Let's have a lil' chat on one of the most consumed chemical on earth. Yes! It's alcohol. It comes in different forms but its effect remains the same. At first gulp of a green bottle it gives us EUPHORIA,then we go into EXCITEMENT as we empty the second bottle, then CONFUSION, STUPOR, COMA and with further intake the ultimate happens, DEATH! Those are the 6 stages of alcohol effect on our body.
For its euphoric effect most of us love this chemical...especially on those evening hang outs...hmmm . Have you really thought about it's other effect when taken less than 4 hours before bed
Read on then...let's start with...

* SNORING
Even if you're 'non-snorer', alcohol before bedtime can make you produce this nasty noise at night.
How does it do it? Well,alcohol reduces the resting tone of the muscles at the back of your throat and relaxes your tongue,which can fall back to obstruct your airway during sleep. As you try to force air through these tissues they vibrate and so produce the snore.
For snorers ,alcohol before bed worsens it.


* OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA
This is a disorder in which the upper airway narrows or closes during sleep. The resulting apnea (stoppage of breathing) awakens the person, who then resumes breathing and falls asleep again.
Alcohol before bed can further relax the muscles of the airway and worsen the narrowing. Consequently,the person is deprived of peaceful sleep at night.


* POOR SEXUAL RESPONSE
Like i wrote earlier on,alcohol is both a nervous system depressant and a muscle relaxant.

In men,
alcohol before bed can lead to difficulty in getting and maintaining an e"rection. It's true that alcohol, in the euphoric or excitement stage, increases our s"exual urge but when it's time for real action,then the wahala comes!
And in long term,it can cause full-blown e"rectile dysfunction.
However, moderate intake,can help someone overcome poor e"rection or quick e"jaculation caused by anxiety. Though its not a good idea to build your s"ex life around alcohol...addiction and other side effect can result.

For women,
alcohol before bed can cause reduced lubrication,difficulty in achieving o"rgasm or o"rgasm that is less intense. And it's also much difficult to achieve pregnancy.


* POT BELLE AND OVERWEIGHT
As we become less active towards the night, our metabolic rate also lessens. Thus major quantity of the alcohol consumed during this period will likely be converted to fats. These fats get deposited within and around your internal organs,other body parts and also within your abdominal wall. This leaves you with pot belle, overweight and increased risk of heart,liver,kidney and intestinal diseases!


* SOAR THROAT AND INFECTION
Some people take alcohol to relief the pain of soar throat. unfortunately, this's temporal. And they're also ignorant of the fact the alcohol actualy causes and worsens soar throat.

Alcohol irritates and dries the tissues of throat. It also decreases the function of the immune cells within the throat tissuses, therefore raises your risk of getting throat infection and other infections of the oral cavity.


* NOCTURIA, NIGHT SWEAT, DEHYDRATION AND HANG OVER
It's normal to urinate 2 times or less in the night. One of the end product of alcohol metabolism is water,and with the diuretic effect of alcohol you will most likely urinate more often at night. Alcohol can also cause night sweat. All these can combine to cause dehydration.

Don't forget...hang over will say ' good morning' the next day.


* INSOMNIA
It may be suprising,but the truth is that alcohol before bed can cause insomnia.
An average adult needs about 7.5-8 hours of sleep in a day to stay healthy. For some reasons, some people can't get this quantity of sleep in a day. So some, especially insomniacs, resort to taking alcohol to induce sleep and probably make it last longer. Initially, this might appear to work but it's diverstating in the long run.
To undertand how alcohol cause insomnia let's learn some facts about sleep.

Two main states and 6 stages characterise a normal sleep...
# Non-rapid eye movement(NREM)sleep
aka quiet sleep: stage 1-4

# Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
aka active sleep: stage 5-6, most dreams occur at this stage.

To have a good sleep you need to a balanced alternation between these two stages.

Alcohol consumed 1-3 hours before bedtime interfers with sleep hormones and disrupts the sleep cycle (REM sleep seems more affected,it shortens it). The person is awaken by dream,the urge to urinate,sweat,breathlessness,dehydration etc but he finds it difficult returning to sleep. And the sedate effect of the alcohol must have faded by then.
In addition,the person may develop tolerance to the sedative effect of the alcohol while the disruptive effect continues,hence insomnia continues!
Naij