10 Oct Going To Bed Drunk Is A Harmful Habit You Need To Break
Sleeping off glasses of wine, beer or hard liquor may not work out in the way that you think it does — the drinks will negatively affect your quality of sleep, making you feel worse for wear in the morning. Even taking a nightcap to relax before you slide under the sheets will have an impact on your sleep cycle. If you want your sleep to be recuperative and healthy, you need to avoid alcohol hours before you crawl into bed.
What happens to your body when you go to sleep drunk?
Your body does not shut down and immediately recover when you go to bed drunk because the alcohol is still in your system, causing disruptive side-effects even after you have closed your eyes. You will doze off quickly and reach the REM stage faster than normal, skipping over the essential NREM stage and missing out on restorative deep sleep.
Another way that alcohol affects the quality of sleep is that it forces you to wake up in the middle of the night and it makes it harder to go back to bed, especially since the sedative influence of the substance will have worn off at that point. You are also more likely to get up to hurry to the bathroom because alcohol is a diuretic and encourages urine production.
What happens if you only drink a little bit?
You don’t have to go overboard with your drinks to experience a poor night of rest, even a simple nightcap will cause a disruption. A small dose of alcohol will need to be metabolized and will wear off in the middle of your sleep cycle, waking you up and making it harder to go back to bed.
Experts have pointed out that the other reason why alcohol before bedtime disrupts restful sleep is that someone’s tolerance to alcohol will change when they consume it on a regular basis, encouraging them to drink more to feel the same relaxing effects — this perpetuates the cycle of sleep troubles and promotes an unhealthy relationship with alcohol.
How does it impact sleep apnea?
More importantly, there is an unfortunate link between chronic alcohol consumption and sleep disorders — people who habitually drink are at a higher risk of developing obstructive sleep apnea. The substance relaxes the throat muscles and narrows the air passage so it’s harder for you to breathe while asleep. It will exacerbate the condition’s symptoms and it will make you feel much worse in the morning. If you have obstructive sleep apnea, you should also look for CPAP machines and equipment to keep your airway clear of any obstructions and to send oxygen to the brain, even if you have had something to drink before bed.
What’s the best course of action?
The best course of action would be to avoid drinking any alcohol before bedtime, especially in large doses. If you are committed to having good sleep, think about slowly cutting alcoholic drinks out of your diet — see what abstaining from the substance does for your sleep and for other aspects of your health.
People living with obstructive sleep apnea should use CPAP machines and equipment to help them have a good rest every night of the week, which will encourage them to avoid using alcohol as a sedative or sleep aid. If you want to know which continuous positive airway pressure devices will be right for you, you can call us for more information or visit one of our locations to get the assistance you need in-person.
When you decide to go for beers with your friends or have a big glass of brandy to relax before bedtime, you can negatively affect your sleep. Doing this every week or every single night is a bad habit that you need to break if you want to improve your health and feel good when you wake up in the morning.