A Question of Health: Wine keeps me awake

I have had an increasing problem over the last few years. Intake of even a moderate amount of alcohol means that I sleep for only two or three hours then spend the rest of the night wide awake. I keep reading how beneficial wine is for older people and would love to take advantage. Is there any way I can counteract the effect? I already drink water when I do have wine.

I have had an increasing problem over the last few years. Intake of even a moderate amount of alcohol means that I sleep for only two or three hours then spend the rest of the night wide awake. I keep reading how beneficial wine is for older people and would love to take advantage. Is there any way I can counteract the effect? I already drink water when I do have wine.

Sleep problems associated with drinking alcohol are surprisingly common, although most people who suffer from them fail to make the link with alcohol. The first effect of alcohol is to reduce anxiety. It loosens you up, and of course this is why we like to drink it at parties. Later, alcohol has a sedative effect, making you feel sleepy. The less well-known effect of alcohol is its stimulant effect. It makes the brain more active and interferes with normal sleep patterns. The type of sleep known as REM (rapid eye-movement) sleep occurs several times during the night, and alcohol makes it more likely that you will wake up during REM sleep, and that you will find it more difficult to get back to sleep. Unfortunately, this effect lasts for many hours – the sleep pattern is disturbed even after the alcohol has been fully eliminated from the bloodstream. There are a number of other reasons why alcohol may be keeping you awake. Alcohol is a diuretic, which means that your kidneys produce more urine after drinking it. It also tends to make you slightly dehydrated, so that a feeling of thirst may wake you up. The dehydration effect will probably be overcome by drinking plenty of water, but the diuretic effect will be made worse by increased water intake. Your problem seems to be getting worse as you get older, because sleep naturally gets lighter with increasing age. It may be healthier to accept that for you the beneficial effects of alcohol are outweighed by the problems it causes.

Is aluminium a risk

I have been reading about the possibility of links between aluminium and Alzheimer's disease. Is the aluminium present in most anti-perspirants any risk? What about aluminium pans?

The debate about the role of aluminium in Alzheimer's disease has raged since the Sixties, when it was discovered that rabbits developed a condition similar to Alzheimer's disease if they were exposed to high levels of aluminium. But despite a huge amount of research, the link between aluminium and Alzheimer's has never been proved. The question is whether we can reduce our risk of developing Alzheimer's by avoiding things such as aluminium pans. The simple answer seems to be no. In fact, most of our intake of aluminium does not come from these sources – it comes from things we can't avoid, such as food and water. The Alzheimer's Society has produced a fact sheet on aluminium and Alzheimer's disease. You can find it on the web at www.alzheimers.org.uk.

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