This Is What Happens To Your Body After You Go To Sleep While You're Still Drunk

This article originally featured on Pretty52

There's a fine, fine line between having a wild night, enjoying yourself, dancing until your feet want to fall off, and being so exhausted that you can barely keep your eyes open. Normally crossing that line is the matter of one extra drink.

We all know that too much alcohol just makes our bodies want to sleep but what happens if we give in and go to bed? Aside from waking up with a hangover, of course...

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1. You fall into a deeper sleep faster.

Alcohol depresses your brain which means you fall asleep way quicker than you would normal (4-16 minutes quicker, in fact) and you also skip the light sleep stage to effectively pass out into the heavy sleep stage straight away.

2. Your heart keeps pumping blood faster than it normally would.

When you go to sleep normally, your body essentially goes on low-power mode so you need less blood pumping around your body. However, alcohol disturbs your heart rate and blood pressure so your nervous system and heart rate are more active than they otherwise would be. And this goes on to affect your sleep...

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3. REM sleep is achieved less often thanks to alcohol.

REM (rapid-eye movement) sleep is very important and helps keep you rested. It's the part of your sleep when your mind wanders and you dream. You normally cycle through REM and non-REM sleep around five to seven times per night, but with alcohol this drops to one or two cycles and you wake up feeling way more groggy and tired.

4. You can't retain any fluids.

You know how you wake up the morning after drinking with a dry mouth and a sore head? That's because you're dehydrated. Alcohol is a diuretic which means it encourages your body to lose fluids. It also makes blood vessels widen so you sweat more too.

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5. You can't sleep for as long.

Because of all of the above you end up being more restless and less able to sleep deeply. Therefore you tend to wake up a lot earlier after a night of heavy drinking than you would otherwise.

So basically, you're gonna be dehydrated, sleepy, and ill. Good combination?

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Topics: Alcohol

Jack Rear

Jack is a writer at Tyla. His hobbies include charging admission at weddings and eating glitter. Rumour has it he was thrown out of Taylor Swift's squad for showing too much belly button.

@jacksayspurple