 [ Symptoms ] why can not i drink before bed if it makes me fall asleep faster [ Disease ] well alcohol does a bunch of different things to you while you are sleeping so while it may help you fall asleep it will keep you in the lighter stages of sleep and remember that is not the best sleep for you it will also wake you up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom it will also dehydrate you which can affect your sleep so when you ingest alcohol before you go to bed and it makes you stay in the light stages one and two sleep again you are not getting that three and four sleep which is where we see the increase in growth hormone where we see the cell repair where we see the overall damage from the day repair nor do you wake up and feel refreshed so when you deprive somebody of stages three and four sleep and you wake them up what they tell you is they feel like they have never slept and that is that really fatigued horrible feeling that people would feel in the morning so alcohol can cause that half the reason that people have a hangover is from the sleep deprivation the other half of the reason is from dehydration now i do not have a problem with having a glass or two or wine with dinner but what i do have a problem with is people having 4 or 5 glasses of wine with dinner and then having sleep problems so if you are regularly taking alcohol to help you sleep that is not a particularly effective methodology for helping you fall asleep nor is it particularly good for you