How alcohol affects your sleep

How sleep works

Sleep gives your body and mind time to rest and repair. While you sleep:

Your brain processes information and makes new memories
Your body heals
Your mood and energy improve
Your immune system gets a boost

There are four stages of sleep, and each one is important for good quality sleep.

When you go to sleep, you move through these stages in cycles. Each cycle takes about 90 minutes, and you usually have a few cycles every night. These cycles can be influenced by lots of things, including age, stress, hunger, caffeine intake, light from electronic devices, recent sleep patterns, and alcohol consumption.

How does alcohol affect sleep?

Alcohol might seem like it helps you sleep, because it can make you feel calm or drowsy. But once you’re asleep, it actually makes your rest worse.

Your body needs both deep sleep and dream sleep (called REM sleep) to feel refreshed. Alcohol gets in the way of these stages. Instead of sinking into deep rest, your sleep becomes lighter and more broken. You might wake up in the night, toss and turn, or need to use the toilet more often.

Because of this, even if you stay in bed for many hours, you can still wake up feeling tired, grumpy, or run-down the next day.

How much alcohol does it take to disrupt your sleep?

Even small amounts of alcohol can affect your sleep. One or two drinks may help you fall asleep faster, but they also make your sleep lighter and more broken.

The more you drink, the bigger the impact. Heavy drinking cuts down the amount of deep sleep and REM sleep your body gets. These are the stages that repair your body and refresh your mind. That’s why people often feel groggy, anxious, or low after a night of drinking.

What’s more, relying on alcohol to fall asleep can lead to tolerance, where you need more alcohol to get the same effect.

Does cutting out alcohol help you sleep better?

Yes - for most people, drinking less or stopping alcohol improves sleep. Although at first, some people can find sleep a bit tricky while their body adjusts. This usually improves within a few weeks. Here’s what many people notice:

In the first few nights

After a month

Longer term

What else affects your sleep?

Anyone can have sleep problems from time to time, like:

Trouble getting to sleep
Sleeping too much, or during the daytime
Waking up too early, or repeatedly through the night

Alcohol can make a big difference to the quality of your sleep, but there’s more to it. It can be hard to pinpoint a single cause for sleep problems. They can be caused or made worse by:

Stress and worry
Pain and discomfort
Your diet and eating habits
Your exercise levels and routines
The environment you sleep in

For that reason, sleep problems are unlikely to have a single fix. You may need to try making a few changes in different areas of your life to feel an improvement. The good news is that even small changes can make a big difference.

How to improve your sleep

Here are a few things you can try to improve your sleep:

Cut down on alcohol

One of the best ways to improve your sleep is to reduce how much alcohol you drink, especially before bed. Alcohol has the most impact on your sleep in the six hours or so before bed, so avoiding alcohol in these hours can help you get a better night’s sleep.

If you’re physically dependent on alcohol (or you think you may be), it’s important to get medical advice before cutting down. Speak to your doctor if you have any of these withdrawal symptoms:

Shaking or trembling
Hallucination (seeing or hearing things that aren’t there)
Feeling sick or vomiting
Sweating
Confusion
Racing pulse or heart rate
Seizures (fits)

Create a bedtime routine

Try to go to bed at roughly the same time every night. This will train your body to naturally feel sleepy at that time. Choose a time when you’re most likely to feel naturally tired. Try to stick to it, even if it’s hard to get to sleep at first. Avoid napping outside of bedtime, as this can make it harder to get to sleep in the evening.

Avoid caffeine

Tea, coffee and other caffeinated drinks make it harder to get to sleep. Avoid having these drinks in the evening. If a hot drink helps you get to sleep, you could try a caffeine-free drink like cocoa, hot milk or a malt drink instead.

Make your bedroom a better place for sleep

Make sure your bedroom encourages peace and relaxation. Try to control the temperature, lighting and noise to create a comfortable place to sleep. Try not to use your bedroom for anything other than sleep, like eating meals or watching TV.

This will help your brain link your bedroom with sleep, making it easier for you to drop off. Avoid looking at screens, like mobile phones or TV, just before bed. The light from these screens affects the sleep chemicals in your brain, making you feel more awake.

Manage stress and worries

Stress and worries can play a big part in sleep problems. You can’t always avoid stressful situations, but there are simple ways to reduce your stress and feel better.

If worries and anxieties keep you awake, then see the advice from the charity Mind on how you can manage your worries and feel better about the things going on in your life.

Keeping a sleep diary

To help understand your sleep problems, consider keeping a sleep diary. This is a simple sheet you fill in each morning to record how well you slept. This will give you a useful record of how you’re sleeping and whether your sleep is improving. And if you ever need more help, a sleep diary will make it easier for a doctor or other professional to understand your situation.

Don’t worry too much about giving exact answers: a rough answer will do.

When did you go to bed last night?
After settling down, how long did it take you to fall asleep?
After falling asleep, about how many times did you wake up in the night?
After falling asleep, for how long were you awake during the night in total?
When did you finally wake up?
When did you get up?
How long did you spend in bed last night (from first getting in, to finally getting up)?
How would you rate the quality of your sleep last night?

Getting support

If your sleep problems don’t improve, make an appointment with your GP. This is especially important if your physical health, pain or discomfort is affecting your sleep. Your GP will be able to offer other suggestions, advice and treatments to help you get a good night’s sleep.

If alcohol is making your sleep worse, you don’t have to struggle on your own. At CDAS, we can give you advice, support, and tools to help you cut down or stop drinking in a way that feels right for you.

Better sleep is just one of the many benefits of making a change with alcohol. If you’d like to talk it through, come and see us at our drop-in or give us a call to find out more.

Here for you

We are here for anyone in Stoke-on-Trent affected by drugs or alcohol. Whether you want to make changes, talk things through, or be there for someone else - we'll support you at your pace, in a way that works for you.

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