To drink perchance to sleep: a commentary on “Altered sleep architecture following consecutive nights of pre-sleep alcohol” by McCullar et al.

Le résumé fourni par la source

The notion that alcohol can be used as a sedating agent to help the onset of sleep dates to antiquity. In a remaining fragment of a poem by a fourth-century BCE poet, Eubulus, a character says: “I mix three kraters only for those who are wise. One is for good health, which they drink first. The second is for love and pleasure. The third is for sleep, and when they have drunk it those who are wise wander homewards.” Fast forward 6000 years and an epidemiology study of more than 2000 randomly dialed people found that 13% used alcohol as a sleep aid [1]. Older men (but not women) with difficulty falling asleep are more likely to be habitual heavy drinkers, providing indirect evidence of them using alcohol as a sleep aid [2]. This effect is not limited to older adults as a more recent study found that approximately 10% of college students used alcohol as a sleep aid [3].

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.