You told yourself it helped you wind down. And honestly? It did. For a while. You’d pour a glass, feel your shoulders drop, and finally stop thinking for a minute. That felt like relief. That felt like sleep. 😴 But here’s what was actually happening. Alcohol sedates you. It doesn’t give you sleep. There’s a difference. Real sleep restores you. It cycles through the stages your brain needs to process the day, regulate your mood, repair your body, and wake you up feeling like a human being. Alcoh