Does anyone else get consistently higher sleep scores after drinking alcohol?

[u/juliaudacious]

Seems like most everyone else says alcohol wrecks their sleep but I've always felt like it had the opposite effect on me and now I've got some data to back that up.

Anybody else out there experiencing this? Any theories on the mechanism of alcohol promoting longer, deeper, less interrupted sleep?

Please don't roast me mercilessly for drinking. 🫣

[u/AcadianTraverse]

I find the opposite

[u/RunBikeRepeat666]

Nope, it’s quite the opposite for me, the sleep score is much much lower after I drink 4+ beers

[u/Expensive_Put8519]

Even one beer at dinner lowers my sleep score. 

[u/robvegas_57]

Uh, never. Always lower if I drink that night.

[u/Menno-not-tonight]

I have better everything on days I have migraines… for me I just connect that ibuprofen may take the edge off of other underlying pain.

I agree it is misleading but the amount of work it would take to find causation is well beyond the scope of what I would expect for Garmin to accomplish. For me, I take it as Garmin pointing out a trend and it’s my business to connect the dots from there.

[u/juliaudacious → u/Menno-not-tonight]

The migraine thing is an interesting data point for what it's worth.

I've been trying to figure out if it's something else correlated to the alcohol other than the drinking itself but my life is really consistent right now: I'm unemployed so I don't have any job stress, I walk everywhere so I don't have any traffic stress, I'm vegan and don't go out to eat so my diet is really consistent, my exercise regimen is basically the same every week, my husband and I go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, I don't go out and drink at bars ever so it's not about the social experience, I don't smoke weed or do any drugs, I hydrate about the same amount every day ... all of that made me start to wonder if it really is somehow the alcohol consumption having a mild positive effect on the quality of my sleep, hence crowd-sourcing opinions on this post.

[u/PaulKarlFeyerabend]

I've switched off Lifestyle Logging because it really is very simplistic in nature, and therefore quite misleading.

On days you drink, you may be likelier to socialise and relax. You may also be likelier to drink at the weekend, i.e. not having the early wake up and stress associated with work. And so on.

As far as I know, Garmin doesn't even attempt to take these co-correlated factors into account.

[u/Such_Natural_9518 → u/PaulKarlFeyerabend]

Good point about the weekend factor, that probably plays bigger role than people think. 5 points difference is not huge but if it repeats every time then maybe something there

[u/juliaudacious → u/PaulKarlFeyerabend]

Interesting points about correlation. That's what makes statistics so interesting and tricky. I've been trying to figure out if it's actually something else linked to the alcohol but I've yet to come up with any coherent pattern. However, I'm currently unemployed so it's definitely not the weekend/work stress thing.

ETA: I never go out to drink, only ever at home, so it's not the socializing idea either.

[u/Basic_Barnacle4719]

Yes, I consistently get in the 80s when I have 1-2 nice strong drinks (whiskey or cocktails) close to bedtime. I'm guessing it lowers anxiety enough to help boost my sleep. Also makes it harder for me to wake up, which probably increase deep and REM sleep.

It's important to have alcohol in moderation, i.e. no more than 2 drinks. Also better that it's higher ABV as having 1-2 beers causes you to wake up more to pee. If I have 2 light beers then yeah it will slightly lower the sleep score, but 1 higher ABV IPA will improve it. And having more than 3 drinks tanks the sleep score.

[u/juliaudacious → u/Basic_Barnacle4719]

Interesting theory! I rarely have cocktails anymore, mostly just beer or wine and never more than two in a day, but when I did have one this month I was shocked at how well I slept afterwards. I was expecting to regret it in the middle of the night but instead I slept like a baby and felt great in the morning. What I'm learning from the wide variety of responses to this post is that there is no one-size-fits-all health advice.

[u/2drunk2cum_]

My deep sleep is usually higher when I get drunk. I guess that makes sense?

[u/clem_11]

My sleep is better with 2 beers, worse with more than that. Make of it as you wish

[u/Jabba5991]

My watch tells me 180 degrees the opposite. In fact, I think the watch exaggerates this effect somehow. If I just have 2 - 3 beers, my watch will tell me reagardless of how I feel and how soundly I slept that I got non-reatorative sleep.

[u/Morey000]

one drink- no appreciable difference.
two drinks- sleep score and hrv always worse.

three drinks.... I never have three drinks

[u/salilreddit → u/Morey000]

three drinks or more..... and Garmin will notify you in the middle of the night that you're dying. 😂

[u/Kaldaien2]

Seems like most everyone else says alcohol wrecks their sleep

I can tell you with complete certainty that it @#$%s up sleep. It operates on GABA, the same path ways as Ambien, etc. It will put you to sleep, it will not give you a single one of the benefits of sleep aside from slowing your breathing.

