Drink less alcohol + stop earlier for better sleep
Limit your number of alcoholic drinks and stop consuming alcohol earlier in the evening to reduce the impact it has on your sleep. Alcohol has sedative effects that can make us feel sleepy initially, but it can also interfere with our sleep patterns later in the night.
Alcohol is a sedative that reduces your ability to remain conscious and makes you sleepy, but it doesn’t act on the brain to induce natural sleep.
Alcohol also reduces melatonin production, the hormone that regulates sleep-wake cycles.
Alcohol causes sleep fragmentation leading to frequent awakenings during the night.
It also disrupts the wake-sleep cycle by reducing the time spent in the restorative deep sleep stage (slow-wave sleep) and decreasing the amount of REM as well.
Want to learn more? Check out these studies.