The time you spent in the past using drugs or drinking in excess has changed the way your body works, and this commonly includes sleeping patterns. Alcohol consumption has a complex relationship with sleep, often leading to disrupted sleep cycles and poorer sleep quality. Even though alcohol may hasten the onset of sleep, it significantly impairs the quality by altering the normal progression through sleep stages.

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By seeking professional help, you can embark on a journey towards healthier and more restful sleep without relying on alcohol. Unfortunately, recovery and abstinence are more challenging if you aren’t able to get enough good-quality sleep. Difficulty sleeping, particularly when a person feels that they can’t sleep sober, may increase the risk that they will relapse.

Even if you do fall asleep faster after a drink, you’re likely to have a disturbed night. Heavy drinking can make the sleep- and circadian rhythm-disrupting effects of alcohol worse. But even a regular, moderate routine of two to three drinks a day is enough to create sleep and performance problems for many people. In the first half of the night, when the body is metabolizing alcohol, studies show people spend more time in deep, slow-wave sleep and less time in REM sleep. REM sleep, which gets shortchanged in the first half of the night under the influence of alcohol, is important for mental restoration, including memory and emotional processing. Long-term alcohol use negatively affects REM cycles and decreases sleep quality.

Can Alcohol Disrupt My Sleep?

Over time, sleep deprivation can increase the risk of several chronic health conditions. Likewise, long-term reliance on alcohol for sleep can contribute to an alcohol use disorder (AUD). Drinking a small amount of alcohol may help people fall asleep more quickly initially, but over time, individuals will need to consume more alcohol to achieve the same effect. Alcohol can have a detrimental impact on sleep, but these problems can also persist once you decide to stop drinking. MDMA Wikipedia Finding ways to cope with insomnia and other sleep issues is important since poor sleep can be a risk factor for alcohol relapse. The typical sleep cycle begins with three non-rapid eye movement (NREM) stages of sleep and ends with rapid eye movement (REM).

1. Don’t give up if you don’t notice any massive changes straight away.
2. This sudden overactivity can result in disturbed sleep and insomnia.
3. It can seriously suppress the immune system, impair cognitive and motor function, and increase the risk for heart disease, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and more.
4. The less food you have in your stomach, the faster it travels and raises blood-alcohol levels.
5. Your sleep debt is compared against your sleep need — which is the amount of sleep you need.

Achieving Restful Sleep Without Alcohol

But alcohol isn’t a good sleep aid, and relying on something to get to sleep doesn’t feel great. Multiple relaxation methodscan be used to help you wind down and fall asleep. These include breathing exercises, visualization exercises and progressive muscle relaxation. In a normal circadian rhythm, hormones are released at certain times throughout the day. Alcohol interrupts this process, causing abnormalities in how circadian hormones are released. Caffeine and nicotine are stimulants that can interfere with your ability to fall asleep.

The circadian disruption that can result from alcohol consumption contributes to leaky gut syndrome, according to research. Aside from N1, this is the stage where you can be the most easily roused. Here, muscles become temporarily paralyzed but eye movement resumes, breathing and heart rate speed up, and the brain is very active. Most of your dreams occur in this stage but this is also the stage that contributes to emotional processing, mood, memory, and more. They may turn to alcohol to reduce their anxiety symptoms, which also increases insomnia, exacerbating their anxious feelings. Additionally, low-to-moderate alcohol consumption is always the best practice for minimizing sleep disruptions or health concerns.

These safe spaces offer emotional backing, shared experiences, coping strategies, and education about insomnia. Communicating with individuals experiencing similar issues can provide a sense of communal sharing, reducing feelings of isolation and promoting positivity. After about a week, the symptoms start to calm down, and by the end of the first month, most people see significant improvement, if not complete disappearance, in insomnia. It’s estimated that by the end of 90 days, most people get past insomnia entirely, with rare cases of individuals experiencing it beyond this point. Alcohol withdrawal can be an emotionally turbulent period for many. The ascent on the anxiety and stress scale during this phase is a common observation.

It reduces the time it takes to nod off (known as sleep onset latency), promoting deep sleep initially. But as the night progresses, this deep sleep period decreases, and you end up spending more time in less restorative sleep stages (like light sleep). Drinking to fall asleep can cause or worsen some health issues over time. These include breathing issues like sleep apnea, which is linked to drinking. Sleep problems during recovery happen because your body is out of its normal circadian rhythm.

Those effects of alcohol on the biological clock appear to persist even without additional drinking, according to research. Again, REM is our slow-wave, deeply restorative, and emotionally supportive stage (9). Walker refers to REM as “overnight therapy” and “emotional first-aid” because of its powerful influence on emotional reactivity, anxiety, fear, and mood. Meaning that drinking alcohol as a sleep aid is more likely to leave you irritable, anxious, and struggling to concentrate the next day. Remember that creating a consistent bedtime routine and a sleep-friendly environment are key factors in establishing healthy sleep habits that will benefit your overall well-being.

Getting to sleep after you quit drink entirely can also be a challenging experience, though it gets easier with time. Don’t give up if you don’t notice any massive changes straight away. You might also find you need to continue using alcohol to sleep in small doses before you can taper off entirely.

Underlying health conditions, such as depression, anxiety, or sleep disorders, can also impact the recovery process. We publish material that is researched, cited, edited and reviewed by licensed medical professionals. The information we provide is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It should not be used in place of the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare providers.