Dr. Matt Walker

The second thing is that because it's sedation, or actually it's probably related to sedation,

If I were to show you the electrical signature of your deep sleep when you're just sleeping naturally versus when you have alcohol in your system, it's not really the same.

It's not a naturalistic form of deep sleep.

It mimics it.

It looks not too dissimilar.

But if I really do my analyses and I almost like that Pink Floyd album where I take the white light of electrical brain activity coming from your head as you're sleeping and split it apart into all of the different components, there are some components that are no longer present or some that are abnormally present.

The second issue with alcohol is that it fragments your sleep.

So it will litter your sleep with all these punctuated awakenings throughout the night.

The danger there is that many of those awakenings with alcohol, you don't remember because they're too brief.

But then you wake up the next day and you think, well, I didn't have a problem falling asleep.

I didn't have a problem staying asleep.

but I just feel rough.

I just don't feel restored by my sleep.

And you don't add two and two together.

The final concern with alcohol is that it's quite a potent blocker of your rapid eye movement sleep or REM sleep.

And in subsequent episodes, we'll go into great detail as to the incredible learning and memory creativity benefits that come by way of REM sleep.

Also, it's essential for our emotional regulation and recalibrating our moods.

So for all of those reasons, I would say two things.

First, if you are struggling with sleep, not feeling restored by your sleep, keep in mind your alcohol intake.

And also just in general, be mindful of that if you are thinking about your sleep and want to preserve it.