Alcohol and Sleep: The Disturbing Effects of Alcohol on Sleep You Haven’t Heard About

If you’ve ever told yourself, “A glass of wine helps me sleep,” this episode is going to change the way you think about rest forever.

In this week’s episode of the Sober Vibes Podcast, I unpack the truth about alcohol’s effect on your sleep cycle and why even small amounts of alcohol can destroy the rest your body needs to recover truly.

I dive into how alcohol disrupts REM sleep, spikes stress hormones, and leaves you waking up anxious, wired, and exhausted. Whether you’re trying to stop drinking wine, dealing with grey area drinking, or learning how to relax without alcohol, this conversation will help you finally understand why you’re so tired and what to do about it.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The connection between alcohol and stress, and why it fuels anxiety
•  Why do you wake up at 3 a.m. and can’t fall back asleep
•  How alcohol interferes with hormones like cortisol, estrogen, and melatonin
•  What happens to your sleep when you quit drinking
•  Tools to rebuild real rest and support your nervous system
• The role of sobriety coaching and the sober community in recovery and better sleep
•  How to regulate your body and mind through natural calming routines

If you’ve been feeling exhausted, anxious, or mentally foggy even after quitting drinking, this episode will help you connect the dots. Rest is recovery, and it’s time to get yours back.

Listen now: Alcohol and Sleep: The Disturbing Effects of Alcohol on Sleep You Haven’t Heard About

Resources Mentioned:

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Courtney's Website 

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1:1 Sober Coaching 

PODCAST SPONSOR:

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Sober Vibes listeners, sign up HERE and claim our $100 Enrollment Bonus.

This episode is sponsored by ExactNature, a trusted holistic tool for anyone navigating recovery and sobriety. Use code SV25 at checkout to receive a discount on your order. Click here to shop and save. 

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Hope this episode helps you today, and thank you for tuning in!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Alcohol And Sleep Truths
• 0:21 Show Welcome And Focus
• 1:03 Still Tired After Sobriety
• 1:37 Community And CTA: Sobriety Circle
• 2:00 Time Change Rant And Parenting
• 3:26 Subscribe, Reviews, And Free Workshop
• 4:08 Myth: Alcohol Improves Sleep
• 5:14 Night Owl To Morning Person
• 7:34 How Lack Of Sleep Hits Next Day
• 8:34 REM Sleep And Emotional Repair
• 9:54 The 3 A.M. Wake-Up Explained
• 11:20 Early Sobriety Sleep And Anxiety
• 13:34 Sponsor: Exact Nature
• 15:06 Sponsor: Soberlink Holiday Support
• 18:16 Rebuilding Healthy Sleep: Core Habits
• 20:50 Light Exposure, Screens, And Routines
• 23:04 Choosing Calmer Evenings Over Triggers
• 26:43 Rest Over Escape: Key Takeaway
• 28:15 Client Peace And Closing CTA

Transcript

Courtney Andersen: 0:00

Do you ever wonder why you're still tired even after quitting drinking? Or maybe you thought that that nightly glass of wine was helping you fall asleep. Here's the truth alcohol doesn't help you sleep, it actually wrecks your rest. And today we're diving into the disturbing ways alcohol affects your sleep that most people never talk about. Welcome to Sober Vibes, your podcast for alcohol-free lifestyle tips and real talk about long-term sobriety. I'm your host, Courtney Anderson, sober coach, author, and mom. Each week I share strategies, stories, and encouragement to help you navigate cravings, build confidence, and thrive in sobriety. Whether you're sober curious or years in, this is your space to feel supported and inspired. Hey, good people of the world. Welcome back to the Sober Advised Podcast. I am your host, Courtney Anderson. You are listening to episode 249. I'm the sober coach, author, and your go-to guide on living an alcohol-free life. If you've been feeling exhausted even after months or years without alcohol, you're not alone. When I quit drinking, I thought sleep would magically fix itself. And wow, wow, wow, wow, was I wrong. It took time, awareness, and a lot of learning to understand that alcohol had really done and what it had really done to my body. So today we're going to break down the hidden connection between alcohol and sleep and what actually helps your body reset and rest deeply. I'm a big, big fan of sleep and napping. And before we dive in, if you're sober but still exhausted, the sobriety circle is where we cover sleep, energy, and long-term recovery tools together. You'll find workshops, resources, and a community that is support beyond just day one. The link is in the show notes to join, or you can go to CourtneyRecovered.com and find sobriety circle on my website. Before two, I just want to say happy November. I cannot believe that we are already in November of 2025. I mean, anybody else? And also, too, I just want to ask good people of the world if you have small children. The time change of the fall back, it's like a twilight zone. I can't even describe it's like worse than the twilight zone. I feel like I'm in the pits of hell currently with this time change. And now with a little dictator being four, your parents were not kidding about this four-year-old thing. Three was like a breeze, right? And then now four, as soon as he turns four, it's just it's been different. So I'm in the thick of it again, but I appreciate it. I'm grateful for it. I just don't like the fallbacks. And I truly like who controls this button because it will never make sense to me with the time change, and especially when two states do not participate in it. Can we please stop participating in this? I just find the time change, even without kids, it's cruel. It is cruel. I would rather have it stay lighter out and darker in the morning time. That's it. That's my little rant for today. But I hope everyone is doing good and thank you as always for tuning in. If you are watching on YouTube, make sure that you hit that like button and subscribe to the channel so you never miss an episode. Also, too. If you're listening through a podcast app, make sure you uh subscribe or follow. I think on a couple of those ones now they do the follow. So whatever it is, make sure you press that button. And as always, you can read a review. When you write that review to, just know if you screenshot that review to me on Apple, I will send you access to my free workshop. Okay. All right, let's get into it today. I'm done with my time change rant and all the information that I've given you.

