Why you wake up early after a night of drinking
Avoid pounding back shots until last call, so you can give your body time to metabolise before you go to bed.
Waking up early after a late night drinking is common. But what is the quality of that sleep you’ve just had, is it as restorative as it should be? Bustle explains the matter.
As a rule, alcohol makes you fall asleep quicker, and during the first half of the night, it increases slow-wave sleep. Sometimes known as deep sleep, this dreamless stage is associated with memory formation, and it appears to be primarily responsible for reducing sleep need. Basically, after you’ve had a few drinks, you initially sleep more deeply.
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Then comes the second half of the night, which is when people start to experience a phenomenon called the ‘rebound effect’.
As sleep researchers Dr. Timothy Roehrs and Dr. Thomas Roth explained in a paper analysing alcohol and sleep, this effect describes what happens when “certain physiological variables change in the opposite direction to the changes induced by alcohol, and even exceed normal levels once alcohol is eliminated from the body.”
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Basically, in case you forgot, alcohol counts as a drug, and your body has to adjust for its effects — like the production of sleep-inducing adenosine and inhibition of the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate — when it enters your body. After the alcohol is metabolised a few hours later, these adaptations are now unnecessary, and your body is all out of whack. Needless to say, this can jolt you awake.
Then there’s alcohol’s well-documented effect on REM sleep coming into play. The stage associated with dreams and learning, REM sleep is one of the most restorative parts of sleep, and it’s reduced by alcohol. Not only are you more likely to wake up thanks to the rebound effect, but you’re also missing out on the most restorative stage of shut-eye. No wonder hangovers make you feel like a reanimated corpse.
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The good news is that a drink or two isn’t going to disrupt your sleep patterns too horribly. If you’re planning on drinking more than that, your best bet is probably to avoid pounding back shots until last call, so you can give your body time to metabolise before you go to bed.
Read the original article and more great content on Bustle.
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