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Hard Liquor and waking up too early...

post #1 of 21
3/1/08 at 6:39am
Thread Starter 
Anybody get this too? I find that having a drink of hard liquor (Whiskey, bourbon, etc.) in the late evening before I head to bed forces me to wake up earlier in the mornings; does this happen to anybody else?

I'd be waking up at around 7:30am when I have my alarm set for 8:30, or even 9:30. And after I wake up, I am unable to fall asleep again.

I'm afraid to pour myself one after a long, very eventful day (got a full-time carreer-oriented job offer secured for when I graduate this semester!) just coz I'm totally exhausted and plan on sleeping in tomorrow.
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post #2 of 21
3/1/08 at 7:02am
I don't get that after a single glass, in fact it makes me sleep very heavy ... if I seriously get stuck into it though thats when I find I'm forced to wake up early.
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post #3 of 21
3/1/08 at 7:03am
It gets worse when you get older. Basically, you should figure out your quantity limit (measured by the amount that doesn't mess up your sleep) and time limit (closing time for your personal bar). Once you get your sleep permanently disturbed, you're asking for fatigue, weight gain, depression...

Don't do it.
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post #4 of 21
3/1/08 at 8:11am
I've heard from many sources that this is due to the quality of booze sleep. It is a depressant so obvious gets you tired but the alcohol suppresses the REM cycle giving you shallow, less restful sleep. Why it forces you to get up earlier is a little fuzzier to me - something about how since you can't hit REM your cycles run enough that it just wakes you up. Dunno for sure but here's an article on it on About.com (from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. There's a section saying that alcohol disrupts the later stages of sleep. It is in the section that deals with non-alcoholics. http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/alerts/l/blnaa41.htm
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post #5 of 21
3/1/08 at 12:04pm
Hard liquor or even multiple glasses wine have me wide awake in the middle of the night.
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post #6 of 21
3/1/08 at 8:57pm
If I have 2-3 drinks or more, I nearly always wake up immediately when the alcohol wears off. So at 5 AM I wake up completely sober, then I usually go and get a glass of water, sometimes pop an Tylenol for some insurance if I can't sleep in, and my body remembers it's tired in about 20 minutes and I fall back asleep.
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post #7 of 21
3/1/08 at 9:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sonick View Post
Anybody get this too? I find that having a drink of hard liquor (Whiskey, bourbon, etc.) in the late evening before I head to bed forces me to wake up earlier in the mornings; does this happen to anybody else?

I'd be waking up at around 7:30am when I have my alarm set for 8:30, or even 9:30. And after I wake up, I am unable to fall asleep again.

I'm afraid to pour myself one after a long, very eventful day (got a full-time carreer-oriented job offer secured for when I graduate this semester!) just coz I'm totally exhausted and plan on sleeping in tomorrow.

drink more water, usually I get up (I only drink hard stuff so I don't get hang overs) because I'm thirsty. If I down alot of water before bed I have a great sleep.
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post #8 of 21
3/1/08 at 10:05pm
I usually pour about 6 oz of whisky into my weeknight drinks. If I have more than two, my sleep gets messed up, but I find the reason is that the whisky fills my bladder twice in a night, and that's the major problem. Alcohol suppresses something called anti-diuretic hormone. It's why you pee a lot when you drink, which is why you get dehydrated. So two of my drinks, I'm fine. Three and on a work night, it messes me up.
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post #9 of 21
3/1/08 at 10:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Piobaire View Post
I usually pour about 6 oz of whisky into my weeknight drinks. If I have more than two, my sleep gets messed up, but I find the reason is that the whisky fills my bladder twice in a night, and that's the major problem. Alcohol suppresses something called anti-diuretic hormone. It's why you pee a lot when you drink, which is why you get dehydrated. So two of my drinks, I'm fine. Three and on a work night, it messes me up.
More than 2 6oz drinks on weeknights?
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post #10 of 21
3/1/08 at 10:44pm
as men, esp. white men, get older, their physical tolerance decreases (reduced alcohol dehydrogenase production in the stomach, i think it is). so a hard-drinking 18-year-old needs about twice as much raw booze to get as drunk as a 38-year-old. the problem is, the hard-drinking 18-year-old learns how to handle booze. by 28, for example, he's no longer climbing on top of city water towers when he's drunk. by 38, he doesn't get out of his chair so much or make quick moves.

you learn to be drunk, and that masks how much more drunk you are. the young white man's body can slay alcohol out of the system at a really quick rate. if you are moving into middle age, and if you've been drinking heavily since your teens, you are probably very suave at downing large quantities. but the same amount of liquor is twice as hard as your body, because it takes that much longer (roughly) for the body to expel this "poison."

long story short, if you are starting to have trouble with your sleep and you suspect it's the booze, i bet it is the booze. you drink too much. slow down, soldier.

if i were you, i would quit drinking completely for about two months and then start over with small portions

good luck with that
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post #11 of 21
3/1/08 at 11:22pm
^ Actually, it is manufactured in both the stomach and the liver. Oxidoreductases are incredible little enzymes.
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post #12 of 21
3/1/08 at 11:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by j View Post
More than 2 6oz drinks on weeknights?

Nope. It makes me wake up

Not every night too, just when I've had a particularly shitty or long day. Sometimes it's just one drink. I guess I was trying to say, two is my limit on weeknights.
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post #13 of 21
3/1/08 at 11:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Piobaire View Post
^ Actually, it is manufactured in both the stomach and the liver. Oxidoreductases are incredible little enzymes.
But is it not the stomach production that decreases over time? This is why the 18-year-old gets all crazy drunk when he downs his usual 8 cans of busch light on an empty stomach. If the pyloric valve is open, the dehydrogenase advantage of young white men is lost. IIRC. If you bartend in a college town, keep peanuts or other high-fat snacks on the bar at all times. It increases the capacity of the young drinkers (more drinks, more tips) and decreases the chance you'll be calling the police.
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post #14 of 21
3/1/08 at 11:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dewey View Post
But is it not the stomach production that decreases over time? This is why the 18-year-old gets all crazy drunk when he downs his usual 8 cans of busch light on an empty stomach. If the pyloric valve is open, the dehydrogenase advantage of young white men is lost. IIRC.

If you bartend in a college town, keep peanuts or other high-fat snacks on the bar at all times. It increases the capacity of the young drinkers (more drinks, more tips) and decreases the chance you'll be calling the police.

The salt makes the drinkers thirsty too so they'll drink more

It seems the stomach decreases in secreting just about everything good as you age, from intrinsic factor to ADH. The only thing that seems to keep working at breakneck speeds are stomach proton pumps
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post #15 of 21
3/1/08 at 11:59pm
Yeah have this too: that article that Kill the DJ posted was very informative, too. When I was around 22/23 I didnt have any probs- I could guzzle like a babarian and still sleep like a baby. But nowadays I also have to be restrictive...of course: as a possibility you could also go to the other extreme and become a full blown alcoholic and then youd sleep well and start drinking in the morning, but we wouldnt wanna go there right?
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