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Not getting enough sleep affects thousands of people worldwide. In fact, more than 30 % of people struggle with insomnia, which can be due to stress, anxiety, a reaction to medication along with many other mental and physical causes. Lots of people think that a couple of beers will help them to sleep more easily when in reality, whilst drinking alcohol may help you to get to sleep, it won't help to stay asleep for long. Far too often those few late night drinks might cause someone to wake up several times during the night time, resulting in feeling tired, lethargic, and lack concentration the next day. Unfortunately, this may lead to a really destructive pattern. So despite what many people might think, alcohol is not a sensible way to treat a sleeping disorder. In actual fact, having a drink can just make sleeping problems worse WHY ALCOHOL ISNT THE ANSWER TO INSOMNIA Knocking back a few drinks shortly before bedtime is not the most sensible way to address sleeplessness. Instead, you should identify the cause, which you can do on your own or with the guidance of a doctor. They can examine you to determine whether there may be a medical cause and recommend appropriate treatment which does not entail drinking alcoholic drinks. Remember that drinking alcohol will never help you get quality sleep but will instead cause your insomnia to become worse and the next day, along with feeling tired and irritable, you will have extra discomfort from the alcohol. ANYONE WHO THINKS ALCOHOL IS THE CURE FOR INSOMNIA IS WRONG Alcohol and its impact on sleep loss might be one of the biggest myths ever. Maybe that is due to the fact that although a couple of drinks may actually lead to sleep and make you fall asleep quicker it can be like the sleep will not count. The truth is, you might as well not go to sleep considering the impact of dehydration and other adverse effects that alcohol has on our sleep and mental alertness the following day. To put it another way, alcohol induced sleep does not benefit the mind or body. As a matter of fact, the majority of people with a dependency on alcohol have frequent sleep disruptions, even after they stop drinking. This is because their sleep patterns find it hard to return to normal due to the sustained period of never reaching a deep level of sleep. So the message is clear: the sooner you stop consuming alcohol to treat your sleeplessness the quicker your sleeping pattern can return to normal. YOUR BODY FINDS IT HARDER TO REJUVENATE WHEN YOU DRINK Alcohol is also a contributing factor in keeping people out of the deep sleep cycle which makes them feel worse the next day. So this is how alcohol and insomnia affect each other, alcohol helps make the body fall asleep quickly but at the same time it is dehydrating the body too. Which means you can keep awakening to consume water due to the dehydration and never get to the REM sleep cycle, which is short for 'rapid eye movement' and is the deep level of sleep your body needs to feel refreshed the following day. No alcohol will ever alleviate a person's sleeping disorder but in fact will make it even worse. Over time you can even end up with a dependency on alcohol to get to get to sleep, which means you have an alcohol problem to overcome together with insomnia. CONCLUSION Rather than reach for the bottle, to treat your sleep loss, work out what is causing it. You can do this by recording a log and tracking when you last drank, ate or exercised, whether you've taken medication or if there is something worrying you. This enables you to look for patterns and find the underlying cause. Adopting a sleep hygiene strategy, where you have a regime that puts you in a relaxed state of mind and avoids the possible triggers, such as watching TV in bed or exercising too late in the evening. So if you realise you are lying alert at nights thinking 'what can assist me sleep', try a few of the tips in this brief overview of insomnia in order to avoid counting sheep and spend more time experiencing pleasant dreams in addition to getting more zzzs.
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