Although usually associated with sedative effects, alcohol consumption causes sleep disruptions
Thanks to a study on the effects of alcohol on sleep in college students, we know that consuming alcohol before bed not only causes an initial increase in delta power related to slow-wave sleep but also causes an increase in frontal high activity, which is thought to reflect sleep disorders.
“People probably tend to focus on the commonly known sedative properties of alcohol, which is reflected in shorter times to fall asleep, especially in adults, rather than the sleep disruption that occurs later in the evening,” said Christian L. Nicholas, an expert at the University of Melbourne’s Sleep Research Laboratory. Australia.
Sleep difficulties and lack of sleep are common among young Americans, and previous research has shown that sleep deprivation can predict problems related to alcohol and drug use by adolescents and young adults in high-risk samples.
“Surveys indicate that 27% of school-age children and 45% of adolescents do not get enough sleep,” says Maria M. Wong, professor and director of Experimental Training in the Department of Psychology at Idaho State University (USA). “Other studies have shown that approximately one in ten adolescents suffer from problems falling asleep or staying asleep almost every day, or every day, during the last year,” says Wong, author of this research.
Among normal adults, sleep difficulties and insomnia have predicted the onset of alcohol use one year later and an increased risk of drug use disorders and
They recruited 24 participants (12 healthy women and 12 men , aged 18 to 21 years, social drinkers who had consumed fewer than seven standard drinks per week for the past 30 days. Each individual underwent two situations: alcohol intake before bed and the others a placebo, followed by standard polysomnography with comprehensive EEG recordings.
Increases in SWS, which are traditionally interpreted as a good thing, may be linked to more subtle changes that indicate sleep disruption, such as the increases we’ve observed in alpha activity, which are revealed when more detailed components of the sleep EEG microstructure are evaluated, according to Nicholas.
“Therefore, if sleep is regularly interrupted by alcohol consumption before bed, especially for long periods of time, this could have important negative effects on daytime well-being and neurocognitive function, such as learning and memory processes,” he adds.
Alcohol doesn’t help you sleep, even though it may seem to help you fall asleep more quickly. In fact, the quality of sleep you get is significantly altered and disturbed.
If you have difficulty sleeping, it can be due to many factors: not resting properly, sleeping on an expired or obsolete mattress, drinking too much caffeine daily, anxiety, stress, etc.
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Source: La Opinión de Málaga
