Binge drinking can affect your sleep, permanently

A SINGLE binge drinking episode could permanently disturb the gene that regulates sleep, according to a new study published in the Journal of Neurochemistry.

Although previous studies have shown a link between alcohol and sleep quality, this is the first time a single episode of drinking was shown to have a significant effect on sleep.

“We were not expecting this. We thought it would be affected after multiple sessions of binge drinking, not one,” said Dr Mahesh Thakkar, lead author of the study.

“That tells you that as soon as you consume four drinks, it can alter your genes.”

These results came from a series of experiments conducted at the University of Missouri-Columbia involving mice, in which the animals were allowed to consume alcohol over a four-hour period. Their sleep quality was then assessed.

Binge drinking was shown to disturb their sleep by affecting the gene that regulates it. This meant that the mice that consumed alcohol were awake for longer periods and also seemed to lack the urge to sleep.

The study will now be repeated with human subjects to see if the same results can be replicated.

As Dr Ivona Bialas, a senior lecturer at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School who was not involved in the study, told Newsweek: “The results, if they can be replicated, are astonishing. They highlight the huge impact that even small amounts of alcohol can have on sleep.

“If even a single binge regulates genes via epigenetic effects we would have to look again at our safe alcohol limits advice with vulnerable people, for example, pregnant women and young adults.”