Next time, try not to fall asleep right after the party ends.
DepositPhotosIt’s New Years Day. You’ve just woken up to a barely lit sky, perhaps only a few hours after finally making it to bed covered in glitter and full of champagne. But why are you so darn awake?. Several studies have shown that a bit of booze before bed can actually make you doze off more quickly, but things take a turn in the second half of the night as the body metabolizes all that alcohol.
“[The mice] had a significant loss of sleep, which has [also] been observed in humans,” Thakkar told Popular Science. “When they drink alcohol, they sleep for about three or four hours. Then they wake up and can’t go to sleep.” Further inquiry showed that binge-drinking fiddled with the mice’s “sleep homeostasis,” as Thakkar reported in. Homeostasis is a fancy word for balance. In this case, it’s the chemical response that triggers you to take a rest when you’ve been up and active for too long.
If you get a good night’s rest, you generally feel ready to take on the day until you hit a reasonably bedtime. But if you get barely any shut-eye, you’re going to be sleepy and feel pressure to nap.. As your body works, it uses up energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate. Adenosine is the resulting waste product, so it increases throughout the day. That translates to your body realizing how much energy it’s already burned up, which will eventually make you drowsy.
But can science tell us how to successfully sleep in? Thakkar suggests drinking slowly and responsibly, and to try not to drink heavily in the late evening.That way, he says, you can wait out your buzz and go to sleep mostly sober—instead of crashing hard and throwing your sleep schedule off balance. Yup: When it comes to holiday partying, day drinking is the way to go.Sara Kiley Watson is an Assistant Editor at Popular Science, where she has led sustainability coverage since 2021.