Can Alcohol Help You Sleep?
The answer is clearly yes. And emphatically no. Oh, heck, I’ll just test it.
You might think alcohol helps you sleep. And you’d be correct. Alcohol is also terrible for sleep.
How can both be true?
Your intrepid health reporter has not only reviewed the research and spoken with the experts, he’s tested this one out extensively — in the name of science, of course. And here’s the sobering truth:
When I drink too much, I zonk out early and quickly, which is to be expected. But that quick trip to somnolence doesn’t stick. Later, I’m tossing and turning, waking up and feeling generally lousy, getting up to pee, then spending what feels like hours in a state of quasi-wakefulness with dreams more vivid than usual.
All the while, my wrist-worn sleep tracker is monitoring heart rate, body movement and other indicators, and in the morning it ranks my sleep success from zero to 100. When I have one too many, my score is typically in the 60s or lower. When I don’t drink, I almost always score in the 80s or 90s. While sleep trackers are not 100% accurate, the score usually aligns pretty well with how I feel the next day. On days when I feel clear-headed, creative and physically energetic, I’ll check my sleep score, and sure enough: It’s usually high. After…
