What Happens If You’re Still Drunk When You Go To Bed?

Welcome to holiday party season, ladies and gentlemen. It's going to be a tipsy, plastic-wine-glass-laden month, and it's safe to say your body's going to feel it. We all know too well how we can suffer the morning after, but what about the night before? Shape reports that drinking can affect your sleep in a major (and, sadly, negative) way. Related: Your Brain On: Alcohol Studies from the NIH and the University of Michigan have found that, to start with, drinking makes you want to go to bed. Once the drinks catch up with you, after you've stopped for the night, your body's temperature will drop as it does when you're sleepy. You may even fall asleep faster than usual if you're drunk when you hop in bed. In fact, another study suggests that you reach the deepest level of sleep too fast when tipsy. This is why, if you drink before bed, you tend to wake more often in the middle of the night; you've gone through your sleep cycle too quickly, and at, say, 4 a.m., you're back into lighter levels of REM sleep and are more likely to be awakened. Related: 8 Signs You're Drinking Too Much Alcohol Research shows that women deal with this problem more than men, but there's a silver lining: Luckily, just a drink or two won't ruin your beauty rest. It takes a blood alcohol level of .05% or higher to feel those cocktails' negative effects on your sleep — and since your office party is probably on a Wednesday anyway, what's the point in getting that tipsy? Click through to Shape for more info on staying healthy on your nights out. (Shape) Related: 11 Tricks To Wake Yourself Up After A Total Lack Of Sleep