ATLANTA — The holidays mean celebration, champagne toasts, and lost sleep.
Neighborhood and office parties mean many people are staying up later, but that’s not the only reason one could feel tired the next day. Alcohol consumption can impact a night’s rest.
Dr. Scott Leibowitz is a sleep specialist with Northside Hospital who says while alcohol is a sedative so it shouldn’t be used as a sleep aid.
“It helps people fall asleep, but it doesn’t help people stay asleep,” Leibowitz said.
Alcohol acts as a depressant on a body’s central nervous system causing brain activity to slow, allowing a person to fall asleep, Leibowitz explained. But as a body processes the alcohol, it produces, among other things, acetaldehyde. Studies have linked acetaldehyde to cell damage and the dreaded hangover.
“The acute withdrawal effects of the alcohol create more fragmentation and more disruption of your sleep in the latter portions of the night,” Leibowitz said.
The effects of alcohol can prevent someone from entering the deepest, most restful stage of sleep. Leibowitz suggests people give their body time after having a few drinks to let it process the alcohol before going to bed.
Essentially, the more someone has had to drink, the longer they should wait. Leibowitz has devised his own rule to gauge how long it will take to process the alcohol a person has consumed.
“If you’ve had three drinks, your last drink should be three hours before you go to bed,” Leibowitz said. “To be clear, that’s my own made-up rule.”
As if you and your partner tend to snore, alcohol will likely make that situation even worse, Leibowitz advised.