"For anyone who's grown used to drinking a nightcap before bed, the first few weeks of alcohol-free nights can be extra challenging because the body has gotten used to relying on alcohol's help to drift off to sleep. When alcohol is first removed from one's nightly routine, it can feel like your sleep system is rusty or even broken. Many people I work with end up concluding, "I can't fall asleep without alcohol.""
"regular alcohol consumption disrupts your natural circadian rhythm, and the more you rely on the bottle to fall asleep, the more dependent your sleep becomes. Here's what might surprise you: Research has found that even a single drink reduces sleep recovery by 9.3 percent, and heavy drinking can decrease it by nearly 40 percent. So while alcohol may feel like a shortcut to quick sleep, it's actually one of the surest ways to rob your body of real rest."
Regular nightly alcohol use creates reliance and disrupts the natural circadian rhythm, making sleep more dependent on drinking. Removing alcohol often produces several rough nights as the body has grown used to alcohol's sedative effects and the sleep system begins to reset. Research shows a single drink reduces sleep recovery by 9.3 percent and heavy drinking can reduce it by nearly 40 percent, so alcohol undermines restorative sleep. Expectation and mindset matter; treating early insomnia as temporary reduces the urge to return to a nightcap. A brief cognitive shift, such as adding 'yet' to 'I can't fall asleep without alcohol,' reframes the barrier as solvable.
Read at Psychology Today
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]