Alcohol and Insomnia: How Alcohol Affects Sleep

With professional assistance, withdrawal and other side effects can be managed and you can achieve the quality of life you deserve. People with co-occurring medical conditions have an even higher risk of developing insomnia and/or substance use disorder. Insomnia doesn’t directly cause alcoholism, nor does alcoholism always cause insomnia.

How does alcohol affect sleep apnea?

So while cutting out drinking will likely benefit your sleep, there may be other factors affecting your shuteye. By Buddy T

Buddy T is a writer and founding member of the Online Al-Anon Outreach Committee with decades https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/alcohol-insomnia-causes-and-ways-to-eliminate/ of experience writing about alcoholism. Because he is a member of a support group that stresses the importance of anonymity at the public level, he does not use his photograph or his real name on this website.

Poor connectivity (i.e., deficits
in white matter integrity) likely also contributes, although relations between evoked
potential amplitude and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures of white matter integrity
are yet to be tested. Interestingly, in women, while age and temporal gray matter volume
provided https://ecosoberhouse.com/ the best model, the addition of diagnosis did not improve the model. Two studies have evaluated sleep evoked responses in abstinent long-term
alcoholics. Nicholas et al. (2002) studied 7
abstinent long-term alcoholic men meeting DSM – IV criteria for alcohol dependence
and 8 normal control men.

Alcohol and Insomnia: That Nightcap Might Keep You Up at Night

That said, some people with insomnia turn to alcohol as a method of self-medicating. Because alcohol is a CNS depressant, it can help people fall asleep faster. While alcohol can provide short-term relief from insomnia, it reduces sleep quality when alcohol is abused for long periods. After drinking alcohol, the liver and other organs need to remove alcohol from the blood to low blood alcohol concentration (BAC). Depending on how many alcoholic beverages were consumed, this can take several hours.

There are medications, behavioral therapies, and other approaches your doctor can recommend. However, there are many coping skills a person can practice to improve their sleep. If left untreated, insomnia can affect an addicted person’s recovery and contribute to relapse. In other cases, it’s caused by an uncomfortable sleeping environment, substance use, or shift work.