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this makes me sound like an old man, lol. im only 26, been drinking alcohol for 10 years, and ive noticed when i get blacked out drunk ill pass out like a rock, but ill wake up early as hell with a terrible hang over and im not able to sleep it off, i just lay there wondering what happened when i was blacked out.
Been there, Done that. Time to quit. Blackouts are no fun.
Been there, Done that. Time to quit. Blackouts are no fun.
i agree
although it seems to be healthy for me every once in awhile, to celebrate or just let it all hang out. i usually get motivated to write new music as well.
I'm not elderly but I have noticed that if I drink any amount of alcohol, even one glass of wine with dinner, I will fall asleep fine but wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to fall back asleep for hours. It has not always been this way. I quit drinking because of it. It's a bummer not to even be able to have an occasional drink but I love sleep so much more then alcohol.
Started drinking 52 yrs. ago and at one time it was heavy. This year consumption dropped significantly although the anti-alcohol brigade in this forum has already told me that four drinks per night X four times per week is heavy drinking also. At any rate, I have again cut it to four drinks per night X two times per week. Some of you would probably argue that even eight drinks per week are too many.
Changing gears somewhat, I'm finding that alcohol in the elderly (69) has an undesirable effect on sleep. I drop off into a stage 3 or 4 sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, but awaken 1.5 - 2 hours later, and often remain awake the rest of the night. This wakeful state is fraught with anxiety; the mind races around like crazy; I worry about the smallest, insignificant things. Sometimes the heart has premature atrial anxiety contractions and extra beats, harmless but annoying. The medicos call them extrasystoles.
This never happened before. Am I alone? No, I went to the search engine and found that this sleep pattern has been reported by many old (f)arts who drink, like myself. So I ain't alone.
Maybe I'll give up alcohol altogether. Wouldn't my buddies from the past be floored by *that* development!
I'm 28 and I have had the issue with falling asleep quickly and waking back up a couple hours later. IIRC it's because it's harder for your body to enter rem sleep(deeper sleep) with alcohol in your system. If I drink 6+ beers and even on 8+ hours of sleep, I still feel tired and a little fatigue when I get up.
People are just beginning to rediscover what everyone knew 200 years ago... a good night's sleep consists of two sleep periods, separated by a wakeful period. No joke!
The idea of staying up late in the night, then going to bed and sleeping straight through for 8 hours is artificial, a product of the industrial age. In agrarian societies people went to sleep not long after it got dark, slept for three or four hours, awoke for a while, then went back to sleep for another three or four.
Once people retire, and no longer have to get up and go to work on a regular basis, they often fall into this natural pattern on their own.
Changing gears somewhat, I'm finding that alcohol in the elderly (69) has an undesirable effect on sleep. I drop off into a stage 3 or 4 sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, but awaken 1.5 - 2 hours later, and often remain awake the rest of the night. This wakeful state is fraught with anxiety; the mind races around like crazy; I worry about the smallest, insignificant things. Sometimes the heart has premature atrial anxiety contractions and extra beats, harmless but annoying. The medicos call them extrasystoles.
On occasion I sleep fine for five hours then I wake up and the mind is active. Can be good thoughts or bad thoughts. I discovered that if I just get up (and not lay in bed) read and do stuff for an hour, even have a glass of wine, I return to bed and sleep just fine.
I think you need to explore and find out the cause of your anxiety. In the past I had those thoughts of anxiety, but I discovered it was simply my own fears which were pretty much baseless. No longer a problem. Having bad thoughts is one thing, anxiety over the smallest, insignificant things is a serious matter. I do my share of drinking-three every evening. It's not the alcohol, per se. It is something more foundational in your makeup IMO.
Alcohol is a depressant, just like Ambien, which means it should put you to sleep. For a lot of people, including Doc Martin, it does. Never mix two depressants together, though.
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