Many people believe that having a glass of wine before bed can help you fall asleep. However, this isn’t actually the case. Drinking wine before bed can actually cause disruptive sleep throughout the night, decreasing the quality of sleep that you get. Here are some other facts that should know about before drinking wine before bed.
Alcohol Is Bad For Your Sleep
At first, alcohol does make you drowsy, so it may seem natural to indulge in a glass. However, during sleep, alcohol actually increases rapid eye movement, which is the lightest stage of sleep. This inhibits your chances to enter deep sleep, which is when you’re most restful. That’s why when you enter alcohol addiction treatment, you’ll start to notice that your sleep dramatically improves.
You Will Be Irritable The Next Day
As stated above, alcohol interferes with the body’s ability to enter deep sleep, which is when you’re most at rest. Because your quality of sleep has been diminished, you’re going to be more cranky, more irritable, and experience more headaches throughout the day. This can also make it difficult for you to get through work and your chores.
You’ll Wake Up In The Middle Of The Night
Once your body starts to metabolize the alcohol, it starts to experience what is called a rebound effect where it tries to make up for what it lost earlier in the night. It will start to engage REM sleep, which is a lighter stage of sleep that makes you prone to waking up. The less quality sleep you have throughout the night, the worse you’re going to feel the next day.
Only Engage In One Drink
If you reduce the number of alcoholic drinks you have before bed, you reduce your chances of the side effects mentioned above. Don’t indulge too heavily in too many glasses of wine before bed. This will only further deteriorate the quality of your sleep.
End The Evening With A Snack
If you eat something while you’re drinking wine, then you’ll lessen the effects of your blood alcohol level. The food will slow down the absorption of alcohol so that there are fewer side effects and sleep interruptions. It’s never a good idea to drink on an empty stomach.
Drink Earlier In The Night
In order to gain a benefit from a glass of wine without reducing your sleep quality, consider drinking earlier in the day. Look at happy hour and have your last glass between 4 and 5. This will give your body time to reduce your BAC below 0.04 before bed, making it easier for you to fall asleep.
Sleep quality is important, but if you notice that you can’t go to bed without having a drink, it might be time to admit that you have a drinking problem. Consider talking to your primary health provider to see if that’s the case and whether you need help to curb your abuse of alcohol. Left untreated, you could develop a full-blown alcohol addiction that will be difficult to treat later on.
The content is intended to augment, not replace, information provided by your clinician. It is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Reading this information does not create or replace a doctor-patient relationship or consultation. If required, please contact your doctor or other health care provider to assist you in interpreting any of this information, or in applying the information to your individual needs.
