Do you wind down with a glass of wine, believing it helps you to chill out and sleep better?
Alcohol is a sedative – so, in some respects it does help us to switch off, but there is a huge difference between sedation and sleep.
The reason we feel mellow after the first drink, is that alcohol impacts the front part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex. This is the part that controls our impulses and restrains our behaviour. It explains why one drink makes us mellow and four drinks can sometimes have us dancing on the table.
As we drink more, we begin to feel sluggish. The sedative effect is becoming stronger. Eventually, we will become unconscious.
At the same time as this sedative impact is affecting our brains, the physical impact on the body sets off a chain of remedial actions. Our heart rate rises and our blood pressure increases. Why would a sedative have this impact on our body? This is due to the release of adrenaline and cortisol. To the body, alcohol is a toxin and needs to be removed as quickly as possible in order to get back into equilibrium.
If we fall asleep with alcohol in our system, it is likely that we will be woken up when the body has removed the alcohol because adrenaline and cortisol will still be in our system. We will find ourselves awake in the middle of the night, unable to get back to sleep, possibly aware of our raised heartbeat, often feeling unexpectedly anxious and needing to go to the loo.
Even if we do manage to sleep throughout the night, drinking alcohol severely impacts the natural sleep process. There are two types of sleep that we need to maintain balance. The first is Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM), otherwise known as deep sleep. This is where the body physically repairs and renews. The second type of sleep we need is the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. This is where the body repairs mentally. It’s where we dream and sort through our thoughts and stresses.
The more alcohol we drink, the less REM sleep we get. The less REM sleep we achieve, the more anxious and unsettled we become. This can lead to a vicious cycle of waking up, feeling more stressed, getting through the day until we can have another glass of wine to help us wind down.