Alcohol and Sleep Review: Flawed Design, Methods, and Statistics Cannot Support Conclusions

Disorders of Arousal and timing of the first period of slow wave sleep: Clinical and forensic implications

“…Only 1 of 5 studies of alcohol and sleep reporting LSWS found a statistically significant decrease in LSWS latency [ 28 ]. Alcohol has been reported in the past to act as a trigger for DOAs but a statistically significant increase in the % of SWS as function of total sleep time has been reported in only 1 of 20 published studies [ 47 ]. Three of 4 other studies reported a statistically significant increase in SWS only during variously defined periods in the first ½ of the sleep period even when SWS was not increased as a % of total sleep time [ 47 ].…”

“…Alcohol has been reported in the past to act as a trigger for DOAs but a statistically significant increase in the % of SWS as function of total sleep time has been reported in only 1 of 20 published studies [ 47 ]. Three of 4 other studies reported a statistically significant increase in SWS only during variously defined periods in the first ½ of the sleep period even when SWS was not increased as a % of total sleep time [ 47 ]. Thus, the overwhelming number of sleep and alcohol studies did not find that alcohol increased SWS as % of TST or decreased SWS latency, severely undermining the theory that alcohol triggers DOA by increasing SWS.…”

Methodological Recommendations to Control for Factors Influencing Dream and Nightmare Recall in Clinical and Experimental Studies of Dreaming

“…An acute pre-bedtime dose of alcohol in non-alcohol-dependent individuals deteriorates REM sleep ( 97 , 98 ). There is debate about its effect: several studies have observed longer latency in REM sleep and decreased REM sleep only in the first half of the night, while other studies find this effect across the whole night ( 99 – 101 ). The link between alcohol at bedtime in non-alcoholic people and DRF does not seem to have been studied.…”