Alcohol - Stimulant, Sedative or What?
Alcohol and sleep
Alcohol does not readily fit under the category of stimulants even though it may act as a stimulant in the body. The fact is that whether alcohol has a stimulating or sedative effect depends on the amount ingested, time after ingestion and also on the individual consuming the alcohol. For this reason the relationship between alcohol and sleep can be difficult to map out.
The effects of alcohol on sleep are different from person to person, depending on which receptors in the brain that are blocked by the alcohol. For many people it will stimulate the body right after, and for a while after, ingestion. After this period of stimulation, however, it will act as a sedative and make a person really tired.
Later after this sleepy phase has passed, when the effects of the ingested alcohol are wearing off, it may again act as a stimulant and keep a person awake. This is the reason why we may feel extremely tired and fall asleep drunk at a bar or in a cab or somewhere else, and later wake up, early in the morning, too early considering how late we went to bed, with a throbbing headache, unable to go back to sleep.
Avoid alcohol if you experience sleep problems
In the light of this it is easy to understand why drinking alcohol later in the day may negatively impact on our sleep. You may not think that a couple of glasses of wine with supper or in the late afternoon should be an issue. However, at bed time the effects of the alcohol are wearing off and you may have hit a stimulating phase. Stimulating enough to keep you from falling asleep.
Similarily, A drink or a beer in the evening may help to put us to sleep but if we happen to wake up in the middle of the night it may, due to this sedative/stimulating effect, prevent us from going back to sleep.
Thus for someone experiencing sleep problems it is better to avoid alcohol altogether.