The Effects of Alcohol on Quality of Sleep

Consuming alcohol can impact the sleep quality a person enjoys, especially when drinking a reasonably short time before attempting to sleep. While some people find that alcohol initially decreases the time it takes to become unconscious, Dwayne Godwin, Ph.D. --- a researcher at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center --- reports how alcohol and sleep can become strongly interlinked, with many people suffering from sleep problems after they give up drinking. Ultimately, alcohol in the body can disturb sleeping patterns by disrupting sleep states.

Sleep Disruption

• Consuming alcohol typically allows a drinker to reach a state of sleep faster than usual. This is because alcohol acts as a sedative. However, after a few hours --- during the so-called "second half" of an individual's sleep --- the drinker is likely to become restless, waking up frequently and then having a tough time getting back to sleep again. This effect may be especially pronounced in older drinkers, who retain more alcohol in their blood than younger people, according to Sleepdex. Ultimately, drinkers experience a disrupted sleep pattern and end up losing many of the restorative benefits of sleep, experiencing fatigue during her waking hours.

Long-Term Effects

• If an individual continues to drink heavily on a regular basis, the ability of alcohol to act as a sedative is diminished by that person's growing alcohol tolerance. The individual's brain is no longer as affected by alcohol's sedative properties, and the person is more likely to experience light and disruptive sleep, notes ScienceDaily. In heavy drinkers, this effect often causes a person to drink more in an attempt to sleep better, and may lead to problems when the individual tries to give up alcohol. Over the long term, sleep patterns worsen with alcohol consumption.

Sleep Deprivation Effects

• Since alcohol drinkers are less likely to get a quality night's sleep, they are often affected by a number of mental and physical problems. For example, the drinker is often fatigued, leading to a decreased performance at work and leisurely pursuits. An individual's alertness will be impaired, which can have serious consequences when driving.

Breathing Problems

• Regular consumers of alcohol are more likely to suffer from sleep apnea, where the upper air passage becomes narrower during sleep, resulting in the person waking in the night due to disrupted breathing --- according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. This is due to the alcohol adversely affecting the air passage, causing it to close or narrow, even in people who haven't experienced sleep apnea previously. Sleep apnea can cause a sufferer to wake many times in one night.