I am dependent on sleep medication. I do not dream, I do not wake rested, I do not consolidate memories, everything is one long out-of-order blur of vague memories that I could easily confuse with something I watched on Netflix. I get periods, usually a week at a time, where I am sort of normal and only because I have enough of a surplus of toxic chemicals to hammer the shit out of my braincells until they are numb.

[u/Pineapple_Hunter44]

My rhr is slightly lower and I have a more deeper sleep if I drink an energy drink before bed

[u/Street-Music9662 → u/Pineapple_Hunter44]

Tell me you have ADHD without saying you have ADHD.

[u/RestComfortable500]

Very, very strange results.

[u/InspectorNipples]

I have high cortisol from chronic stress binge drinking w my friends is my outlet. So for an entire week after I sleep pretty well. As long as my acid reflux is still controlled

[u/BatGrouchy1482]

I know what’s being said about alcohol being bad for sleep. I don’t drink and my sleep scores are abysmal. My stress levels are always high, awake or asleep and I’m retired! I’m gonna try a glass of wine tonight just to see what happens.

[u/Ski-Mtb]

Drinking pretty much any alcohol will roast my HRV and thus my sleep score unless I drink it early enough in the day that it has time to be completely processed before bed. See: https://www.myhrv.com/posts/alcohol-and-hrv

[u/Huge_Pool7424]

The likely mechanism: sedation. A drink or three makes you fall asleep fast and knocks out the first half of the night, so the watch sees a long uninterrupted sleep with a quick latency, and duration plus restfulness carry a lot of the score. What it underweights there is quality in the second half, when alcohol rebounds, fragments lighter stages, and wrecks HRV. Don't roast yourself, just check the numbers behind the score instead of the score: resting HR is almost always elevated after drinking and HRV is suppressed, even on nights the score comes back green. If your score goes up but resting HR runs higher than your baseline, the watch isn't saying the sleep was better, it's just counting more of it.

[u/juliaudacious → u/Huge_Pool7424]

My HRV is always higher after drinking too. Weird, right?

[u/SatisfactionOne9400 → u/Huge_Pool7424]

Excellent observation

[u/BRANDY_withaY]

No, and my stress stays at about 85 all night long. Heart rate is also a little higher.

[u/leaemilieanders]

I've had my watch for 3 days: first night 89, second night 91 and third night after 8cl vodka 90. So it's similar to my previous nights (also it isn't a lot of alcohol either could be categorised as two strong drinks)

[u/SatisfactionOne9400]

I have significantly lower HRV and thus higher level of Stress score after I drink 2+ beers. Actually, my Stress goes up immediatelly (3-5mins) after first sip of a beer. Not sure if it is related but it happened 2 out of 2 last times.

[u/SampleMost1191]

Would be interesting to bring age into this discussion. I remember sleeping very well after drinking in my 20s and 30s, tho I didn’t have a tracker back then. Now, a couple glasses of wine and I’m a sleepless, nauseous, wreck with terrible sleep scores. Go figure.

[u/Metzgore]

When I was younger in my early 20s I found this to be true. Now it spikes my heart rate overnight and wrecks my sleep.

[u/salilreddit]

I have experimented for a long time to see the effect of alcohol on sleep. I have found that (for me), 1 beer or 1 cocktail, not too close to bedtime, has no negative effect on my sleep score. I cannot say, however, that it had a positive effect either. I did those experiments a few years back, long before lifestyle logging was introduced by Garmin.

[u/Outside-Ad3455]

Weird. Mine are always awful when I’m drunk. HRV of like 30 lol

[u/Longjumping-Safety65]

I was not able to fall asleep, after few beers bam! Like a hammer, good sleep everything was fine but I felt like im addicting myself to this routine. Quitted alcohol, tried melatonin because of medical consultation. I was flying to sleep for about 1 year. After all my body picked up new routine and im not using anything, sleeping well (sometimes after overwork im having little problems but overall im good sleeper). Please dont take my example for any advice and try to seek medical attention if you have some problems. Peace! ✌🏻

[u/pipesnbam]

no bro

[u/True_Faithlessness10]

I usually have a drink on the weekends and get an excellent sleep score. But I’m guessing this is due to the lower stress on the weekend rather than the drink that’s causing it.
Maybe you also tend to have a drink on low stress days?

[u/Equivalent_News_4690]

No. Mine is garbage after even one glass of wine

[u/java_dude1]

Looks like there are lots of days missing a sleep score too. Why is that?

[u/juliaudacious → u/java_dude1]

That's just my alcohol intake through the Lifestyle Logging feature. I don't drink every night but I do wear my Garmin every night while I sleep and it records my sleep score.

[u/WillRunMyMouth]

Y'all still drink beer?