Last updated: October 2026
Alcohol can help you fall asleep faster, but it breaks up the second half of the night and cuts REM sleep, so you wake feeling less rested. Even one or two drinks can have an effect. Drinking less, and finishing your last drink a few hours before bed, are what help most.
Below: what alcohol does through the night, how long before bed to stop (with a units table), and what changes when you stop drinking.
The short version: a nightcap is a trade. You may drop off sooner, but you pay for it at 3am and again in the morning. The less you drink, and the earlier you stop, the smaller the bill.
Does alcohol help you sleep?
Partly, and only at first. Alcohol is a sedative, so after a few drinks many people nod off more quickly. The catch comes later: as your body clears the alcohol, sleep becomes lighter and more broken, and you get less REM sleep, the dreaming stage linked to feeling refreshed. The NHS puts it simply: drinking can help some people fall asleep quickly, but it can disrupt your sleep patterns and stop you sleeping deeply. Drinkaware adds that even a couple of drinks will have an effect.
A 2001 review also found that people quickly build up tolerance to alcohol’s sedative effect, so a nightcap tends to work less well over time. If you’ve got into the habit of drinking to get to sleep, see our guide to insomnia.
What alcohol does through the night
A London Sleep Centre review of every known study in healthy volunteers (Ebrahim and colleagues, 2013) is the clearest summary. At all doses, alcohol shortened the time it took to fall asleep, made the first half of the night more settled and increased sleep disruption in the second half. The first REM period was delayed at every dose, and total REM fell at moderate and high doses.
| What changes | First half of the night | Second half of the night |
|---|---|---|
| Falling asleep | Often quicker, especially after several drinks | Not relevant by now |
| Deep sleep | Usually more than normal | The extra deep sleep doesn’t last; sleep becomes lighter |
| REM (dreaming) sleep | Delayed, and reduced at higher doses | Less REM over the night as a whole at moderate and high doses |
| Waking up | Fewer awakenings | More waking, often in the early hours |
| Your body | Higher heart rate and less overnight recovery | Trips to the toilet, sweating and dehydration |
This is why drinking so often means waking at 3 or 4am, thirsty and needing the toilet (Drinkaware notes alcohol is a diuretic). See why you wake up at 3am for other causes. The extra early deep sleep comes at the cost of a broken, REM-light second half; our guide to deep sleep explains why the whole night matters.
How much alcohol affects sleep?
Less than most people think.
- A 2025 meta-analysis of 27 studies (Gardiner and colleagues) found that REM sleep was delayed and reduced even at the lowest doses studied, and got progressively worse as the dose went up. Falling asleep faster only showed up at high doses, roughly 7 UK units or more for a 70kg adult.
- A real-world study of 4,098 Finnish employees wearing heart rate monitors (Pietilä and colleagues, 2018) compared each person’s nights with and without alcohol. Their overnight recovery score in the first three hours of sleep fell by an average of 9.3, 24.0 and 39.2 percentage points after low, moderate and high intake. For a 70kg adult, low was roughly up to 2 UK units, moderate about 2 to 6.5 units and high more than that. Being young or physically active didn’t protect people.
That is what many people see on their sleep trackers after even a couple of drinks. For context, the UK low risk drinking guidelines say men and women should not regularly drink more than 14 units a week, spread over 3 or more days, with several drink-free days if you want to cut down.
How long before bed should you stop drinking?
There is no single official UK figure for everyone, but there are three useful markers:
- If you struggle with insomnia, the NHS self-help advice is not to drink alcohol (or tea or coffee) for at least 6 hours before going to bed.
- As a rule of thumb, the NHS says one unit is about the amount of alcohol the average adult can process in an hour. Drinkaware gives the same figure and adds that six units would take the average person about six hours.
- US sleep health advice commonly suggests stopping at least 3 to 4 hours before bed, and longer if you have drunk more.
