Drinking alcohol may disturb your sleep though it initially helps in inducing slumber, says a new study.
Alcohol leads to poor-quality sleep in the second half of the night and overall less deep sleep, reported the online edition of science portal EurekAlert.Deirdre A. Conroy and other researchers at the University of Michigan examined 18 people - nine men and nine women -, their drinking habits and its impact on their sleep.
As people drink more regularly across nights to fall asleep, they become tolerant to the sedating effects of alcohol and subsequently use more alcohol each night to help fall asleep, the researchers said.
But the reality is that it did not take them as long to fall asleep as they thought it did, and their brain was awake for a large portion of the night, the study said. It is published in the December issue of journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
Poor sleep quality can lead to mood disturbances. "If recovering alcoholics are irritable because they are not getting quality sleep at night, they might be more vulnerable to return to drinking," Conroy said.
The researchers will next examine if sleep problems can be attributed to subtle disruptions in brain waves, in irregular biological rhythms, or both.
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