Hi folks,
Like so many of you, one of the first things I experienced immediately when I stopped drinking is that I woke up the next morning feeling more rested and that I really had a DEEP sleep. When I fell asleep under the influence of AL, sure I fell asleep fast but I also woke up usually at 3AM wide awake and often could not fall back asleep for hours. The result: a weary, hungover hopeless case the next morning.
Now that I have been sober a bit (44 days to be exact), I have been curious about the actual science (the bits and bytes of what AL poisioning really did to my body), and I came across this article on a UK website called Drinkaware. I was always curious why drinking left me wide awake in the middle of the night (aside from the extreme dehydration and needing to pee!). So here is a bit more info and I hope you find it interesting. It has to do with the fact that AL makes your body by-pass the very important stage of sleep called REM sleep and go right into deep sleep; however, when the AL wears off (for me, it was around 3AM), your body comes out of deep sleep and into REM sleep. Deep sleep is where you are restored, REM sleep is easier to wake up from...leaving you not as well restored and as we know, quite depleted in several aspects. Here is a direct cut and paste of the article and if you want some more interesting tidbits like this, check out the drinkaware.co.uk website:
"So why exactly is it that you feel tired after drinking? And why do you wake up so early after a heavy night?
Put simply, alcohol interferes with the normal sleep process. Dr John Shneerson is head of the largest sleep centre in the UK at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge. He explains: “When you drink a lot of alcohol close to bedtime, you can go straight into deep sleep, missing out on the usual first stage of sleep, called rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.
“Your deep sleep is when body restores itself, and alcohol can interfere with this. As the alcohol starts to wear off, your body can come out of deep sleep and back into REM sleep, which is much easier to wake from. That’s why you often wake up after just a few hours sleep when you’ve been drinking.”
In the course of a night you usually have six to seven cycles of REM sleep, which leaves you feeling refreshed. However, if you’ve been drinking you’ll typically have only one to two, meaning you can wake feeling exhausted.
Drinking can also mean you have to get up in the night to go to the toilet. And it’s not just the liquid you’ve drunk you’ll be getting rid of. Alcohol is a diuretic, which means it encourages the body to lose extra fluid too, making you dehydrated. Drinking can also cause heartburn, making you wake in the night. It can make you snore more loudly too, because drinking relaxes the muscles in your body. This means the tissue in your throat, mouth and nose is more likely to stop air flowing smoothly, and more likely to vibrate.
How can I get a good night’s sleep?
Here are some more tips from the Sleep Council to make sure you have a restful night:
Create a soothing environment in your bedroom. Make sure it’s cool and uncluttered, and your bed is comfortable.
Keep regular hours. Going to bed and getting up at roughly the same time, all the time, will programme your body to sleep better.
Stay away from caffeine in the evening. Try a hot milky or herbal drink instead. Other ways you can relax before bed include having a warm bath or listening to some quiet music.
Take exercise to relieve the day’s stresses and strains. But not too close to bedtime or it may keep you awake.
Deal with worries or a heavy workload by making lists of things to be tackled the next day, so they’re not swimming around in your head."
Nighty Night All...Sweet RESTFUL & DEEP dreams :h --BlondeAF
Like so many of you, one of the first things I experienced immediately when I stopped drinking is that I woke up the next morning feeling more rested and that I really had a DEEP sleep. When I fell asleep under the influence of AL, sure I fell asleep fast but I also woke up usually at 3AM wide awake and often could not fall back asleep for hours. The result: a weary, hungover hopeless case the next morning.
Now that I have been sober a bit (44 days to be exact), I have been curious about the actual science (the bits and bytes of what AL poisioning really did to my body), and I came across this article on a UK website called Drinkaware. I was always curious why drinking left me wide awake in the middle of the night (aside from the extreme dehydration and needing to pee!). So here is a bit more info and I hope you find it interesting. It has to do with the fact that AL makes your body by-pass the very important stage of sleep called REM sleep and go right into deep sleep; however, when the AL wears off (for me, it was around 3AM), your body comes out of deep sleep and into REM sleep. Deep sleep is where you are restored, REM sleep is easier to wake up from...leaving you not as well restored and as we know, quite depleted in several aspects. Here is a direct cut and paste of the article and if you want some more interesting tidbits like this, check out the drinkaware.co.uk website:
"So why exactly is it that you feel tired after drinking? And why do you wake up so early after a heavy night?
Put simply, alcohol interferes with the normal sleep process. Dr John Shneerson is head of the largest sleep centre in the UK at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge. He explains: “When you drink a lot of alcohol close to bedtime, you can go straight into deep sleep, missing out on the usual first stage of sleep, called rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.
“Your deep sleep is when body restores itself, and alcohol can interfere with this. As the alcohol starts to wear off, your body can come out of deep sleep and back into REM sleep, which is much easier to wake from. That’s why you often wake up after just a few hours sleep when you’ve been drinking.”
In the course of a night you usually have six to seven cycles of REM sleep, which leaves you feeling refreshed. However, if you’ve been drinking you’ll typically have only one to two, meaning you can wake feeling exhausted.
Drinking can also mean you have to get up in the night to go to the toilet. And it’s not just the liquid you’ve drunk you’ll be getting rid of. Alcohol is a diuretic, which means it encourages the body to lose extra fluid too, making you dehydrated. Drinking can also cause heartburn, making you wake in the night. It can make you snore more loudly too, because drinking relaxes the muscles in your body. This means the tissue in your throat, mouth and nose is more likely to stop air flowing smoothly, and more likely to vibrate.
How can I get a good night’s sleep?
Here are some more tips from the Sleep Council to make sure you have a restful night:
Create a soothing environment in your bedroom. Make sure it’s cool and uncluttered, and your bed is comfortable.
Keep regular hours. Going to bed and getting up at roughly the same time, all the time, will programme your body to sleep better.
Stay away from caffeine in the evening. Try a hot milky or herbal drink instead. Other ways you can relax before bed include having a warm bath or listening to some quiet music.
Take exercise to relieve the day’s stresses and strains. But not too close to bedtime or it may keep you awake.
Deal with worries or a heavy workload by making lists of things to be tackled the next day, so they’re not swimming around in your head."
Nighty Night All...Sweet RESTFUL & DEEP dreams :h --BlondeAF
Comment