Here is the one-unit-an-hour rule applied to common drinks, using NHS unit figures.
| What you drank | Units | Rough time to clear |
|---|---|---|
| Single shot of spirits (25ml, 40%) | 1 | About 1 hour |
| Pint of lower-strength lager or cider (3.6%) | 2 | About 2 hours |
| Standard glass of wine (175ml, 12%) | 2.1 | About 2 hours |
| Pint of higher-strength lager or cider (5.2%) | 3 | About 3 hours |
| Large glass of wine (250ml, 12%) | 3 | About 3 hours |
| A bottle of wine (750ml, 12%) | 9 | About 9 hours |
So if you plan to be in bed by 11pm and fancy two standard glasses of wine, finishing by about 6 or 7pm gives your body a fair chance. It is a rough guide only: body size, sex, age, food, liver health and medicines all change it. Clearing the alcohol also doesn’t mean your sleep is back to normal, so earlier is better, and less is better still. For an evening that doesn’t hinge on a drink, try our 60-minute bedtime routine.
Is there a best alcohol for sleep?
No. It is the alcohol itself, and how much of it you drink, that affects sleep, whether it comes as red wine, whisky or beer. A hot toddy still contains alcohol, and REM sleep is affected even at low doses. What makes a difference is the number of units: a pint of 5.2% lager has half as much alcohol again as a pint of 3.6%. Lower-strength or alcohol-free drinks and smaller measures are the closest thing to a “better” drink for sleep.
Alcohol, snoring and sleep apnoea
Alcohol relaxes the muscles in your throat, mouth and nose, so air doesn’t flow as smoothly and the tissue is more likely to vibrate, which is why people often snore more after drinking, Drinkaware explains.
It matters more if you have, or might have, obstructive sleep apnoea, where your breathing stops and starts in your sleep. The NHS lists drinking alcohol among the things linked to sleep apnoea, and its advice is “do not drink too much alcohol, especially shortly before going to sleep”. See a GP if you gasp or choke in your sleep or always feel very tired in the day. Read more in our sleep apnoea guide and on the NHS sleep apnoea page.
How to sleep better after drinking
If you’ve had a few drinks, these steps limit the damage:
- Alternate with water or soft drinks through the evening, as Drinkaware suggests.
- Eat a proper meal before or while you drink, rather than a heavy meal right before bed.
- Stop early. Use the units table above to set a last-drink time.
- Go to the toilet before bed and keep a glass of water by the bed.
- Keep your usual wake time the next day, and keep any nap short.
- Don’t take sleeping pills or melatonin to make up for it (see below).
If someone has drunk so much that they have passed out, don’t leave them to sleep it off alone. The NHS advice is to stay with them, put them in the recovery position and check they are breathing properly, and to call 999 if you think they have alcohol poisoning.
For the morning after, see our guides to hangover cures that actually work and hangxiety, the anxious feeling many people get after drinking.
Alcohol with sleeping pills, melatonin or magnesium
Never mix alcohol with sleeping pills or other sedatives. The NHS warns that alcohol with the sleeping pill zopiclone can cause breathing problems and make it very difficult to wake up, and that alcohol with melatonin can make you sleep so deeply that you don’t breathe properly. Melatonin is prescription-only in the UK; see melatonin in the UK. If you take any medicine that makes you drowsy, check the leaflet or ask a pharmacist before drinking.
Magnesium won’t cancel out alcohol’s effect on your sleep; see magnesium for sleep for where it fits in a wind-down routine. Wondering about CBD with a drink? Read CBD and alcohol first.
What happens to your sleep when you stop drinking
For most people who drink socially, sleep is one of the first things to improve. Drinkaware lists better sleep and finding it easier to wake up among the early benefits of stopping, and the NHS says cutting down should help you feel more rested when you wake up.
Many people doing Sober October or Dry January describe a pattern like this:
- First few nights: it can take a little longer to drop off without the usual drink.
- First week or two: some people notice unusually vivid dreams. This is often put down to REM sleep, which alcohol suppresses, bouncing back.
- After two weeks or so: fewer early-hours wake-ups and mornings that feel clearer.
After long-term heavy drinking it’s different: a 2014 review (Colrain and colleagues) found sleep problems linked to alcohol dependence can last long into abstinence, and the NHS lists difficulty sleeping as a withdrawal symptom.
Important: if you drink heavily or think you might be dependent on alcohol, don’t stop suddenly. The NHS says it can be very dangerous to stop drinking suddenly if you’re dependent. Signs include shaking, sweating, anxiety or feeling sick when you don’t drink. Speak to a GP first. Read the NHS page on alcohol use disorder.
Rather cut down than stop? See damp drinking. And with party season coming, our Christmas stress guide covers keeping drinking and sleep on track in December.
