Alcohol to sleep, but not to rest

Leading a healthy and balanced life is essential to enjoy a peaceful and comforting sleep. Bad habits can harm the quality of our hours on the mattress and especially abusing alcohol intake.

According to multiple studies, having a drink before bed can make you fall asleep a little faster, but the sleep you get after drinking may not be as restful.

It is very likely that at times you have gotten out of bed after a party with a strange feeling. And no, it doesn’t always have to be a hangover, but it can be tiredness, alcohol considerably influences the quality of your sleep.

To understand the reasons, we must know why there are times when alcohol helps to fall asleep. This increases sleep pressure and accumulates adenosine, a substance that is responsible for making us feel sleepy. In addition, it also influences the circadian rhythm and reduces the production of Melatonin, thus turning back our biological clock.

But why does this happen? Our liver is responsible for metabolizing alcohol and converting it into a stimulant, so you are more likely to wake up and spend less time in REM sleep, which is when the brain and body are energized and when it sounds. For this reason, we may either not rest well or wake up groggy as we have not achieved the recovery we needed.

This doesn’t mean we have to avoid alcohol every night, but if someone does this night after night, the effects can be cumulative, not only from alcohol use but also in terms of interrupted dreams.