Can drinking alcohol before bed really help you sleep?

This is the 4194th article of Da Yi Xiao Hu

Mr. Zhang is a leader of the unit. He has been under great work pressure for many years and gradually began to have sleep disorders. He had difficulty falling asleep and even stayed awake all night. He was afraid that drugs would become addictive, so he did not dare to take sleeping pills. He searched on Baidu and found that "drinking red wine regularly before going to bed can help you sleep." At the beginning, he could fall asleep quickly after drinking 1/3 cup of red wine, but the effect became worse and worse. He gradually increased the amount of alcohol he drank from 1/3 cup of red wine, and finally had to drink a bottle of red wine every night before he could fall asleep. After 6 months, drinking a bottle of red wine had no effect, so he switched to white wine, and the amount was slowly increased. After 1 year, it increased to 1 catty of white wine every night. Later, even if I was dizzy from drinking, I didn't feel sleepy.

Many people think that drinking alcohol can help you sleep, so it is natural for people who like to drink alcohol to do so. Mr. Zhang is worried about drug addiction, and finally "drinking alcohol to help you sleep" turns into "alcohol addiction".

What is the mechanism by which drinking affects sleep?

After alcohol is absorbed into the brain, it can act on benzodiazepine receptors, so it can play a similar sedative and hypnotic role as this type of sedative hypnotic, speeding up sleep, and the body seems to be asleep. This explains why occasionally "drinking to help sleep" is indeed effective. Alcohol is metabolized quickly, and it is difficult to maintain a long sleep, so it wakes up early. Falling asleep after drinking does not mean a good sleep. The body after drinking is "asleep" on the surface, but the fact is that the liver is busy metabolizing alcohol due to alcohol intake, and the body does not get any rest at all. At the same time, sleep after drinking is mostly stage 2 sleep in the non-rapid eye movement sleep period, that is, "light sleep", which is not easy to relieve fatigue. An alcohol test experiment on young people showed the effect of alcohol on sleep structure. In the group with an alcohol intake of more than 1g/kg body weight, the total sleep time decreased, the light sleep increased, and the deep sleep decreased. In the first half of sleep, the sleep efficiency of the subjects increased, and the number of awakenings decreased. However, in the second half of sleep, the total sleep time and sleep efficiency decreased significantly, and the number of awakenings increased. However, there are still a large number of alcohol-dependent people who use alcohol to shorten the latency period of the first half of sleep in order to fall asleep faster.

"Drinking to help you sleep" actually affects your sleep quality and is more likely to cause fatigue

Alcohol also has side effects. The most common are liver damage, increased blood pressure, increased risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, memory loss, sexual dysfunction, etc. Long-term drinking can lead to addiction. If it is suddenly reduced or stopped, withdrawal symptoms such as irritability, insomnia, tremors, hallucinations, epilepsy, delirium, etc. will occur. Alcohol addiction is no easier to treat than insomnia!

Therefore, drinking alcohol to help you sleep does more harm than good. If you do have insomnia, taking sleeping pills for a short period of time under the guidance of a doctor is not terrible, nor is it addictive, and it is an effective treatment method.

Author: Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Shi YangDeputy Chief Physician