unknown: 4:07

Okay.

Courtney Andersen: 4:08

So, number one, alcohol tricks you into thinking that you're sleeping better, correct? And this is like big for a lot of people where they're like, oh yeah. I mean, I like you hass out, right? Or like black out and don't remember hitting the pillow and you feel like you sleep soundly. But that is such a big ass myth. That alcohol helps you sleep. The deal with alcohol is it's a sedative, right? So it slows down your nervous system, it makes you drowsy. That's why it can feel like it helps you fall asleep faster. But what's really happening is your brain is being suppressed, not relaxed. It skips the restorative part of sleep, like REM and deep sleep, that your brain and body actually need to recover. So, yes, you might pass out quicker, as I said, but you're not truly sleeping. You're sedated. And that's why when you wake up groggy and anxious or wide awake at 3 a.m. Sleep too, it's very, very everybody's different with their sleep cycles. I have a sister who has my sister Kimmy, she's got insomnia. Her sleep's actually been better this couple past couple months. But so I feel for anybody with any type of sleep issues. Okay. And I'm and myself, before I got sober, I was a night out. I worked nights. I was in the bar biz. So I was up till two, three, four o'clock in the morning. Sometimes I wouldn't go to bed till five or six, to be honest. And then so I had the vampire, I had Dracula's Dracula's nighttime routine. So when I got sober, I then transitioned into my seven to three o'clock work. So I had to go from a complete night owl to then being a morning person. And it takes some time. Yes, your sleep does start improving within those 30 days, okay, with people. That's what happens with your body after you quit drinking. But it is going to sometimes take a little bit longer, especially if you have a sleep issue or you've been a nighttime person or insomnia, all that stuff. Because sometimes sleep issues do stem from trauma. Let's let's not get this twisted, okay? So just know that you need to be patient with yourself, right? Just be patient with yourself and you can correct it. I mean, there's lots of little other micro things you can start doing to work on a healthy sleep pattern. For me too, when when we the little dictator was like three, four months old, I've told this story numerous amounts of times, but it was like I was so fucking sleep deprived. I was getting wonky in my sobriety. I did not like it. I felt like I was in a video game because I worked so hard to correct my sleep and become a daytime person, or quote unquote a morning person, and flip my sleeping. So I got there will be nights. I'm not gonna lie, that my little ass has been into bed at 8:30, 9 o'clock sleeping. In the winter time, pre-dictator, I there were some nights that it's like, yeah, I'm in my bed at 6:30. I'm not crazy, I'm not kidding. I like watching shows. I really have come to my sleep as my numero uno priority. I went to Stevie Nick's a couple weeks ago and I stayed up past 12:30, and the next day I wanted to die. Like I was like, I feel hungover. It is incredible when you work on something so hard and you're so used to it, especially with sleep, and then you don't get that process like that. Like when you go into your bedtime and you get lack of sleep, it is you feel it. And then I wanted to eat like shit the next day. So this is like the sleep, it was just take out drinking alone, but like the sleep is such a much needed thing for you to do to be able to focus on a just to focus clear headed and and all of that and make better choices the next day because and I'm not beating myself up about it. I mean, it happens not like I go and rage that late, anyways, all the time, but I just you can feel it when you're used to a certain number of hours of sleep each night. Okay. All right, let's get back into it. So, number two, alcohol disrupts REM sleep, and this is where emotional healing happens. REM sleep is where your brain processes memories, emotions, and stress. Okay. It's like the overnight therapy session your body gives you every night. It's the recovery. So when you drink, alcohol actually blocks the stage. Instead of your brain cleaning house and balancing your mood, everything stays cluttered. That's why alcohol and anxiety go hand in hand, and why emotional recovery feels harder when you're drinking, even a little. This is the wild part about this. Even one to two drinks can cut your REM sleep by up to 50%. That's huge. That is a hit to your emotional and mental health. Up to 50%. Number three, why you wake up at 3 a.m. and can't go back to sleep. Now, I'm sure a lot of you ladies are like, oh my god, yes, do tell me. So this is the number one, up to the number one thing I always hear women who I either coach one-on-one or who come into my sobriety circle. This is the thing. And it's usually women above the age of 35. Okay. So if you've ever fallen asleep fast after drinking, but found yourself wide awake a few hours later, here is why. Alcohol wears off, your body rebounds into a lighter, more alert sleep stage, right? Your heart rate starts to go up, your nervous system activates, and your liver starts working overtime to detox it. So this is your way of your body saying, Hey, I'm not actually resting, we're