Alcohol is a GABA receptor agonist, similar to many sleep drugs. It isn't necessarly REM vs deep sleep; it sounds like alcohol is metabolized quickly enough th

Alcohol is a GABA receptor agonist, similar to many sleep drugs. It isn't necessarly REM vs deep sleep; it sounds like alcohol is metabolized quickly enough that there can be a REM rebound effect later in the night when most REM sleep happens anyway[1]. I doubt REM and deep sleep cover much of of the important aspects of how medication affects sleep, it is just the available measurement not necessarily a particularly good one (not that it is unimporatant, it is just an extremely high level overview of what is going on). [1] Roehrs and Roth. Sleep, Sleepiness, and Alcohol Use. Alcohol Res Health. 2001; 25(2): 101–109. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6707127/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6707127/