#08: Sleep & Alcohol - Part 1

11/08/21 • 11 min

1 Listener

Although some people may believe that a drink or two in the evening will help them sleep better, today’s episode shows us that alcohol harms our sleep in several different ways. In the first of two episodes on sleep and alcohol, Matt talks about alcohol as a chemical, and the main ways it negatively affects our sleep.

Alcohol has a sedative effect that switches off brain cell firing as we sleep. Alcohol also fragments our sleep, making it less restorative, and blocks REM sleep, which is critical for numerous aspects of health and wellness, including learning and memory, creativity, rebalancing moods and emotions, recalibrating certain hormone systems, and even lifespan longevity.

Matt describes the clock-counter system our brains use to track lost REM sleep, and why we sometimes experience strong, intense and vivid dreams in the late hours of our sleep after too much alcohol as a result.

In today’s episode, you’ll also learn about the specific ways in which alcohol interferes with our sleep quality, and the different stages of our sleep, REM sleep especially.

Be sure to tune in next week as Matt further examines exactly what it is about alcohol that disrupts our sleep in these particular ways, and what the consequences are on health and wellness.

Please note that Matt is not a medical doctor and none of the content in this podcast should be considered as medical advice in any way, shape or form, nor prescriptive in any way.

The episode is sponsored by the wonderful folks over at Athletic Greens, who are providing a discount and free product if you use the link above. Athletic Greens is a comprehensive daily nutritional beverage containing 75 vitamins, minerals, and whole food-sourced ingredients, including a multivitamin, multimineral, probiotic.

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In today’s episode, you’ll also learn about the specific ways in which alcohol interferes with our sleep quality, and the different stages of our sleep, REM sleep especially.

Be sure to tune in next week as Matt further examines exactly what it is about alcohol that disrupts our sleep in these particular ways, and what the consequences are on health and wellness.

Please note that Matt is not a medical doctor and none of the content in this podcast should be considered as medical advice in any way, shape or form, nor prescriptive in any way.

Previous Episode

#07: Naps

As the great Roman poet, Ovid, once said, “There is more refreshment and stimulation in a nap, even of the briefest, than all the alcohol ever distilled.” But are naps always a good thing? Are we even designed to nap? And if you do nap, when should you do it, and for how long?

Today Matt explores the benefits and pitfalls of napping, how napping may fall in line with our pre-programmed sleep patterns as humans (a natural drop in alertness between 1 and 4pm each day), and what it means if you find yourself waking up from an accidental nap on the couch right before bed.

You’ll also hear about the NASA nap culture, sleep inertia (which can include a feeling of a “sleep hangover”), and Matt’s advice for how to use naps to your advantage. If done correctly, for most people not struggling with sleep or insomnia, naps can improve alertness, task performance, creativity, and even reduce blood pressure. However, there is a dark side to napping that Matt discusses in detail, and why that can be the case. So join Matt as he walks you through both the advantages and disadvantages of napping!

Please note that Matt is not a medical doctor and none of the content in this podcast should be considered as medical advice in any way, shape or form, nor prescriptive in any way.

Detailed Scientific Literature

Naps and overview (by the amazing Prof. Christopher Barnes)

The good and the bad of naps

Naps and Mortality

Naps, Brain function & Performance

Next Episode

#09: Sleep & Alcohol - Part 2

On last week’s episode, we learned about the three main ways alcohol can harm our sleep: 1) alcohol results in sedation rather than naturalistic sleep, 2) alcohol causes sleep fragmentation, and 3) alcohol impairs REM sleep.

Today, Matt dives into each of these negative impacts, explaining exactly how and why alcohol disrupts our sleep in these specific ways.

First, alcohol is a class of chemicals called “the sedatives,” and sedation is not natural sleep. Healthy sleep is a very active, highly coordinated event within the brain, unlike sedation. As a result, alcohol can result in you waking up and feeling unrestored and unrefreshed by that non-normal sleep.

Second, we normally need to shut off our fight-or-flight branch of the nervous system, called the sympathetic nervous system, and shift over to the calming, parasympathetic nervous system, in order to stay asleep soundly across the night. However, alcohol reactivates the fight-or-flight nervous system, forcing the brain and body back into a more hyper-alert state.

This increases the chances of you waking up and staying awake, causing your sleep to become more fragile and prone to fragmented awakenings throughout the night. Alcohol also triggers the release of several stress-related chemicals, including cortisol. This stimulates the fight-or-flight nervous system and emotional centers in the brain, also making it more likely that you will wake up and stay awake.

Finally, alcohol significantly reduces the amount of REM sleep the brain can produce. Specifically, the metabolic byproducts of alcohol degradation within the body disrupts and impairs the generation of REM sleep. Without that REM sleep, we can suffer impairments to our cognitive brain function and emotional stability. We can also experience a heightened amount of negative moods, such as anxiety. REM sleep is also the time when we hit our peak in the release of important hormones, like testosterone, which is critical for both men and women.

While Matt acknowledges that this news may not be especially encouraging or popular, he closes out today’s show with a reminder that life is to be lived. It is not his intention to tell anyone how to live their life. Instead, Matt’s goal is to simply lay out the scientific evidence regarding the relationship between sleep and alcohol, so that you can make an informed decision about how to best structure your own sleep schedule and find an enjoyable life balance.

Please note that Matt is not a medical doctor and none of the content in this podcast should be considered as medical advice in any way, shape or form, nor prescriptive in any way.