Ok so now we know there are lots of negatives associated with drinking, but many of us would be happy to trade that off for the pleasure of our regular drinkie.
So, the next in my series of 31 reasons why I'm doing Dry July I'm starting to talk about the positive benefits of not drinking. There's lots!
Day | Tuesday 4th July |
|---|---|
Days without alcohol | 22 |
Funds raised | $2,382.30 |
Badges earned | Top of the world |
I'm feeling | Energised |
What’s the upside of reducing alcohol intake?
A big one for me is sleep. It’s well established that the best thing we can do for our health is to get a good nights sleep. But the booze doesn’t help us with that at all.
If you have a busy job and a house full of kids and all the attendant stress that brings you might look forward to a drink at the end of the day to relax.
Depending on how much you drink you might get some short-term relaxation and even feel drowsy which may help you fall asleep initially, but as with most short-term benefits there’s a payback.
Alcohol disrupts the “sleep architecture”, reducing the amount of REM sleep which is important for restorative functions like memory consolidation and learning. It also reduces slow wave sleep or deep sleep which is essential for physical restoration, immune function, and hormone regulation.
These effects can occur even with modest amounts of alcohol.
One of the reasons I thought of doing Dry July was that I had the most terrible night’s sleep when I was traveling for work. I’m pretty sure it was because I had a couple of after-work beers with some members of my team. It wasn’t worth it (the booze that is) and I proved that to myself the following night when I met someone else for drinks and just had soda water (much to the consternation of the bartender “you sure you don’t want some lime or something in that?”).
Athletes instinctively know this. How many times have you heard something like “I’m not drinking tonight, got a match tomorrow” on a Friday. This is one of the few reasons people can give for not drinking which no-one ever questions, I guess because we know the non-drinking sports person will self-correct at the after-match function.
Over time alcohol can cause permanent impairment to our circadian rhythms and lead to permanent sleep disorders.
Now that I'm over 20 days alcohol free I’m not sure if I’m seeing a lot of improvement in sleep quality but at least I've yet to have a bad night.
So that is one more reason why taking a break from alcohol is no bad thing.
And that’s my seventh reason for doing Dry July.
You can get behind my campaign by donating here
Comments