Science reveals why alcohol ruins your sleep

Maybe he alcohol help you fall asleep faster, but the scientific evidence is clear: significantly worsens the quality of resteven in low doses. Although it acts as a sedative and reduces sleep latency, after a few hours it fragments rest, suppresses the REM phase (which is key for memory and emotional regulation), and increases nighttime awakenings.

Furthermore, it aggravates snoring and the apnea obstructive sleep, and is especially harmful in people with insomnia, where it can perpetuate a vicious cycle of worse rest and greater consumption. The main scientific sleep societies warn: if you want to sleep better, avoid alcohol before bed.

This is why we interviewed in Europa Press Salud Infosalus the specialist in clinical neurophysiology and sleep medicine from the Insomnia Group of the Spanish Sleep Society (SES) Rybel Wix, who highlights that, indeed, “alcohol does not help you sleep better despite the popular belief that a drink facilitates conciliation.”

Thus, he comments that alcohol facilitates the onset of sleep (reduces latency) but “drastically worsens its total quality,” which is not similar to nights without consumption: it causes fragmentation, lower efficiency, and continuous disruption.

What’s more, the expert from the Sleep Unit of the La Princesa University Hospital from Madrid emphasizes that another of the effects that alcohol can give us when we go to sleep is that it will suppress the REM phase of sleep (crucial for memory and emotions) in the first half of the night (up to -6.7% in medium doses), with a subsequent partial rebound that fragments sleep.

Instead, it says that it increases the initial deep non-REM phase, but reduces global delta power and causes awakenings in the second half. That is, according to Dr. Wix, nighttime consumption increases the number of awakenings throughout the night, especially after 3-4 hours when the blood level drops.

“Alcohol acts as a sedative. It accelerates the onset of sleep. However, although it reduces the latency to fall asleep and consolidates the first half of the night, it fragments subsequent sleep, suppresses REM, and reduces restorative slow-wave sleep. Meta-analyses confirm poorer quality of sleep in healthy adults who have consumed alcohol before going to sleep, regardless of the doses,” details this expert in Sleep Medicine.

The situation of people with insomnia

But if there is a group that clearly has to avoid consuming alcohol before going to sleep, it is precisely people with insomniain whom alcohol is especially harmful, as stated by the SES member, due to a bidirectional relationship: “Alcohol aggravates the symptoms of insomnia and this, in turn, can promote greater alcohol consumption as ‘self-medication’. Studies confirm that even moderate consumption predicts poorer quality of sleep and perpetuates the vicious cycle.”

What’s more, it specifies here that people with insomnia who use alcohol as a sedative“30% report it” in the long run this creates dependency; “Twin studies show shared genetic causality,” adds Wix. In fact, this specialist points out that in the case of chronic insomnia, alcohol is capable of accelerating the progression to a severe disorder.

He also maintains that the American Sleep Academy (AASM) classifies alcohol as the “biggest disruptor” of insomnia, which is why it recommends total abstinence.

But it doesn’t stop there because the scientific evidence, as confirmed by this expert in Sleep Medicine, alcohol aggravates snoring and obstructive sleep apnea, given that relaxes pharyngeal musclesincreases respiratory events and oxygen desaturations. “Meta-analyses confirm worse sleep severity in snorers, even with low doses of alcohol,” says the SES member.

When to stop consuming it

For all this, this expert remembers that the AASM warns that alcohol worsens sleep apnea, as well as snoring and respiratory events, which is why it effectively recommends avoid it at least an hour before going to bed.

“In patients with sleep apnea or risk (obesity, snoring), alcohol consumption before sleeping aggravates obstructions by relaxing pharyngeal muscles. Avoid alcohol at least 3-4 hours before going to bed to minimize this disruption. The AASM recommends total abstinence near sleep in situations of obstructive sleep apnea, or in the aforementioned risk situations,” concludes Rybel Wix.