So, what gives? First, let's look at the effects of alcohol on the body and how it connects to your sleep. Your body responds by diluting the toxins, breaking them down, and trying to get them out of your body, stat. But if you're drinking continuously over a longer period we've all been there , your body can't get rid of the toxins as quickly or efficiently.
Then, when you wake up at the crack of dawn, you're probably dealing with a wicked hangover. These symptoms surface because your body is using its stored supply of vitamins, minerals, electrolytes, and other essentials, to help fight the toxins that have entered your body from drinking. Severe dehydration and heavy alcohol consumption actually cause your brain to shrink temporarily!!
Plus, frequent urination expels sodium, potassium, and other elements and minerals needed for proper nerve, muscle, and general cell function, he adds. There are a few reasons you can't sleep in as late as you'd like. For one, your sleep cycle gets messed up. REM sleep is where you go into a lighter, dreaming state, and these short intervals are mixed in between deeper, NREM sleep, which restores the mind and body and repairs muscles.
Your body goes through cycles of the two types during the night, and each time you go into REM sleep, the interval gets longer the first can be just 10 minutes, the last can be almost an hour. And, actually, studies show that disrupted sleep actually makes you feel worse in the AM versus just not getting enough sleep. While your sober sleep may be disrupted by the occasional bathroom run, your drunk shut-eye has even more potential interruptions, thanks to your body's attempts to process the alcohol while you're asleep: For one, a chemical process called glutamine rebound can stimulate your body and wake you up, says Mansour.
What's glutamine, you ask? It's the most abundant amino acid in the body and plays a part in a variety of bodily functions, including intestinal health, immune function, and stress management. Here's more about amino acids.
When the alcohol is cleared, your body realizes it's lacking glutamine in a major way, and this causes your body to quickly produce and distribute glutamine through the body to make up for the imbalance," he says.
But it doesn't take a binge to suffer these effects. If you have a nightly drink, you're likely to wake earlier and earlier. It's a vicious cycle — you feel like you need it to get to sleep because you're waking up so much in the middle of the night, but the behavior is complicating the issue even more," added Gamaldo.
Drinking too much wakes you up for two main reasons, explained Gamaldo. First, alcohol is a diuretic , so your body works hard to metabolize it and creates large volumes of urine to help you get the alcohol out of your body.
So, you'll likely need to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. Second, you'll have the rebound waking as your body bounces back from the depressant effects of the alcohol. Also, too much alcohol can weaken airway muscles, triggering or worsening sleep disturbances like sleep apnea or heavy snoring. When a hangover wakes you up early, it's partly because your body is craving fluids to replace what was lost through the increased urine output.
Have plenty of water or electrolyte replacement drinks. In the brain , alcohol targets protein molecules, including GABA-A receptors, which are present on more than 80 percent of all neurons. Normally, these receptors are the destination for GABA gamma-aminobutyric acid , a neurotransmitter chemical messenger. Typically, GABA binds to these receptors and opens a channel, letting chloride ions move inside of neurons.
Once chloride ions enter a neuron, they act like light-switch dimmers, slowing down that neuron's firing. If neuronal firing drops too much, it can cause coma and ultimately death, she said. Alcohol enhances this effect, she explained.
That's why when people drink alcohol, they feel more relaxed, more sedated and sleepier than usual. They might not be able to concentrate on their homework. If a person has a high alcohol tolerance, it might take a few more drinks for them to feel this way, Morrow noted. This explains why people with a low tolerance tend to feel these effects, including sleepiness, sooner than people with a higher tolerance. But why does alcohol also disrupt sleep? Within about 4 to 5 hours of social drinking having about three drinks at an event , alcohol molecules in the brain cause GABA-A receptors to loose sensitivity to alcohol and to GABA itself.
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