“Alcohol is the most common self-prescribed hypnotic agent in the developed world. Millions of people use alcohol to help them to get to sleep every night. Alcohol certainly has soporific effects, which is why people often turn to it to help them to get to sleep. There are, however, several problems with the use (or abuse) of alcohol in this way. Firstly, alcohol alters the sleep architecture, reducing the amount of slow wave Non-REM sleep and increasing the amount of REM sleep (Lands, 1999). So, people who have consumed moderate to large amounts of alcohol in the evening before going to bed experience sleep that is unrefreshing and that has potentially not effectively encoded and consolidated their memories for the previous day(s), as would be the case with the ‘sober’ sleeper who has had their requisite amount of restorative, deep, slow-wave Non-REM sleep.”

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