The Four Problems With Alcohol and Sleep

Alcohol is in a class of drugs that we call the sedatives. What you're doing with alcohol is sedating your brain, and sedation is not sleep. We produce peak levels of many of our key hormones during rem sleep. It's profoundly important for stabilizing our mental health. Rem sleep is also essential for creativity, learning and memory. A couple of doses of alcohol in the evening resulted in a 50% decrease in growth hormon at night. And one bad night of sleep isn't the end of the world.