Dry January it formally started in 2013 as a public health campaign challenging people to give up alcohol for at least a month. Today, it is more of a cultural phenomenon – debated on talk shows, adopted by health publications and supposedly over-documented on social networks. But how Eater writer Jaya Saxena observed in 2020, “criticizing anyone’s sobriety, even when it is limited to a month, is an irresponsible and idiotic move”. And although it has become monetized and fashionable, Janeiro Seco is still the real deal. Abandoning alcohol is good for you, and the safest level of drinking is none.
In 2018, researchers at the University of Sussex wanted to document what really happens if you participate in Dry January, so they interviewed 800 participants. A myriad of effects were seen – 88% saved money; 71 percent realized they didn’t need to drink for fun – and 71 percent reached the Holy Grail for health effects. They slept better.
Sleep, you may not realize it, it’s too much, very Good. It plays a critical role in metabolism, learning and memory. Sleep is essential for the brain and all tissues in the body. Sleep is the difference between robust physical and mental health, and the opposite of that. Alcohol disrupts the benefits of sleep in several ways.
Why is alcohol bad for sleep?
The answer is complex. Initially, alcohol can act as a sedative and reduce the amount of time between wakefulness and sleep, a process known as sleep onset latency. But despite the reputation of drinking at night, this is not always true. Sometimes alcohol has a stimulating effect when consumed in a low dose and when blood alcohol levels rise in the first hour after consumption.
But alcohol also disturbs sleep, especially the period of rapid eye movement (REM). This is partly because the sedative effects disappear. According to a 2009 analysis, the sedative effects of moderate consumption (therefore, two to three standard drinks) can last for several hours. Then, about two to three hours after blood alcohol concentrations close to zero, the brain shakes it. The study gives this example:
“Metabolized at a rate of approximately one glass of wine per hour, after 5 drinks at 10 pm, the alcohol level will be close to zero at 3 am, with increased excitement after that time. The REM rebound occurs in the second half of the night, associated with intense dreams or nightmares. These effects contribute to sleep fragmentation. “
In other words, in healthy non-alcoholics, drinking disturbs the quality of sleep during The second part Of the night.
The more you drink, the worse your sleep is likely to be. According to a 2020 study published in Nature, “Heavy alcohol consumption over a long period of time leads to increased tolerance and this tolerance is accompanied by the adaptation of neurotransmitter systems”. A 2018 study that evaluated 4,098 Finns found that small amounts of alcohol – less than two servings a day for men or one per day – decreased sleep quality by 9.3 percent, moderate amounts decreased sleep quality by 24 percent hundred and high quantities by 39.2 percent.
In a 2015 study published in the journal Alcohol, scientists found that the main cause of lack of sleep after excessive alcohol consumption was a disturbance of sleep homeostasis – the body’s system for regulating the need for sleep. Alcoholics, they write, both during drinking periods and when abstaining, still suffer from a “series of sleep disorders” such as insomnia and daytime sleepiness because of this disorder.
“The prevailing thought was that alcohol promotes sleep by changing a person’s circadian rhythm – the body’s 24-hour internal clock,” explained lead author Mahesh Thakkar, a professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia, in a statement.
“However, we found that alcohol actually promotes sleep, affecting a person’s sleep homeostasis – the brain’s internal mechanisms that regulate sleepiness and wakefulness.”
What does this mean on an individual level? How exactly Alcohol affects a person’s sleep depends on several factors, including their health history, how much they drink, when they drink, and other statistics like age and sex.
For example, research suggests that men’s sleep quality appears to be more affected than that of women. Although the findings for women are unclear, when it comes to men, drinking more than 168 grams of alcohol a week, compared to abstinence, is associated with waking up several times at night.
And if someone suffers from insomnia, the negative relationship between alcohol and sleep can be bidirectional – with alcohol causing insomnia-like symptoms and people misusing alcohol to fall asleep.
In general, if you are looking to drink and also want to sleep well, it is recommended not to drink within four hours of going to bed. (Other studies have found that drinking a happy hour in the late afternoon can interrupt sleep up to six hours before bed.)
And if you want to sleep better in general, Janeiro Seco is always an option.