Dr. Michael Grandner

One of the reasons it does that is as the alcohol molecule metabolizes and becomes acetaldehyde,

It can become a neural stimulant.

The acetaldehyde could become acetate, which could become a neural stimulant.

And as the liver is processing the alcohol, it can create a glutamine rebound, which can be activated.

So there's all these things that can end up being activated from the alcohol a couple hours in.

That's also why it's not a great sleep aid.

I mean, a glass of wine after dinner is not going to, for almost everybody, is not going to be that big of a deal.

But if you're drinking enough where it's making you sleepy, that's how much it's going to be waking you up later, probably.

So if you do it earlier, then you're... If you're having wine at dinner and then you've still got a few hours, the alcohol is probably out of your system by the time you get to bed.

The only thing you don't want is to time it so that the activating part of the alcohol being out of your system isn't when you're going to bed.

So that's sort of a tricky part too.

But usually, to be honest, the amount that most people are drinking, that's not so much the issue.

But what's really cool is that you can see if you drink before going to bed, what's great is some of the newer wearables, they pick it up right away.

You see that heart rate data.

You see that lack of recovery happening.

It was still a toxin that you're processing.

And

I've had a number of patients come in thinking like, well, I used to, you know, I used to drink some wine before going to bed and I thought that would mellow me out.

And then I looked at my wearable data and realized it made my sleep crappy.

It made my sleep terrible.