Is your Alcohol habit affecting your Sleep ???
Some people enjoy an alcoholic drink in the evening as part of their ‘Wind Down’ ritual….But is this habit causing a disruptive affect on your Sleep?
Getting into a good sleeping routine is vitally important for all aspects of health. There can be a number of reasons why someone may have difficulty sleeping, but drinking Alcohol in the evening may be one of them….
The average adult should sleep around 7.5 to 8 hours every night. Abundant evidence demonstrates that a lack of sleep can have serious consequences to your health, including increased risk of depressive disorders, impaired breathing, heart disease and decreased mental state. In addition, excessive daytime sleepiness (resulting from sleep disturbance) is associated with memory deficits, impaired social and occupational function, and car crashes.
Sleep has many facets, but the main two we need to know of are ‘Slow wave sleep’ (SWS) and Rapid eye movement’ (REM). Most of our sleep is the deep, restful SWS.
REM sleep occurs periodically, occupying about 25 percent of sleep time in the young adult. Episodes of REM normally recur about every 90 minutes and last 5 to 30 minutes. REM sleep is less restful than SWS and is usually associated with dreaming.
Why is REM Sleep so Important!!!!
Although its function is unknown, REM appears to be essential to health. In rats, deprivation of REM sleep can lead to death within a few weeks. In addition, a transitional stage of light sleep occurs at intervals throughout the sleep period.
Many of you will say that you need a drink in order to sleep, and that alcohol actually helps you sleep better. While it may be true that drinking will get you off to sleep quicker, unfortunately the quality of your sleep overall will be much worse.
Alcohol inhibits the brain from entering REM stage sleep, which is when we do most of our dreaming. Instead, it prolongs the initial stage of deeper sleep. So when you wake up, most likely, you will not have dreamt enough for healthy sleep. Dreaming is an essential component of sleeping.
Alcohol may also cause you to wake up early once the acohol has worn off. Alcohol also inhibits your kidneys from absorbing water, so you tend to urinate more due to its diuretic propereties, leading to dehydration. This further disrupts the quality of your sleep, and often produces a headache by morning. As such, you can end up feeling tired and unable to concentrate for the rest of the day.
If you drink every evening, then you may be chronically sleep deprived…..Even though some of you may sleep all night, the quality of your sleep will definitely not be what it should be.
Making the transition to drinking less is often marked by a difficulty in falling asleep, however, you need to get through this period of readjusting to dropping off naturally. Getting regular, strenuous exercise is the best idea to physically tire yourself out, so by the end of the day, you need to sleep to recover. This way, you should obtain the correct type of sleep without the aid of that drink!!!
Everything in life needs that ‘down time’ to recharge, whether it’s your laptop or mobile phone. We are no different! Some very important processes, essential to maintaining life, only occur whilst we are sleeping. Feeling lethargic, tired and depressed can all be related to the quality of your sleep.
Stay hydrated, allocate sufficient time before bed to lower heart rate, promote tranquillity and stay away from too much alcohol…You’ll start noticing the changes in your sleep habits!
Author: Lloyd Tilney