Alcohol’s Effects on Your Sleep
‘Tis the season for indulgence. Some look forward to it. Others dread it. I’d say I fall in the former. I love a good party, but I’m also a sleep enthusiast who values my 7 hours of sleep between 11pm – 6am (that’s my chronotype baby!). I recognize the effects of sleep deprivation and fragmentation on my body and mind due to late nights and alcohol consumption.
Have your ‘nog and drink it too
To make alcohol work for YOU, I’d firstly like to dispel the myth that alcohol puts you to sleep. It does make you more relaxed (although arguably not in high doses for certain individuals) and feel sleepy but it does not put you into a natural state of sleep as we know it. It rather sedates you like anesthesia does. It’s making you pass out, not tiring you out. With you dead to the world, asleep in your jeans and snoring, you may think, so what? What’s the difference? The problem with an alcohol-fueled sleep is many-fold. It not only fragments your sleep, but also shortens it, robs you of deep, restorative sleep stages, causes airway restriction (think snoring), dehydrates you, leaves you feeling unrefreshed, irritable, foggy-brained, the list goes on…
Some people seem to metabolize alcohol better than others. I know people who can crush Thursday-Sunday drinks and wake up Monday morning for that early presentation and crush that too. I know others who have a couple drinks one night and feel horrendous for a couple days after. The effects of alcohol are individualized but there are some universal facts.
Alcohol, sleep and you
It takes about an hour to metabolize each drink consumed and to get quality sleep after a big night out, so it’s best to do some calculations based on your chosen bedtime. Let’s say I want to go to bed around 11 pm and I want to have 3 cocktails. As each drink needs about an hour to get through my system so I won’t feel the effects on my sleep (and the next day), I should finish my third and final drink around 8 pm. I know I know, you’re thinking “that is incredibly unrealistic”. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I’m not here to tell you what you SHOULD do, my goal is always to arm you with information so you can make more informed choices.
Water will definitely help, as alcohol causes dehydration and by extension quicker impairment (which may or may not be your goal) and drinking water can slow this effect down. When a person hydrates by drinking plenty of water, it can give your liver time to metabolize the alcohol in your body, as well as time to space out the alcoholic drinks you consume. Often the hangover effect as we know it is actually caused by dehydration. When we lose water in our bodies, we may wake up more because we are thirsty, have headaches, need to use the bathroom, etc. So, I aim for a 1:1 ratio of water for each alcoholic drink I have.
However, if you are going full out till dawn, to minimize disruption to your sleep patterns in the following nights, I would strongly encourage you to get up at your regular wake time (or as close to it as you possibly can – even if it’s within the hour). Your body craves consistency and regularity. If you wake up and go to bed at the same time each day, your body and mind become accustomed to this schedule and come to anticipate waking up and falling asleep at that time. However, if you’ve been out until 3 am and then sleep in until 10 am, the goal posts have been shifted back by 3 hours, meaning that instead of getting sleepy sometime between 7-11 pm, you may not be feeling ready for bed until sometime between 10 pm-2 am. Aim to wake up at the same time after a long night so it doesn’t ruin your next few nights of sleep. Sure, you’ll be tired the next day, but you’ll be rewarded with a better, deeper sleep the following night.
And I will be fully realistic here when I say I AIM for it – you can’t reach perfection with all these different approaches but you should try. Which leads me to my next point…
Be kind to yourself
It’s the holiday season and you have all of the new year to attempt to follow through with your resolutions. For me, it’s all about balance. Indulgence in certain areas helps me get through the more challenging parts of the year. Sometimes we need to break out and refresh ourselves even if we don’t feel so hot the next day. For some, socializing and holiday time provide nourishment for the soul, and we know that mind and body are connected. I’d be lying to us both if I told you that I always follow an optimal drink metabolizing schedule.
So, to recap on how to drink responsibly for your sleep and yourself:
Pace out your drinks by alternating with water - booze, water, booze, water…and so on.
Try and leave enough hours before your last drink/s and falling asleep to help metabolize the alcohol out of your system.
Stay hydrated the next day. Fill up a tall glass of water and put it by your bedside table the night before so it’s ready for you in the morning.
Resist the urge to sleep in and instead wake up at your regular time. While you may have gone to bed late the night before and are now experiencing a poor, alcohol-fueled sleep, waking up later will only make getting to sleep the next night more difficult.
If you have any questions about alcohol and your sleep, or to book a free 20-minute discovery call, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Until then, party on Wayne…
