
- resting heart rate goes up
- compressed heart rate variability
- respiratory breathing rate increases
- body temperature increases
For restorative sleep, we need our heart rate and body temperature to decrease.
Alcohol blocks our R.E.M sleep cycle, so you end up with a night of light sleep. This is due to a by-product made from an alcohol called aldehydes.
Aldehydes will block the brains ability to generate R.E.M sleep. We end up waking many times throughout the night, often so brief we don't remember.
Sleep is critical to the function of the brain's waste removal system (Glymphatic system), the deeper the sleep the better.
It’s when we have disrupted sleep that beta analyoid plaque builds in the brain. This can lead to Alzheimers and premature aging.
A single drink 4- 5hrs before bedtime seems to have minimal effect.
It’s when we have 2-3 drinks close to bedtime things start to decline.
