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Alcoholic beverages affect sleep quality
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Most people report feeling sleepy after drinking alcohol. In addition, statistics show that many people practice using a certain dose of alcohol to improve sleep. Perhaps alcohol does promote good sleep, but are there other side effects? The National Sleep Foundation tried to figure this out.
The effective action of alcoholic drinks is due to slow fluctuations in sleep – the so-called delta activity of the brain, which is more pronounced during deep sleep. But under the influence of alcohol consumption, another one – alpha activity – continues to work, which negatively affects the calmness of rest. Thus, when a person goes to bed after drinking alcohol, his brain continues to be in an active state, and the expected rest does not occur.
Despite the fact that people who drink alcohol fall asleep quite quickly, they often wake up before morning. This effect is due to the increased accumulation of adenosine in the brain structures - a nucleoside that plays an important role in biochemical processes, and in particular, in the transmission of energy and signals. This substance inhibits the release of neurotransmitters - chemical compounds that transmit nerve signals between nerve cells, which is its calming effect on the body. Without adenosine, neurons continue to excite. However, its effect stops even before the moment when a person has had enough rest and sleep. Therefore, sleep becomes insufficient, and the brain, and the entire body, ultimately does not rest enough.
Another adverse effect of alcohol is complete relaxation of the body, which also affects the throat muscles. Relaxed muscles provoke snoring and apnea - breathing pauses, peculiar periods of calm that have an extremely negative effect on the body: the well-being suffers in the morning, headaches and daytime sleepiness appear, memory and attention are impaired. During an attack of apnea, signals are sent to the brain about a decrease in the level of oxygen in the blood. As a result, a person wakes up in the middle of the night, his blood pressure may increase, the risk of an angina attack or acute cerebrovascular accident increases. At the same time, against the background of oxygen deficiency, tissues become insensitive to insulin - a hormonal substance that controls the level of glucose in the body. These processes lead to the fact that a person will feel a loss of strength during the day.
It is noteworthy that the more often a person uses alcohol to fall asleep, the more severe and unfavorable the health consequences will be. In most cases, to correct the process of falling asleep, it is enough to adopt a healthy lifestyle, normalize body weight, and stop drinking alcohol.
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