Drinking helps to sleep. Alcohol has a calming effect. If you feel sleepy after drinking, you can sleep with alcohol.

Rumors:

Alcohol is an inhibitor of the central nervous system, and its influence on the whole brain is gradually increasing. A small amount of drinking alcohol has a mild excitatory effect on the central nervous system. People often feel refreshed after drinking, which may be what people often say, "wine can solve their worries." If the amount of alcohol is further increased, it will inhibit the function of cerebral cortex, weaken people's ability of judgment, memory, reasoning and self-control, make people lose their ability of recognition and reasoning, and make people slow down. With the metabolic decomposition of alcohol in the body, its inhibitory effect on the central nervous system gradually weakens, leading to insomnia. Therefore, drinking alcohol before going to bed can not only help sleep, but also endanger sleep health.

Drinking will do a lot of harm to the human body. Alcoholism can cause damage to brain nerve cells and lead to chronic cognitive impairment, which is manifested as serious memory problems of recent events, loss of direction and inability to learn new knowledge. Excessive drinking can lead to alcoholism and endanger life. Long-term heavy drinking can cause digestive tract ulcer or edema and bleeding, and can directly damage the liver, and even lead to cirrhosis, which is one of the important causes of death of alcoholics. Alcohol can also cause arrhythmia and increase the risk of diseases such as hypertension and stroke. In addition, alcohol has direct harm to reproductive system and fetus. Alcohol can reduce fertility, and excessive drinking may lead to amenorrhea in women. Excessive drinking during pregnancy can lead to fetal malformation. Falling asleep after drinking can aggravate sleep apnea symptoms and even asphyxia.

Long-term heavy drinking can cause insomnia, severe headache, easy awakening and sleep maintenance disorder. Long-term heavy drinking can also cause psychological and behavioral disorders, that is, alcohol dependence, which is manifested as a strong thirst for alcohol. Abstinence from alcohol can lead to alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Early withdrawal symptoms are often manifested as anxiety, sweating, depression, nausea, vomiting, palpitations and sleep disorders, mainly nightmares, shallow sleep, difficulty falling asleep and so on. In the later stage, there will be serious insomnia, delirium tremens, disturbance of consciousness, seizures and so on.

What effect does a small amount of drinking have on sleep? A retrospective study abroad analyzed the influence of drinking on the night sleep of healthy volunteers. The results show that drinking can reduce the sleep time and reduce the awakening after falling asleep in the first half of sleep, which also confirms the long-held view that a small amount of drinking can help people fall asleep. But drinking alcohol can increase the awakening in the second half, that is, people often wake up involuntarily in the second half of the night, which fully proves the destructive effect of alcohol on the second half of sleep. The harm of moderate-dose drinking is similar to that of low-dose drinking. American scholars Barron and Durand wrote in the book Abnormal Psychology that a small amount of alcohol can really make people sleepy. On the surface, it seems to be beneficial to sleep, but it may actually interfere with sleep. In the middle of the night, after the effect of alcohol gradually disappears, it will cause insomnia and dreaminess, which will reduce the overall quality of sleep by about 24%.

How does heavy drinking before going to bed affect sleep? First of all, it will interfere with sleep quality, shorten sleep time, and lead people to wake up early. Long-term lack of sleep will seriously damage health. Related research shows that alcohol causes people to spend less time in deep sleep, while the rapid eye movement stage is prolonged, that is, the dreaming time is increased.

In addition, alcohol should be avoided during medication, especially when chronic patients need to take drugs for a long time. Because drinking alcohol will affect the efficacy of some drugs, it will reduce the efficacy of drugs or increase the toxicity of drugs, which will seriously damage human organs and even lead to death. For example, patients with epilepsy who take phenobarbital and phenytoin orally and drink alcohol at the same time will lead to the ineffectiveness of routine dose treatment. Alcohol can also enhance the hypoglycemic effect of insulin, causing hypoglycemia and neuropathy. Therefore, patients with chronic diseases who take drugs for a long time need to reduce their drinking or give up drinking under the guidance of doctors.

Generally speaking, drinking before going to bed can not increase the total sleep time, but will reduce the overall quality of sleep, so it is completely wrong to say that drinking to improve sleep.

Rumor expert: Zhuang Hongyan, head of clinical pharmacy of Beijing Anding Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University.

Expert: Tian Xiangyang, Director of Guidance and Training Department of China Health Education Center.

Producer: Cop China-Scientific Refutation