#09: Sleep & Alcohol - Part 2

The second underlying cause of that sleep fragmentation is that alcohol will also trigger the release of a number of stress-related chemicals within the brain and the body, including one specific hormone called cortisol.

One of the problematic issues and the underlying causes of this sleep fragmentation is that, with alcohol in your system, it will activate and stimulate what we call the fight-or-flight branch of your nervous system—the technical term for which is your sympathetic nervous system.

And without that dream sleep, we know that we can suffer impairments in our cognitive brain function as well as our emotional stability. And we can also experience a heightened amount of negative moods, including things such as anxiety.