How Alcohol Affects Sleep (E75)
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Gill discusses how sleep changes from when we’re drinking to long term sobriety. She explains how alcohol impacts sleep, how sleep changes in withdrawal and early sobriety, and when you can expect your sleep to fully recover. You’ll learn how lack of sleep while we’re drinking exacerbates the damage alcohol causes to the brain, how insomnia impacts cravings, and 5 strategies for coping with insomnia in sobriety.
What to listen to next:
E3: Alcohol, sleep and drinking dreams
E59: What to expect when you stop drinking
E60: How alcohol impacts our cognitive abilities
E22: Why you think alcohol helps your anxiety
E64: Alcohol and anxiety (part 2)
E69: Alcohol shrinks the brain, but what does that mean?
How Does Alcohol Affect Our Sleep
Alcohol suppresses REM sleep, reduces our total sleep time, and causes us to wake up frequently. REM is where we dream, and it is critical for normal brain function and emotional well-being. It may be tempting to go back to drinking so you can sleep, but please know that if your sleep is disturbed so much that you’re considering drinking again, then it means you drank so much that your brain adapted and changed because of it. People who can drink moderately can take a break and not struggle with withdrawal symptoms like insomnia
After getting sober, REM rebounds after 5-6 days. This means there are more periods of REM sleep and a shorter interval between REM and non-REM sleep. Dreaming helps us process our emotions, store memories and things we’ve learned, and recycle unimportant memories. If you are struggling with stress or anxiety, you will likely have more nightmares. While we can dream in all stages of sleep, dreams are the most vivid in REM sleep.
Sources
Laniepce, A. Contribution of sleep disturbances to the heterogeneity of cognitive and brain alterations in alcohol use disorder. Sleep Medicine Reviews. 58. 2021.
K. Junghanns, et al. Chronic and high alcohol consumption has a negative impact on sleep and sleep-associated consolidation of declarative memory. Alcohol Clin Exp Res, 33 (2009)
S. He, A.T. Brooks, K.M. Kampman, S. Chakravorty. The relationship between alcohol craving and insomnia symptoms in alcohol-dependent individuals Alcohol Alcohol, 54 (2019), pp. 287-294
Cite this episode
Tietz, G. Episode 75: How Sleep Improves from Actively Drinking to Long Term Sobriety. Sober Powered. 2021.
