Go Sober for October? Dry January? Giving up alcohol for Lent? There are plenty of different times of the year where we are reminded to think about our relationship with alcohol. 

As we come to the end of ‘Go Sober for October’, let’s take a look at what impact and effects alcohol can have on your productivity. 

There are days when I come home from a work and can’t wait to relax, cook some tasty food and open a bottle of (gluten free) beer. Yes that’s me unwinding, sitting on the sofa, beer in hand watching the next episode of my latest binge watch series (Schitt’s Creek if you must know).

But this is not a routine I do regularly, especially on a ‘school night’. Alcohol in the week is rare, I’m not a big drinker anyway, but I am definitely mindful of keeping a clear head for the next working day, or if it is a weekend I don’t want to waste my precious time off nursing a hangover (been there, done that one too many times!). 

So let’s take a look at how alcohol can affect your productivity… 

How alcohol affects your sleep

People will often say they get to sleep quicker after a drink or two, but drinking actually disrupts your sleep cycle as it affects the quality of your sleep. It’s the all-important sleep cycle patterns that we need (drinking can cause us to get too little REM sleep and too much deep sleep) in order to get the 7-9 hours the average adult needs to fire on all cylinders the next day.

Your sleep may also be disrupted because drinking alcohol can make you need to get up more frequently in the night to go to the loo; it also makes you sweat more so you are likely to wake up feeling dehydrated too. 

Also there’s the snoring - alcohol relaxes your throat and nasal tissues – so it’s not only you that could be kept awake by the effects of your drinking, but anyone that is within earshot of your bedroom! 

How alcohol affects your mental health

Getting into a bad sleep pattern can have a negative effect on our mental health. If we are not getting the right amount of quality sleep, we become irritable and our ability to concentrate will also be impaired. 

Because alcohol interferes with our central nervous system, it can make our mood fluctuate. Alcohol is a known depressant as it reduces the levels of serotonin in the brain. This will undoubtedly have an effect on your work if you’re feeling low – you may not feel confident to give that presentation or feel able to make an important phone call to a customer. It can make you delay and put off decisions that you know if you had a clear head you’d be more than capable to make. 

What can you do to create a positive change in your life? 

Let’s look at how we can put in positive changes to our drinking habits that may help to increase our productivity:

1. Do you know how much alcohol you consume in an average week? Have a look at the Drink Aware website and use their calorie and unit calculator. Sometimes it’s only by seeing our own personal stats that can make us consider how this actually affects us on a personal level https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/tools/unit-and-calorie-calculator 
2. Keep a daily diary – I do this as it helps to write down what things went well in the day and what needed improving. You could also write down what alcohol you consumed that day and note how you slept that night and how you felt the next day – again, this can help us to make the links on why our productivity at work may not have been as we’d have liked.
3. Have alcohol free days – if doing a whole month of no alcohol sounds like a daunting prospect, take it down a notch. Have alcohol free days and make them part of your routine (I know a couple who have ‘dry Wednesdays’ – true story!). 
4. Substitutes - if you know you are going to be having a drink or two with friends (I know, hard to imagine in covid times), have one soft drink for every alcoholic drink. Make that conscious decision at the beginning of the evening to do this and maybe encourage your friends to do the same – they may well thank you the next day for it! 

Help and support

If you feel that you need help or support there are many organisations that can help.

The Mental Health Foundation says: “The reason we drink and the consequences of excessive drinking are linked with our mental health. Mental health problems not only result from drinking too much alcohol, they can also cause people to drink too much.” 

Please contact your GP or local counselling service if you are finding it hard to cope without alcohol. You can also find support in your local area on the NHS website: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/alcohol-support/