Alcohol for Sleep?
Do you know a woman who uses alcohol to help herself sleep? She could be at risk.
Research suggests that increasing numbers of older women use alcohol as a sleep aid. Unfortunately, an occasional drink can become a nightly habit, leading to alcohol dependence.
And another serious risk is the danger of mixing alcohol with other drugs. Pain or sedative drugs (like sleeping pills) are especially risky when combined with alcohol. A woman can mistakenly collapse into extreme sedation, even overdose.
A 2019 survey study of women veterans of the American military found that, "overall, one in seven women reported having used alcohol to aid sleep in the past month." And female veterans over 55 seemed to be at special risk for using alcohol for sleep.
Use of Alcohol as a Sleep Aid, Unhealthy Drinking Behaviors and Sleeping Pill Use Among Women Veterans; CA Schweizer et al; Sleep Health 2019
In Englad thousands of civil servants were tracked in a public health study that extended over 30 years. Results showed a link between persistent sleep problems and alcohol use.
When older women were asked why their drinking had increased over the past 10 years, many told researchers they drank more because they used alcohol as a sleep aid.
The association between alcohol consumption and sleep disorders among older people in the general population; A. Britton et al; Nature/Scientific Reports 2020
But, does alcohol really help people sleep?
Many people say that alcohol helps them sleep. But that's probably a misunderstanding:
Yes, alcohol does cause you to lose consciousness -- but a loss of consciousness does not mean you are sleeping!
Alcohol is in a class of drugs we call “sedatives”. Not surprisingly, the commonly prescribed sleeping pills are also classified as "sedatives". (Doctors even refer to sleeping pills as “sedative hypnotics”.)
Alcohol and sleeping pills are sedatives. This means they act by binding to certain brain receptors that prevent brain cells from firing. As these brain cells stop firing, the thinking mind is calmed and eventually suppressed. People lose consciousness. Their thinking mind is ‘sedated’.
But such a state of sedation is not a state of sleep. The sedated brain is not a sleeping brain.
Natural sleep happens with a series of brain states that change repeatedly during the night.
This means a healthy brain is surprisingly active during natural sleep. As you sleep, your brain alternates between regular patterns of slow, deep brain waves, and then other patterns of faster, more irregular brain waves.
Sleep science describes at least 4 or 5 distinct brain states that cycle repeatedly during a night’s sleep.
As sleep scientist, Mathew Walker, explains:
"Alcohol sedates you out of wakefulness, but it does not induce natural sleep. The electrical brainwave state you enter via alcohol is not that of natural sleep — rather it is akin to a form of anesthesia."
Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams, Matthew Walker PhD (2017)
It seems that alcohol actually interferes with natural sleep!
The ‘sleep’ induced by alcohol tends to be fragmented — interrupted by brief awakenings. People may not remember that their sleep was fragmented and shallow, but still, in the morning, they don't feel refreshed. They might even feel ‘groggy’ or ‘hung-over’. Alcohol interferes with restorative sleep.
Alcohol at night impairs the brain's job to integrate and organize memory while we sleep. Studies show that alcohol during sleep declines cognitive ability. The sedative effect of alcohol interferes with the brain's natural function during sleep.
