How alcohol can affect sleep & overnight health biomarkers

The following 301 days of data is divided into:

No alcohol = 212

A little alcohol = 52

A lot of alcohol = 37

These buckets are self-defined, and in this case 'a little' is the equivalent of 2 glasses of wine & 'a lot' is anything more.

(no judgment here!)

There is an observed a reduction in total sleep time with alcohol consumption, and this effect appears to be dose-dependent.

In other words, more alcohol = less sleep.

There are obviously other coinciding factors associated with more alcohol...dietary choices as an example.

Although there is a reduction in total sleep time, it does not seem to have a powerful effect on sleep efficiency (the time spent asleep in bed).

The @ouraring "Sleep Score" is heavily impacted by alcohol, and more so with a higher amount of alcohol.

The % of time spent in "Deep Sleep" stage appears minimally impacted...

...but the % of time spent in "REM Sleep" stage appears largely reduced.

This is somewhat consistent with literature noting that alcohol may:

- increase Deep Sleep

- decrease REM sleep

- predominantly affect the first half of sleep, with a 'rebound-like' effect in 2nd half sleep

- be dose dependent (more alcohol = greater impact)

Some of the research linked here:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23347102/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16930215/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23800287/

The effect of alcohol is quite apparent in overnight health biomarkers.

An increase in average resting heart rate (RHR), in particular with a higher dose of alcohol.

This trend was the same when exploring lowest RHR.

A decrease in average heart rate variability (RMSSD), with a high dose of alcohol.

Also noted an increased temperature deviation from normal with a higher dose of alcohol.

Some important things to consider:

1) Sleep & overnight biomarkers can be acutely affected by many things other than alcohol, including but not limited to:

- Exercise (timing, intensity & volume)

- Nutrition

- Stress (life, work, family)

- Illness / Injury

2) Wearable tech is not perfect at sleep stage detection by any means, so the 'sleep stage' data needs to be interpreted with caution.

However, it is positive to see the relative changes in sleep stages from @ouraring coinciding with the findings from the literature.

3) Alcohol appears to have a dose-dependent effect on sleep and health biomarkers.

Given people may not want to fully sacrifice alcohol, can this tech be used to help inform of an upper-limit of alcohol that does not have large, acute affects on sleep & health?

4) This data is one person - and there of course may be be different responses to alcohol on sleep and health biomarkers.

Questions:

What wearable tech are you using or supporting athletes with?

How has it helped you make better decisions around your overall health & performance?

Has it shifted your behaviour (+ve // -ve) ?

Are you confident in how accurate it is?

What else?