Research & Resources

The role that alcohol can play in sleep is often misunderstood, and some people report using alcohol to help them sleep. A new paper looks to summarize information about the connection between alcohol and sleep. Researchers found a relationship with alcohol and sleep disorders and several sleep mechanisms that alcohol disrupts. Alcohol use can impair electrophysiologic sleep architecture, circadian rhythms, sleep duration, and breathing and is affiliated with insomnia, snoring, and insufficient sleep. Researchers call for additional research to help further understand how alcohol contributes to sleep disorders. The article, “Alcohol and sleep-related problems,” was funded by a collaborative grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It was published in the journal, Current Opinion in Psychology.