Lifestyle2 min read
What One Drink Does to Your Night
A glass of wine feels relaxing. Your heart often tells a different story overnight.
By the inbeat team
LifestyleA drink with dinner feels like the perfect way to wind down. For many people, the night that follows tells a different story.
It helps you fall asleep, then gets in the way
Alcohol is a sedative, so it can help you nod off. But as your body processes it, the second half of the night tends to become lighter and more broken, and REM sleep is often cut short.
Your heart works harder overnight
Your body keeps dealing with the alcohol while you sleep. That usually shows up as a higher sleeping heart rate and a lower HRV, and the effect tends to grow with every extra drink.
Even one or two can show
You don’t need a big night out to see it. Many people find that one or two drinks in the evening are enough to lower their recovery the next morning.
Timing matters
The closer to bedtime you drink, the more of the night your body spends processing it. The same glass with an early dinner often does less than one right before bed.
Find out what it does to you
Everyone reacts differently. The most reliable way to know is to track it: note the evenings you drink and compare the mornings after with the mornings without. That is exactly what the inbeat journal does for you.
How the journal worksYou don’t have to give anything up to learn from it. Just notice what happens, and decide with real numbers instead of guesses.