recovering from alcohol. And in the same pattern of this, it can linger for weeks after quitting. Okay. Your body has to relearn what natural sleep feels like without chemical interference. So isn't that crazy? And two, with that 3 a.m., like wake up to if as well, you're in the perimenopause and menopause too. This is hormones. We're gonna talk about hormones next week. But where that 3 a.m. when you're alert as well, it's almost think of it like this. I mean, that was very easy of what I just stated, but also to think of it like this. It's almost like you're starting, like the hangover is taking in the effect at 3 a.m. And again, your body's your body's trying to detox that out of you because that's what it's supposed to do. It's detoxing a foreign substance, the F out of you. So this is why those 3 a.m.'s with the hormones, with the sleep, and what your body's supposed to be doing of its job, because let's not get this twisted. Alcohol, again, is a very toxin, poisonous substance that we're choosing to put into our bodies on a weekly, sometimes daily basis. So your body is doing what it needs to be doing, and that's why this is happening. So, number four, post-sobriety sleep issues again are normal and it's only gonna last for some time. Okay. Again, I wish somebody had told me this in early sobriety that your sleep might get worse before it gets better. And after quitting alcohol, your brain starts to rebuild. And the natural rhythm it lost during your drinking days. Okay, so this can take a few months to stabilize, especially if you drink to fall asleep for years. So if you're in your first 30, 60, or even 90 days, your sleep is gonna feel broken. Don't panic. It's your body healing, your body is adjusting to what real rest is, and this should only last, you know, it should not last terribly long. Everybody is different because everybody's bodies work different exactly to or also as well. When you start hitting that post-acute withdrawal syndrome pause, you will also too anxiety does increase for a lot because for a majority of you, myself included, I was using anxiety, I was using alcohol to mask that anxiety, right? I was trying to use it to suppress, suppress, suppress. And so you do go through that detox and those withdrawals, and the anxiety is going to get worse. So if you're using alcohol to suppress anxiety, all or trying to yeah, suppress anxiety, all you're doing is just making it 25 times worse for yourself because you're going to always constantly be stuck in that loop, in that cycle, until you actually get it out and detox your system. And then where you can you can handle anxiety, you can handle anxiety in a much simpler way. I'm not saying that your anxiety is going, it's going to be easier, but it will. You can decrease it. You will decrease your anxiety because the alcohol is increasing it. But then you learn how to cope and live if you are a naturally anxious person, if you're on medication, then you can let the medication do its job and see within a couple months if that medication is actually working. We'll tell you this. I've worked with women before where they're like they get sober and then they're like, this medication's actually not working. It's either making me feel worse or it's not doing its job. But you wouldn't have known that if you weren't sober and had the clarity to be in tune with your body. So just know that your anxiety will get better. For me, I am, I have accepted through these 13 years, and it was more of like year three, four, I started to understand my anxiety better. And that instead of keep resisting, resisting, resisting, because the more you push something away, the more it's gonna come, it's gonna get bigger and bigger and bigger and amplify amplify. So I had learned to just accept my anxiety. It's not necessarily a bad, terrible thing. It just because sometimes anxiety actually puts you on like high alert or gives you those spicy, spidey senses to be able to tell if a person's actually really a bad, shitty person. I mean, you can use that to your advantage. Sometimes with anxiety, you see things like five steps ahead, then nobody, then a no a normal person could. So you can learn to live with your anxiety because it's in it and embrace it and be like, okay, what can I do to take more of the natural steps to help me? This is kind of off topic, but again, I got into the anxiety a kick. Okay, and I actually could talk about anxiety all day long and things of helping you instead of trying to push it away. But with your sleep in the adjustment period of this, your anxiety will possibly be up. Okay. The holidays can be wonderful, but they can also bring added stress, cravings, and emotional challenges, especially when you're getting or staying sober. That's where our sponsor, Exact Nature, comes in. Exact Nature creates safe, healthy, non-intoxicating CBD-based products designed to help reduce cravings, calm anxiety, improve mood, and stabilize sleep. All without getting you high or causing harm. CBD can help you out and it can help take the edge off, which is so important when you're navigating sobriety, especially during the holidays. Their products are value-priced with a full month supply. And since CBD works best with consistent use, Exact Nature offers subscriptions to keep you supported