Honestly, I have never been an individual who prioritized sleep, but I was never quite one of those kids who would go to bed at three in the morning every day in high school. However, as my first semester in college has gone by I have found myself turn into one of those people who goes to bed at two or three in the morning far too regularly. Now, this could be due to a number of things: later class times, procrastination, going out more frequently, or even just for no reason at all. Out of these different reasons, I was curious as to how being out late drinking affected sleep.

In order to really begin the research on how alcohol affects sleep I needed to understand the basics behind sleep. The article, “How Much Sleep Do You Need?” the author goes into the importance of sleep and then explains the different sleep cycles. Essentially, there are two major categories of sleep: REM sleep and non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM). Throughout the night humans undergo several cycles of REM and NREM sleep. So, now that we have a basic knowledge that goes into sleep cycles lets take a look at alcohols affect on sleep.

In Timothy Roehrs, PHD and Thomas Roth, PHD article, “Sleep, Sleepiness, and Alcohol Use” they discuss a multitude of studies on alcohol use and sleep. The first of the studies administered between one and six standard drinks to subjects between thirty and sixty minutes before sleep. The first thing the subjects reported was that they were able to fall asleep more quickly than without alcohol consumption. Ok, so people fall asleep faster. But my next question is: does this sleep have any quality to it?

The simple answer to this question is no. Alcohol consumption has a multitude of negative effects on sleep. A study conducted by Roehers in 1991analyzed subjects sleep after alcohol consumption. He found that alcohol consumption results in frequent sleep disturbances or wake periods during the second half of sleep. Roehers attributed the more frequent wake periods to the rebound effect. This paper in Science Direct does an in depth job of explaining the rebound effect. The take away is that the rebound effect can be attributed by the bodies attempt to keep sleep normal during the first half of sleep, while alcohol is present, but once the alcohol is metabolized the body is still attempting to normalize sleep as though the alcohol is still present, thus, creating a disruption during sleep. The disruption during sleep not only causes more frequent wake periods, but also affects the quantity and quality of REM sleep the subjects underwent.

In order to insure that the results from these studies were universal I explored some other studies done on the topic. One study I came across discussed in the article, “Effect of Alcohol on Sleep and Nighttime Plasma Growth Hormone and Cortisol Concentrations” monitored sleep in different subjects on different nights after the consumption of alcohol and the consumption of placebo drinks. The subjects were closely monitored for three nights, the final night being the night the placebo drinks were administered, having all night sleep recordings and blood samples taken every twenty minutes. The conclusion of the study was equivocal to the analyses conducted by Roehers. Additionally, sleep during the withdraw night did not have any negative impacts on sleep.

Take home message: The consumption of alcohol before sleep has negative impacts on an individual’s quality of sleep. So, maybe it is not a bad idea to lay off the booze before bed if you are looking for some quality rest.