Sleep problems persist in alcoholics

Recovering alcoholics sleep worse than people who never had a drinking problem, and this difference persists after months or even years of abstinence.

People who abuse alcohol complain of insomnia and other sleep problems, even after periods of abstinence. But little is known about how alcoholism affects sleep, and whether the sleep changes persist long-term. To investigate this, researchers monitored electrical activity of the brain during sleep for 42 alcoholics and 42 people without alcohol addiction from South Africa. The alcoholics had been sober for an average of 179 days, with periods of abstinence ranging from 10 days to nearly two years. Only fifteen alcoholics were women.

All participants met criteria for alcohol dependence, and their average consumption was equivalent to about eight pints of whisky a week. The researchers looked at how much time the participants spent in two types of sleep cycles: slow-wave and REM (rapid eye movements). Slow-wave sleep is essential for helping the brain to consolidate learning and memory, while REM sleep is linked with dreaming.

It was found that the non-alcoholic men and women spent 12 percent of their sleeping time in slow-wave sleep, and around 20 percent in REM sleep. But the time in slow wave sleep for alcoholic men was about 7 percent, and for women it was 11 percent. REM sleep represented 24 percent of total sleep time for alcoholic men and women. Alcoholic individuals also spent a bit more time in stage 1 sleep, the lightest sleep stage, than non-alcoholics did.

The above findings show that long-term alcoholism affects sleep even after long periods of abstinence in both men and women.