Why does alcohol mess with sleep?

A couple of glasses of wine or a few drinks in the evening will probably make you fall asleep faster than normal.

But even if you thud into dreamland, there’s a good chance that too much alcohol will mean a fitful night of sleep.

That’s because alcohol disrupts what’s known as your sleep architecture, the normal phases of deeper and lighter sleep we go through every night.

A night of drinking can “fragment,” or interrupt, these patterns, experts say, and you may wake up several times as you ricochet through the usual stages of sleep.

“You pay for it in the second half of the night,” said Dr. Jennifer Martin, a psychologist and professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Alcohol is “initially sedating, but as it’s metabolized, it’s very activating”, Dr Martin added.

Most experts agree that drinking will mess with your sleep, no matter your age or gender.