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Medical Lecture: Alcohol & Respiratory Drive.
One drink of 3 ounces 30 minutes prior to sleeping can turn a non snorer into a snorer, a snoring nonapneac into an apneac and an apneac into an apneac with deeper and longer episodes. Ethanol and benzodiazepines affect the area of the brain that has the highest concentration of glycimic receptors, the aread that controls the hypoglossal nerve which affects the retrusion of the tongue and also its protrusion which generally occurs in synchrony with the brain's commands to breathe. Apneas increase by more than sixty percent, desaturantion events triple, desaturation levels plunge. Of two non-apneac snorers who took one drink, one went from zero to 13 apneas, the other zero to sixty-two. Level of 0.083 (just over legal limit) results in fifty percent impairment in hypoglossal nerve function (used to keep the airway open) which has greatest effect during REM sleep which requires muscle atonia (this is what allows you to dream you are a boxer yet have your spouse not wake up bruised).
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