Drink or sleep… You have to choose!
It is often said that a person who has "drank well" will "sleep well." Is this adage really true? We can ask ourselves the question!
We all have in mind that party-loving friend or that old uncle, considered a druid of the pint, whose alcohol consumption at a party or a family meal led him to fall asleep, a little too easily, and fall into a deep sleep. So, alcohol as a remedy for insomnia, can we believe it? What is the real impact of alcohol consumption on the quality of sleep?
One last little drink for the road… sleep!
Well... Let's not beat around the bush: alcohol consumption directly affects the time it takes to fall asleep. This is a fact established by numerous studies that your uncle or friend will surely not contradict! In 2013, Irshaad O. Ebrahim and Chris Idzikowski, both professors at the renowned London Sleep Centre 1 , published a study in the specialist journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research . They cross-referenced and analyzed data from no fewer than 27 studies. This analysis 2 shows that alcohol consumption accelerates sleep onset , it makes you enter the slow-wave sleep phase more easily and for a longer time. The latter corresponds to 3 stages: falling asleep, light slow-wave sleep and deep slow-wave sleep. In this case, it's a good point won by the aperitif with insomniacs, you might say. Actually, no. The reality is that with alcohol, the night doesn't have to be crazy!
Indeed, what we gain in ease of falling asleep, we lose in quality of sleep . We could compare this to driving excessively fast to save time and, ultimately, getting fined or having your driving license revoked by the police. The benefits of alcohol on the slow-wave sleep phase turn into inconveniences during the so-called REM sleep phase. This impact of alcohol on REM sleep turns out to be quite harmful. The latter (also called "REM" for "Rapid Eye Movement", like the famous rock group!), which is supposed to be the most restorative for the mind, ends up fragmented and damaged: you wake up more often because of an urgent need (your body eliminates toxins), sometimes with sweating or an accelerated heart rate. To the delight of your partner (or your partner, let's respect parity!), alcohol can cause snoring as well as sleep apnea which sometimes turns out to be dangerous for your health. We often compensate for this loss of sleep quality by staying in bed longer: a good lie-in to recover. The result? Quite the opposite! Of course, we don't necessarily wake up with a "hangover" (this obviously depends on the amount of alcohol drunk), but we at least feel a rather unpleasant feeling of fatigue as soon as we wake up! The biological (or circadian) rhythm is disrupted, as demonstrated by the study Alcohol, sleep and biological rhythms 3 from the scientific journal Neurophysiologie Clinique/Clinical Neurophysiology in January 1993.
To measure the impact of alcohol on your sleep, please blow!
What if the impact of alcohol on sleep was measured by the amount we drank? This is indeed what the study published in 2013 4 and cited above highlights. In summary, the greater the quantity of alcohol ingested, the more sleep is impacted. It appears that at small doses, only slow-wave sleep is disturbed (falling asleep faster). For a medium or high dose of alcohol, slow-wave sleep and REM sleep are influenced, with the consequence of disrupting the circadian rhythm. Well, now, from there to saying that we should use a breathalyzer to be sure we are in a state of sleep, there is a step... that we will not take!
Alcohol does have an impact on sleep quality , but some people are also tempted to resort to drinking alcohol to combat their insomnia. What about alcohol as a sleeping pill? In light of the majority of studies, or simply by using common sense, it still appears quite risky, not to say dangerous, to consider alcohol as such. The use of sleeping pills, like alcohol consumption, carries health risks and creates addiction. In addition, the poor quality of REM sleep caused by alcohol is itself a source of insomnia due to micro-awakenings, snoring and other sleep apnea.
For a good night's sleep, nothing beats a good herbal tea! Don't like it? It's not rock n' roll enough for you? Well, fine. In that case, to avoid nighttime discomfort, consume alcohol in moderation before bed and don't rhyme "apéro" with "dodo". As a wise man said, "the dose makes the poison"!
Sources:
[1] London Sleep Centre , “The London Sleep Centre” site, 2021 [2] Alcohol and sleep I: effects on normal sleep , Irshaad O Ebrahim, Colin M Shapiro et al, “ Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research ”, April 2013 [3] Alcohol, sleep and biological rhythmsAlcohol, sleep and biological rhythms , HJ Aubin, JC Monfort et al, “ Clinical Neurophysiology ”, January 1993 [4] Alcohol and sleep I: effects on normal sleep , Irshaad O Ebrahim, Colin M Shapiro et al, “ Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research ”, April 2013
