Here, a sleep specialist breaks down the good, the bad, and the ugly of how alcohol affects our ability to rest. 🍷
Plenty of people reach for a drink to help them unwind from the day and doze off, yet we're often told that alcohol inhibits sleep. So what gives? Drinking is something we do to relax, but does it actually have the opposite effect? Here, a sleep specialist breaks down the good, the bad, and the ugly of how alcohol affects our ability to rest.
This is because while alcohol has stimulant effects, it also has sedative qualities. Researchers still have questions about how exactly alcohol interacts with our brains and central nervous systems, but Bhopal explains that it seems to affect two key neurotransmitters: gamma-aminobutyric acid and glutamate.
GABA is an inhibitory amino acid neurotransmitter, meaning it helps us relax and calm down.* Its counterpart, glutamate, does the opposite. It's an excitatory neurotransmitter that's active during the day. In a healthy system, GABA and glutamate are constantly balancing each other out., leaving us with that chill, calm sensation that can make falling asleep feel easier.This ad is displayed using third party content and we do not control its accessibility features.
"That initial sedative effect then wears off and what happens is you start waking up," Bhopal says."It also disrupts and suppresses REM sleep during the night, so overall it has a negative effect on sleep architecture and sleep quality." By jolting us out of thoselike REM, alcohol robs us of some of the key benefits of sleep: memory consolidation, mental restoration, and emotional processing.