Alcohol Induced Insomnia

Heavy drinkers are more likely than non- or occasional drinkers to suffer insomnia. Falling asleep might not be the problem, but staying asleep can be. And, this alcohol-induced insomnia can persist long after a person quits drinking, making the effort to stay sober doubly hard. The effects of alcohol on fruit flies are similar to those on humans. It causes inebriation, leads to tolerance with repeated exposures and, according to recent research, can induce insomnia. In flies, certain brain regions linked to this latter effect have been identified (the central green shapes, known as mushroom bodies). Indeed, reducing the activity of the mushroom body cholinergic neurons, exacerbated the disruptive effects of alcohol on the insects’ sleep. The similarities between flies and humans suggests the insects are great models not only for studying alcohol’s effects, but maybe even for developing better, more targeted sleep medications.

Written by Ruth Williams

Ruth Williams

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Ruth is a freelance science journalist based in the US. She's a regular correspondent for The Scientist, and her work has appeared in The Lancet, Nature, Scientific American Mind, BBC Focus and elsewhere. Twitter @rooph

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• Image Adrian Rothenfluh et al, Current Biology, posted on EurekAlert! From work by Maggie M. Chvilicek and colleagues
• Department of Psychiatry, Huntsman Mental Health Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT USA
• Image usage restrictions: Use with credit, which equates to a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Research published in Current Biology, March 2025