Alcohol and Sleep: Why Drinking Feels Like It Helps — But Often Makes Sleep Worse

Sleep: Why Alcohol “Helps” … Then Wrecks It

Sleep is not just rest. It's probably THE most critical thing in our lives that we don't pay enough attention to.

Let’s dive into what it is, what it does, and how booze affects it.

What is sleep?

Sounds like a silly question... It’s something we have done every night since we were babes.

But have you ever truly QUESTIONED it?

At its root, sleep is a controlled shutdown of external awareness so the brain can run processes that it simply can’t do while we are awake.

When we are awake, our brains are too busy… There are too many inputs- sights, sounds, decisions, reactions.  The system is on.

If sleep doesn’t happen… this whole show falls apart.

We must have it.

What happens while we are sleep.

In short- really important stuff.

1. It's a cleansing of our brain. Your brain literally washes itself off.

   
   

   Our brains are constantly firing neurons. When they fire, they produce byproducts. Not byproducts like garbage- but leftover proteins and chemicals.  During the day, your brain is simply too busy to cleanse them. At night-your brain activates a fancy process called the Glymphatic System. It’s basically a car wash that flushes everything out so those neurons can fire the way they are meant to.

   
   

2. It repairs our body- muscles recover, immune system strengthens, hormones rebalance.

   
   

   • During the day muscles get micro tears. During the night, your body releases HGH and specialized cells repair and rebuild those fibers.

     
     

   • As you sleep- your body produces these things called cytokines. In relation to the immune system- they aren’t the fighters- they are the messengers. They blare the bugle horn to the fighters- “Go check this out”.  

     
     

   • Hormones? A balanced checkbook with proper sleep. Things get put where they need to be.

     
     

3. Organizes our mind: Memories are filed; wild emotions are processed. Learning is solidified.

   
   

   • Memories… Think of your desk after a long day of work. Papers everywhere, Post-it notes, random paper clips. At night, the cleaners come and sort everything where it needs to go. They decide what matters, what doesn’t, and what should be stored as important for long term storage.

     
     

   • Wild Emotion… Especially during REM sleep (will dive into), your emotional experiences get revisited, but just lower stress chemistry. The brain separates the event from the intensity and can actually make sense of what happened. The expression: “Sleep on it and get back to me,” is really useful advice at a biological level.

     
     

   • Learning… When you practice, or experience something new- neural pathways are activated. During snoozing, those pathways get replayed, strengthened, and reinforced.

Ok. We know what it does now. How does it operate?

Sleep Cycles

We’ve got 4 stages:

1.      Transition: This lasts a few minutes. It’s the drifting in and out. You’re dozing off.

2.      Light Sleep: This is actually about 50% actually. Heart rate slows down, body temp drops, your brain begins doing its thing. It’s activating.

3.      Deep Sleep: All the repair stuff- the car wash brain cleaning, the immune system strengthening, the muscle recovery-happens here.

4.      REM: The Rudolph of all the sleep reindeer. The famous one. The body is actually paralyzed in this phase (so you don’t act out your dreams). This stage is where all those memories/emotions are organized and learning locks in.  It is your Mental and Emotional Reset.

You repeat this cycle about 4-6 times a night. Each cycle about 90 minutes long.

We are now experts in sleep. How does Alcohol affect this?

Our good friend Alcohol, I’m sorry to say, isn’t good friends with sleep.

In fact-it's a Tier 1 Disruptor of ALL OF THIS  (it makes blue screens at night and caffeine later in the day look like amateurs).

Well, that’s not completely fair... It does one thing well in this.

Remember our friend GABA? Our Pooh Bear neurotransmitter?

It does a really good job of knocking us out.

You fall asleep, hard.

But… the one thing nobody talks about regarding this.

Our brain’s hate imbalance.

So, it corrects.

As that alcohol leaves your body (actually very fast within minutes about 25% is absorbed directly in your stomach, the rest moves into the small intestine and blood stream, and is sent to the liver where it starts working), your body says “we are off, let’s correct this”

That correction is glutamate (your brain’s gas pedal), cortisol, and adrenaline. Tough guys!

The Receipt.

All the good stuff that is supposed to happen and needs to happen while you sleep is basically put on hold... your body and brain has put all its effort into balancing what the red wine or light beer did to you.

Deep Sleep

·         For all the good stuff that needs to happen in Deep Sleep, you need low brain activity, low stress signals, stability.  But because Glutamate, Cortisol and Adrenaline are trying to balance the GABA imbalance, it can’t do its job.

REM

·         For this very important piece of memories being organized, learning locked in, and emotions being processed- the brain has to have a calm balanced chemistry. We don’t have that anymore. So, REM gets shortened or even skipped completely. Sometimes it gets suppressed and then explodes later (night sweats? That is one of the reasons).  

Wake-Ups.

·         Because of the crazy Battle Royal happening with your brain chemistry, your body is confused and says- “we are up now.” Wake up at 2AM, 3AM? Even though you are truly exhausted from a biological state, you feel wired, restless, anxious, have a tough time falling back to sleep.

Sleep Cycles

·         Our four cycles? Yeah… they are supposed to be smooth, 90-minute cycles. This rebound happening in our body interrupts them, shifts them, and never completes the full sequence.

Next Day

You went to bed at 11PM- woke up at 9AM. But you feel

·         Mental Fog

·         Irritable

·         Your patience is on ice

·         High Anxiety/Or Depressed

·         Throw a Panic Attack in there

You slept. But you didn’t recover.

The Bottom Line

Alcohol can make it easier to fall asleep.

But it hijacks the rest.

When you remove the main disruptor, your body gets what it wants, needs, and deserves:

• deeper sleep

• more consistent energy

• less morning anxiety

• clearer thinking during the day

• 
  

Might not happen immediately, but it will happen…

Sleep is one of the first systems to improve when nightly drinking stops.

And once sleep improves, it’s a cataclysmic change agent in your life.

If you want some structure in regaining this core pillar of our life- ONE THIRD OF OUR LIVES (if you live to 75 years old- you sleep for 25 and are awake for 50)- try the Free 7 Day PM Reset.

It will be one of the first benefits you see.

#POSITIVEINFINITY