over time. Founded by a father and son team in addiction recovery, they truly understand your journey. Visit exactnature.com and use checkout code SV25, that's for sober vibes, and for 25% off your order. Again, use this code at checkout SV25, and that's exactnature.com. You guys know I'm a huge fan. I use this on a regular basis, and I love this company. Nothing tests sobriety quite like holiday gatherings. Am I right? Between family stress, endless parties, and more alcohol ads than you can count, it can feel like a sea of triggers. And if you're in your first year of sobriety, you need something that helps shoulder the load, not add to it. Thankfully, there's Soberlink, the only high-tech breathalyzer trusted by addiction professionals, because it works. With scheduled daily tests, you can share instant, verified results with the people who support you, so you never have to convince someone of your progress. They get to see it and celebrate it with you in real time. And because Soberlink uses built-in facial recognition and tamper sensors, there's no way to cheat these results. Soberlink now offers device rentals, making daily accountability more accessible than ever. Whether you're rebuilding trust with loved ones or just want an extra layer of support this holiday season, Soberlink can help you stay laser focused on your recovery goals through the celebrations and long after the tree comes down. Visit www.soberlink.com forward slash sober-vibes to sign up and claim your $100 enrollment bonus. You can also check the link in the show notes below. So number five, how to rebuild healthy sleep and sobriety. So here's the solutions for you. And this could be exciting for some. You never know. So a few ways to support your body as it learns how to rest again, right? Consistency. You have to go to bed and wake up at the same time daily. Your body needs a rhythm. Light exposure. Get sunlight first thing in the morning. It resets your circadia clock. Okay, let me tell you about this light light exposure. And I'm not sure if I've shared this on the podcast yet. A couple years ago, I started to get light in the morning time. I believe if you expose your little winkies to light, like under that 11 a.m., you know, from when you first wake up to about that 11 a.m. to expose. And I'm talking about going out and not wearing sunglasses, okay? This is also good hormonally. You go outside, let the sunlight hit your eyes for 20 minutes, okay. I'm not kidding you in the past couple years, because I've been doing this on a regular, consistent basis. I barely wear sunglasses anymore. I barely wear sunglasses where I'm not shitting you, where I'm like, we'll put on sunglasses and I'm like, oh, this is this is dark. I can't see. Where I used to be a sunglass whore. I would wear sunglass, sunglasses like a douche, inside like places like restaurants, okay? Maybe too. That was a little for my drinking days because I always had to protect my winky because it was so bright. But I used to wear sunglasses all the time. And now in the past couple years, like I barely, barely need them. Barely need them. And I'm even talking in like the blazing hot sun and three o'clock when it's just so hot outside and it's so sunny. Like, I don't need them. So there is so much truth to this, and I'm not like I'm not kidding, but it does help. Also, to the morning light and the the like early evening light with the sunset. If you can get out there for a couple minutes and just take in that light, it will help your circadia rhythm. Because even though this is a topic for another day, like you are actually supposed to eat with the day too when the sun comes up and then when it goes down, like not having anything between that. And some people would call that fasting. I would just call that going to sleep and not eating after supper time. So, all right, your nervous system. So this could be breath work, some yoga, some light stretching, meditation before bed helps lower cortisol as well. And cortisol is your stress level or your stress hormone. Hydration and nutrients, you have to remember alcohol depletes, magnesium, electrolytes, vitamin B vitamins, or I'm sorry, and B vitamins, right? And these are all crucial for sleep. So this is why I'm huge on the electric lights that I drank. I will put that link in the show notes for you too, and you can use the code, and that is helpful. I know a lot of people use also too that magnesium. You could use that comb, make yourself like a little mocktail before you go to bed. Because we are depleted of these minerals in our body. Limit caffeine and screens, right? These are going to help your nervous system too, to help you get better with going to sleep, right? So an hour or two maybe for before bed, limit the screens. Maybe not even so much drinking coffee, I'm sorry, coffee or any type of caffeine, like past one o'clock. I believe it's supposed to be like a six to eight hour window of not drinking caffeine before your bedtime. All right. And so also to the screens in bed. I know it might be hard for some, but get yourself an alarm clock. Like I know a lot of people or I use my phone as my alarm clock, and there's tons on Amazon. Okay, you could go to Target right now and buy yourself an alarm clock and let's go back to the olden days. I've done