For cancer prevention, it’s best not to drink alcohol. If you choose to drink, be aware of the cancer risks, aim to drink less often and have fewer drinks.

In addition to impacting your cancer risk, alcohol also affects sleep quality. Ahead, we’ll cover why having a drink may make you feel ready for bed only to leave you counting sheep later in the night, the sleep-related health conditions that can be triggered by alcohol and if there is anything you can do to prevent these things.

Alcohol may help you fall asleep

If you’ve ever had a drink or two and then felt drowsy, there’s a reason for that: alcohol is a sedative. It impacts the same receptors in the brain as insomnia medications. This means it can initially help promote slow wave sleep, a type of deep sleep when brain activity slows.

While that may make it sound like alcohol is a good sleep aid, that is only half of the story. That’s because alcohol has different impacts on falling asleep and staying asleep, bringing us to our next point.

But alcohol doesn’t help you stay asleep

If you’ve ever had a drink or two and fallen asleep only to wake up at 2 or 3 a.m., there’s also a reason for that. As alcohol wears off, it can cause a withdrawal effect that can wake you up. This is called rebound insomnia.

Alcohol can change your overall sleep architecture. While you may get slightly more slow wave sleep earlier in the night, rebound insomnia can cause you to lose out on it later in the night, along with another type of sleep called Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep.

We typically get more REM sleep in the second half of the night. This is when dreams usually occur. REM sleep leaves us feeling rested and helps with memory, learning and concentration. But when you drink alcohol, REM sleep is suppressed.

So, while alcohol can help you fall asleep, it often impairs your sleep overall. It can lead to both worse sleep quality and sleep efficiency, which is the amount of time you're in bed actually sleeping. That’s why alcohol isn’t recommended as a way to help you fall asleep.