Sleep & Alcohol Impacts Women More Than Men

It’s well known that alcohol can reduce the effectiveness of a full night’s sleep, but a new study indicates that the impact is worse on women than men.

the analysis involved monitoring the sleep of 93 healthy adults in their twenties, including 59 women and 34 men, after their consumption of either alcohol to the point of intoxication, or a non-alcoholic beverage prior to going to bed. There were 29 participants among the group that had a family history of alcoholism. Drinks were served to the participants between the hours of 8:30 and 10:00 p.m. Following this, their sleep was monitored between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.

The researchers found that alcohol increased sleepiness and decreased sleep quality more in women than in men.  On average, women who drank alcohol got about 20 minutes less sleep than those who did not, which is the equivalent of about 4 percent of a total sleep time of eight hours.

These study results serve as confirmation of previous study findings that a high dose of alcohol leads to a deeper sleep early in the night, followed by disruptions in sleep later on.

Source: HealthNews