2023-11-14 23:00:00
It has always been said that drinking alcohol at night can help you sleep, but is it really true? Experts from the Spanish Federation of Sleep Medicine Societies (Fesmes) point out that alcohol consumption helps you sleep better is a widespread myth among society.
The reality, experts emphasize, is that alcohol consumption impairs night rest and also, can lead to the development of an addiction in those people who turn to alcohol to combat insomnia.
It is common to think that drinking a little alcohol can help you sleep better, but the reality is very different. “It is true that alcohol helps you fall asleep better but it does not help you have quality sleep.”. Yes, it is true that sleep comes sooner but it is of poorer quality and this is because alcohol has more of a sedative effect than a facilitator of adequate sleep,” he explains. Sonia Carratalá Monfortdoctor specializing in Psychiatry and member of the Spanish Federation of Sleep Medicine Societies (Fesmes).
According to the expert, Drinking alcohol before bed causes “sleep to be more fragmented, blocking REM sleep.” -fundamental for proper management of emotions and the consolidation of memory-, increases snoring and aggravates both apneas and the symptoms of restless legs syndrome”.
As pointed out Francesca Cañellaspsychiatrist at the Son Espases University Hospital, in the document Relationships between sleep and addiction“at low dosessuch as social consumption, with low plasma levels of alcohol, has no clear effects on sleep architecturehowever, at higher doses produces an effect similar to that of a short-acting hypnotic, that is, it decreases sleep latency, as well as awakenings, sleep phase 1 and rapid eye movement density in the first half of the night; while in the second half, rebound phenomena are seen with an increase in sleep phase 1, an increase in awakenings and an increase in REM sleep.”
In summary, “Sleeping following consuming alcohol will make us wake up more timeswhich will have repercussions the next day since we will feel that we have not had a restful sleep,” emphasizes Carratalá Monfort.
Insomnia and alcohol addiction
With these data, Sleep Medicine experts want to draw attention to the importance of not using alcohol as a hypnotic, since the widespread belief in the benefits of alcohol for sleep causes many people with insomnia to resort to it as a tool to try To fall asleep. In fact, some studies indicate that People who suffer from sleep disorders are at higher risk of developing an alcohol use disorder than the general population. “This is because approximately 20-30% of people with chronic insomnia report using alcohol to help them sleep,” he notes. Maria Roblespsychiatrist and professor at the University of Barcelona.
It is important to note that insomnia is an increasingly common problem in our country. In fact, it is estimated that Chronic insomnia has doubled in the last twenty years and might affect 5.4 million Spaniards10-15% of the population, according to data from the Spanish Sleep Society (SES), which also indicates that 25-35% of the adult population suffers from temporary insomnia.
As the expert points out, “It is a very common pathology that induces great suffering and leads people to seek any remedy to solve it. Among these remedies, alcohol is one of the most used anxiolytics and hypnotics for millennia,” acknowledges the member of Fesmes, who points out that “when alcohol consumption normalizes and becomes chronic, Affected people may begin to find it more difficult to fall asleep, which may push them to consume higher doses of alcohol to achieve the effect they previously obtained; and, consequently, the risk of developing an addiction increases.”
Therefore, “there is a bidirectional relationship”. Suffering from a sleep disorder “leads people to seek substances to improve their rest, sometimes requiring increasingly higher doses.” At the same time, “People who suffer from an addiction to any substance, including alcohol, have more sleep problems”reflects Carratalá.
Alcohol consumption and liver
But alcohol not only impairs sleep but also has an effect on other diseases. In fact, the two most common liver diseases in Spain are alcohol-related liver disease and fatty liver. Alcohol liver disease “is especially aggravated by people who have an alcohol use disorder, that is, risky or harmful consumption, which already represents 6% of the Spanish population, being more frequent in men and the young population,” they warn of the Spanish Foundation of the Digestive Apparatus (FEAD).
According to Joaquín Cabezas, a hepatologist who is an expert in alcoholic liver disease, “20% of men who suffer from this disorder have or will have alcohol-related liver disease.” One of the chronic liver diseases that can develop as a result of an alcohol use disorder is cirrhosis, “70% of cases in men and 56% in women who suffer from cirrhosis are due to this disorder.”
Alcohol is a toxic substance for the entire body, mainly for the liver. For this reason, excessive alcohol consumption produces the accumulation of fat in the liver and the persistence of this consumption causes the fat to inflame this organ, causing fibrosis to appear, which can cause liver disease due to alcohol, the foundation warns.
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