Having a regular sleep schedule is crucial for setting your body’s internal clock, which is also called your circadian rhythm. The more consistent your sleep is, the better quality of sleep you will achieve. The Recovery Village at Palmer Lake offers comprehensive addiction treatment for drug and alcohol addictions and co-occurring mental health conditions. When alcohol is discontinued, the brain attempts to make up for this lost REM sleep through a phenomenon called REM rebound. This results in an abnormally high amount of REM sleep, often accompanied by vivid, intense dreams or nightmares that can be frightening enough to wake the person. GABA levels remain low while glutamate activity surges, creating a state of hyperarousal that makes sleep extremely difficult.

Circadian rhythms are a manifestation of the activity of the primary endogenous pacemaker, the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the hypothalamus, upon which melatonin acts. Dim Light Melatonin Onset (DLMO) is a commonly used marker for evaluating the activity of the circadian pacemaker and for assessing the changes in circadian phase, i.e. delayed or advanced (Pandi-Perumal et al., 2007). The peak of the salivary melatonin curve occurs around 2AM in middle-aged males (Zhou et al., 2003). This peak may be blunted or delayed in those with AD (Kuhlwein et al., 2003).

Does alcohol cause insomnia or poor sleep?

Meditation, in particular, aims to focus the mind and detach it from daily stressors that could hamper sleep quality. Similarly, deep breathing exercises can shift the body’s response from ‘fight or flight’ stress mode to a calm and relaxed state, conducive to restful sleep. Yoga combines both physical movement and mindfulness, making it a powerful tool to improve sleep quality.

• Multiple relaxation methods can be used to help you wind down and fall asleep.
• Sleep is more severely disturbed during withdrawal and recovery, with longer sleep latency, more arousals, poor sleep efficiency, reduced slow wave sleep and REM rebound (42–45).
• This article reviews the relationship between alcohol and insomnia, including how alcohol can affect sleep quality alongside the risks of poor sleep quality.
• This pattern is interrupted by a rise to REM sleep, which lasts for a short period, then a steady fall back through the stages of NREM sleep.
• More severe cases of chronic insomnia may require different treatment strategies.

Therapy and medication can play critical roles in managing persistent insomnia after alcohol detox. Cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), for instance, focuses on Substance abuse changing sleep habits and scheduling factors, as well as misconceptions about sleep and insomnia that perpetuate sleep difficulties. On the medication front, various options ranging from over-the-counter sleep aids to prescription sleeping pills can help manage insomnia.

In particular, we learned that alcohol consumption patterns are related to subjective sleep quality, sleep duration, and sleep continuation. In contrast, sleep latency was not correlated with alcohol consumption level. Among factors that disturb sleep, it was learned that snoring, in particular, is linked with alcohol consumption.

Why Does Alcohol Make You Sleepy?

The journey to sobriety typically involves navigating withdrawal symptoms that can vary in intensity depending on factors such as duration of alcohol use, typical consumption amounts, overall health status, and genetic factors. He has a nursing and business/technology degrees from The Johns Hopkins University. Contact us today to learn more about our comprehensive withdrawal management programs and how we can help you or your loved one take the first steps toward recovery.

And, if one or both of your parents are alcoholics or struggled with alcoholism at one time, you have a four-fold risk of also becoming addicted to alcohol. The defining marker for alcohol abuse is not how much you drink (like in alcoholism or alcohol use disorder), rather, it’s how the alcohol makes you feel. Still, the signs and symptoms of alcohol abuse are largely dependent on the individual.

How Alcohol Tricks Your Brain Into Depending on It for Sleep

• And, when you are unable to fully enter REM sleep (deep sleep), your brain and body are unable to properly prepare for the next day.
• Excessive alcohol use and chronic insomnia can take a toll on your physical and mental health.
• Unpack your darkest circles under your eyes, and let’s walk through the sleepless town once ruled by alcohol.
• During withdrawal, it can take the body days to weeks to adjust back to its default rhythm without being dominated by the effects of alcohol.

The impact of drinking on insomnia may be particularly acute in older adults. One study shows that this is the reason about 10%of people drink alcohol. Because alcohol can have a depressive effect on the brain, drinking may help some people fall asleep faster. Drinking to fall asleep can cause or worsen some health issues over time.

This adjustment creates a calming, sleep-like condition, helping you relax even though it doesn’t provide the restorative benefits of real sleep. In order to understand what alcohol does to sleep it’s important to learn about the different parts of sleep. Sleep is made up of superficial sleep, dream sleep (called REM sleep), and deep sleep (called slow wave sleep). For an adult, normally the majority of our deep sleep happens in the second part of the night and comprises 20% of our total time asleep. Learning about the treatments for alcohol withdrawal is a good way to decide your next step. There is always a risk you’ll develop symptoms that require medical intervention.

Alcohol-induced sleep disorder is a condition where individuals struggle to fall asleep or stay asleep due to alcohol consumption. While alcohol is often thought to promote relaxation and sleep, it actually disrupts the natural sleep cycle, leading to poor sleep quality and other health issues. Historically, alcohol has been used as a sedative, but its long-term effects on sleep are harmful. Over time, regular alcohol use can cause chronic sleep problems, significantly impacting both physical and mental health. The interactions between alcohol use disorders, affective disorders, and sleep disturbance remain understudied, but it is clear that sleep problems in substance-using patients often have more than one cause.

After falling asleep alcohol causes us to enter deep sleep quicker but then what happens? A frequent complaint is that people wake Substance abuse up between 1-3am and then get poor sleep the rest of the night. Alcohol is rapidly metabolized and as the alcohol leaves the bloodstream it leads to shallow sleep with multiple awakenings. Going through alcohol withdrawal lets you start recovery off on the right foot. You may have some problems with insomnia in the early days, but your sleeping problems can persist as you adjust to life without alcohol.

Treatment Implications

While every person’s individual sleep cycle varies, it’s generally true that each of us goes through four to six rounds of it. Each cycle lasts around 90 minutes total, which adds up to between six and nine hours of sleep. In summary, alcohol misuse (heavy alcohol use and AUD) appears to be linked in a bi-directional fashion to sleep-related problems such as insomnia and circadian rhythm abnormalities.

Can lifestyle changes improve sleep during alcohol withdrawal?

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a practical, non-medication treatment approach for insomnia in addiction recovery. CBT for insomnia helps reframe negative thoughts that may disrupt sleep and establish healthier sleep habits and behaviors. Moderate physical activity, such as walking, running, weight lifting, or pilates, reduces the body’s stress response. Lower cortisol levels can help promote better sleep and reduce restlessness in alcohol recovery.