Swap the nightcap
Often the drink is really about the ritual that marks the end of the day. Keep the ritual and change what’s in the glass.
- A warm reishi hot chocolate or a fizzy cherry mocktail. Our Sober October nightcaps guide has seven ideas.
- The sleepy girl mocktail: tart cherry juice, magnesium powder and sparkling water.
- A caffeine-free herbal tea such as chamomile.
Our Reishi Mushroom Adaptogenic Complex is a hot chocolate powder made with reishi mushroom extract, organic cacao, maca, coconut milk powder and coconut sugar. Cacao contains a little natural caffeine, so if you’re sensitive to caffeine, have it earlier in the evening. Our Magnesium Glycinate Sleep Complex is a berry-flavoured powder with magnesium bisglycinate and citrate, glycine, L-theanine, chamomile, passionflower, hops and oat straw. Magnesium contributes to normal psychological function and the normal functioning of the nervous system. Both are vegan and alcohol-free, and our products are for adults only. We don’t recommend our products during pregnancy or breastfeeding.
When to get help
See a GP if:
- you regularly drink to get to sleep, or can’t sleep without a drink
- poor sleep has lasted for weeks and is affecting your day
- someone has noticed you stop breathing, gasp or choke in your sleep
- you get shaking, sweating, anxiety or nausea when you don’t drink
If you’re worried about your own or someone else’s drinking, you can call Drinkline, the free national alcohol helpline, in confidence on 0300 123 1110 (weekdays 9am to 8pm, weekends 11am to 4pm). The NHS alcohol support page lists other services. Call 999 for severe withdrawal symptoms such as seizures, hallucinations or severe shaking.
Related guides
- Drinking at bedtime is also linked with night terrors in adults.
- If you wake in the early hours feeling anxious, see anxiety at night and how to settle it.
- Lucid dreaming and how to protect your REM sleep.
- Why REM sleep matters and how to protect it.
FAQs
Does alcohol help you sleep?
It can help you fall asleep faster, especially after several drinks, but it breaks up the second half of the night and reduces REM sleep. Overall, you sleep worse and wake less rested.
How long before bed should I stop drinking alcohol?
There is no single official figure. The NHS insomnia advice is no alcohol for at least 6 hours before bed. As a rough guide, the average adult processes about one unit an hour, so allow at least as many hours as units you’ve had.
Why do I wake up at 3am after drinking?
As your body clears the alcohol, sleep becomes lighter and more broken. Needing the toilet, thirst, sweating and a raised heart rate also make you more likely to wake in the early hours.
What is the best alcohol to drink for sleep?
There isn’t one. The alcohol itself affects sleep, whatever the drink. Fewer units and an earlier last drink are what make the difference.
Can I take sleeping pills or melatonin after drinking?
No. The NHS advises against drinking alcohol with sleeping pills such as zopiclone or with melatonin, because together they can make you sleep so deeply that you don’t breathe properly and are hard to wake.
How long after stopping drinking does sleep improve?
Many social drinkers notice better sleep within the first week or two, sometimes with vivid dreams at first. If you have drunk heavily for a long time it can take longer, and you should speak to a GP before stopping.
Sources
- Ebrahim IO et al (2013). Alcohol and sleep I: effects on normal sleep. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
- Gardiner C et al (2025). The effect of alcohol on subsequent sleep in healthy adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sleep Medicine Reviews.
- Pietilä J et al (2018). Acute effect of alcohol intake on cardiovascular autonomic regulation during the first hours of sleep in a large real-world sample of Finnish employees. JMIR Mental Health.
- Roehrs T, Roth T (2001). Sleep, sleepiness, and alcohol use. Alcohol Research and Health.
- Colrain IM et al (2014). Alcohol and the sleeping brain. Handbook of Clinical Neurology.
- NHS. Insomnia.
- NHS. Alcohol units.
- NHS. Tips on cutting down on alcohol.
- NHS. Zopiclone.
- Sleep Foundation. Alcohol and sleep.
- Drinkaware. Alcohol and sleep.
- Drinkaware. What to expect when you stop drinking.
This guide is general information, not medical advice. Evopure makes the Reishi Mushroom Adaptogenic Complex and the Magnesium Glycinate Sleep Complex.
