Effects of Alcohol on Sleep and the Sleep Electroencephalogram in Healthy Young Women

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Background: Although the association between sleep and alcohol has been of interest to scientists for decades, the effects of alcohol on sleep and sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) have not been extensively studied in women. Our specific aim was to determine whether sleep stage variables and/or spectral characteristics of the sleep EEG are altered by alcohol administration in women.Methods: Changes of sleep and the sleep EEG were investigated after administration of a moderate dose of alcohol (0.49 g/kg) in the hour before bedtime compared with placebo in young healthy women. After approximately 2 weeks at home on a fixed 8.5‐ or 9‐hour stabilization sleep schedule, sleep was continuously recorded by polysomnography for 3 consecutive nights [adaptation, placebo, alcohol (mean breath alcohol concentration 0.043 g/% before bedtime)] in the laboratory in 7 women (ages 22–25, mean=23.5, SD=1 year). Sleep stages were scored according to conventional criteria. Electroencephalogram power spectra of the bipolar derivations Fz/Cz (anterior) and Pz/Oz (posterior) were calculated using a fast Fourier transform routine.Results: Only few changes in sleep and the sleep EEG were observed. Across the entire night rapid eye movement (REM) sleep decreased, while minutes of stage 4 sleep were increased in the first 2‐hour interval on alcohol nights compared with placebo nights. Spectral analysis of the EEG showed increased power in the α range (9–11 Hz) during all‐night non‐REM (NREM) sleep in anterior derivations after alcohol compared with placebo. Differences in spectral EEG power were also present in 2‐hour intervals of NREM sleep; in particular, EEG power was increased on the alcohol night for frequency bins within the α range in anterior derivations and within the δ range (3–4 Hz) in posterior derivations during the initial part of the night.Conclusions: A moderate dose of alcohol just before bedtime resulted in a short‐lived increase in sleep intensity. A limitation of the study, however, was that only a single dose of alcohol was used to examine the effects of alcohol on sleep.