[Medical Q&A] Can drinking alcohol before bed cure insomnia?

Planner: Chinese Medical Association

Reviewer: Tian Jinzhou, Chief Physician, Dongzhimen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine

What is certain is that drinking alcohol before bed is not a cure for insomnia. Here are the reasons:

(1) Alcohol disrupts sleep rhythm. A small amount of alcohol intake may have a certain effect on promoting sleep onset and increase the time of light sleep in the first half of the night to a certain extent. However, alcohol will act on adenosine and wakefulness-promoting neurons, thereby disrupting deep sleep in the second half of the night, manifesting as multiple sleep interruptions in the second half of the night, causing sleep homeostasis disorders, severe insomnia in the second half of the night, and excessive daytime sleepiness.

(2) Drinking before bed affects sleep hygiene. Some people drink by the bed and then look at their phones to wait for sleep to fall, while others cannot get up on time the next day after drinking. Drinking before bed is not conducive to maintaining a regular sleep schedule or stabilizing emotions before bed. Therefore, drinking before bed is not recommended. Try to develop a habit of relatively fixed sleep schedules and regular work and rest. Regardless of when you fall asleep that night and whether you are satisfied with your sleep quality, you should get up on time the next morning.

(3) Alcohol has an osmotic diuretic effect. Drinking alcohol will increase urine output and make people want to urinate, which will interrupt sleep.

(4) Alcohol affects the body's nighttime temperature. A French study showed that alcohol has a hyperthermic effect on the human body at night. Alcohol changes the body's circadian temperature rhythm and aggravates sleep disorders and mood disorders. Mood disorders and sleep disorders, jet lag, shift work and aging are known to cause changes in the body's temperature, and drinking alcohol can exacerbate such changes.