this where I have I have used my phone at night and then have taken on somebody else's energy energy and fallen asleep, or wake, woken up and go straight to my phone where you're letting that artificial light in, and then like reading something that then just sets a shitty tone for my day where I'm like, you SOB, Courtney, you shouldn't have done that. So honestly, the screens before bed and even to in the morning time, it's just not worth it. It it truly is not. And but you have to learn that for yourself, right? So, like the doom scrolling, I have at nighttime within the last couple months have replaced reading. And it's been for the most part, I won't say every night, because I still like my shows from time to time. Reading does help, even if you do an adult coloring book or something, or I knew I wasn't going to, I didn't want to do it, but my husband wanted to watch it. And like the difference of watching something like this compared to reading or watching Housewives is like a world of difference. If you have Peacock, they did a series on Gacy. God, he he was John Wayne Gacy, and he was a serial killer in the 70s. God, he was. I don't, I mean, they're all bad, right? But this guy was probably the worst. I hate him. So we're watching this, and again, like Ed Gean's that I tortured myself with in the beginning of October, I was then going to sleep, like thinking that John Wayne was gonna come get me in the dictator. Mainly just the dictator, because he liked boys. And I just, I'm like, why do I keep doing this to myself? This is now not giving me a relaxing state. And in my 40s, my adult years. Like, I don't want to be, I don't want to continuously be traumatized. And I think more and more we are getting traumatized on a daily basis of these other stories, the news cycles, all of that stuff, right? So it really does. Reading just helps. Reading helps you fall asleep too. So get into some books. I'll I'll put my list down too, because I started a list of the best fiction books I've read so far this year. I've read a lot of good ones. I just actually finished The Wedding People. I loved it. I loved it. So just again, unwind in a more natural state. And if you start using those tools, you don't have to do it all at once. Pick one, the getting up at the same time and going to bed at the same time, that's gonna help you the most right now. So do that to help your sleep and then add in more as you go of those tips that I just shared with you. Remember, it's gonna be a compound effect. So what you do tonight and you keep it consistent is going to affect you 60, 90, 120 days a year from now down the road. Don't overwhelm yourself and just it's uh it's the compound effect of just adding on habit snagging of adding on one, nail that down, and then a month, add on the next one, and so on, and so on. That's what I'm saying. Like for me to watch these serial killer shows, I know better the next day where I'm like, ugh, like I haven't even finished that one about John Wayne because I'm like, this is so awful. And I actually did like the perspective just real quick on the Peacock one documentary or series, because it shed more, it wasn't it the perspective was more shed in the stories told about these victims instead of focusing on him, him, him. So I liked that perspective, but I haven't even finished it because I'm like yuck. That's how I feel in my adult ears. I'm just like yuck, just I can't see it any anymore. So this is the truth. Alcohol has never helped you rest, it has just helped you escape. Okay. Real rest and real recovery takes intention, intention, healing, and consistency. So if you're tired both physically and emotionally, that's your body asking for more care, not another glass of wine. A lot of what I teach in my coaching, it is more about allowing yourself that self-care and giving yourself what the body needs instead of just keep ignoring it. Because when you keep ignoring it, you're never going to truly rest and recover. And this is what you need to be doing during this time of especially early sobriety. So again, sobriety doesn't just give you better mornings, it gives you your you back peaceful nights. I just finished working with a client and she's got to, I think we just worked together for about 22, 23-ish weeks. And that was the one thing. Because on our last meeting together, I was like, How do you feel? And she straight up said, It's peaceful. My mornings and my nights are peaceful. So if that is what you're searching for, highly recommend you stop drinking alcohol because within time you gain that. Yes, it feels awkward in the beginning and within those first couple months, but it gets peaceful. You just have to choose another day of not drinking. So, again, if you're sober but still exhausted, join us inside the sobriety circle. It's where we cover sleep, energy, long-term recovery tools together. It's really a maintenance in there of your sobriety so you can feel rested and strong into your alcohol-free life. And the link is in the show notes below, or just go to CourtneyRecovered.com and you can find the sobriety circle on my website. And make sure to tune in next week because I'm going to talk more about alcohol and hormones. Thank you, good people of the world. Much love. Remember, stay safe out there and keep on trucking.