Alcohol might be a depressant that wears out the body and causes it to become tired.
That doesn’t mean it’s actually going to help you sleep better.
However, there is a potential that melatonin can help you in the event you have dealt with a hangover or you are trying to manage the effects of a withdrawal from alcohol.
The Effects of Alcohol on Sleep
The Drinkaware group states that alcohol can easily harm your sleep habits. As you drink alcohol, your brain becomes capable of getting into deeper sleep stages.
However, as the night goes along you will spend more time in the REM stage of sleep. Much of this is thanks to alcohol causing your heart rate to go up.
The REM stage is not as restful of a stage of sleep. This could cause you to feel tired in the morning no matter how much sleep you have gotten.
When you drink alcohol, alpha activity develops in your brain. This is a fast-wave sleep pattern that usually isn’t active while you are sleeping.
The alpha activity may interact with the slow-wave delta activity patterns that typically come with sleep. This in turn keeps you from getting the restorative sleep you require.
What Happens When You Take Melatonin and Alcohol?
Reports on whether it is safe to take melatonin and alcohol together are mixed. One on hand, melatonin may help protect your liver from injuries.
Melatonin may be used to increase the total levels of aminotransferase in the liver. This in turn reduces the rate of damage to the liver caused by alcohol.
But even with that benefit, it may not always be right. Alcohol might cause the effects of melatonin to weaken to where it won’t be effective in giving you more sleep.
What’s worse is that it might cause you to develop stressful sleep patterns. This often results in vivid dreams in some of the worst cases. You may also develop muscle pains and headaches, effects similar to what you might have when bearing with a hangover.
If anything, the risk of alcohol and how it influences your sleep is a real problem. Avoiding alcohol is clearly the best thing you can do when trying to get enough sleep. It may be too strong when compared with the effects of melatonin
Melatonin For Alcohol Hangovers
Melatonin can help you to get over an alcohol hangover although it has to be checked carefully in terms of how you use it. Melatonin can help you with restoring your natural sleep-wake cycle. This restores your body following the disruption caused upon your hormones.
You must avoid consuming too much melatonin though.
“About 0.3mg of melatonin is useful for your sleep needs.”
By having too much, the amount of melatonin in your blood plasma will increase. This can cause you to feel worn out as you wake up, thus giving you the same feeling you had during the hangover you are trying to recover from.
It is best for you to consume melatonin before your regular sleep cycle. This is to ensure that your normal cycle can actually be reset properly.
When you consume an excess amount of melatonin or you take it at an incorrect time, you will start to feel worn out and sluggish. This comes as you might start shifting your sleeping pattern into a time period that you are not used to.
Melatonin For Alcohol Withdrawal
An alcohol withdrawal can be rather difficult to handle. It may entail cravings for alcohol and an overall sense of restlessness.
Your heart rate might increase as well. Therefore, you have to look at melatonin to make it easier for you to get back to sleep regularly.
Natural melatonin levels in alcoholic persons are normally lower than usual. Restoring melatonin levels with a proper supplement helps to improve upon how brain functions may operate.
This can work but you have to watch for how it may influence the amount of REM sleep that you get each night.
Added melatonin support should be used for only a few weeks at a time. This is to help you get used to a better sleeping pattern. While melatonin is not habit-forming like some sleep medications, it can still wear out and not be as effective as it should be if you use it for too long.
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Conclusion
You have to watch for how melatonin can be used in your body when it comes to alcohol. You can get a good night’s sleep if you are able to restore the melatonin in your body.
However, the best thing you can do is to avoid consuming alcohol if possible. Alcohol might help you get to sleep but it can actually hurt the sleeping patterns you hold. It may also cause your brain to function improperly. The risk of a hangover and struggling to keep you alert during the day could be a real problem too.