Drinking alcohol and sleeping on planes not a heart-healthy combo, study finds

Do you like to imbibe in a little alcohol on your flight, and then settle in for a nap? German researchers are warning that the combination may be harmful for your heart – especially during long flights.

The researchers divided 48 healthy people into two groups. One group was placed in an altitude chamber that mimicked cabin air pressure at cruising altitude (about 8,000 feet above sea level). The other group spent time in a sleep laboratory under normal ambient air pressure conditions (sea level). All the participants slept for four hours, and half of each group drank alcohol beforehand.

The participants who slept in the altitude chamber after drinking alcohol had, on average, a heart rate of 88 beats per minute and an average blood oxygen saturation of 85%. By comparison, the readings for the other half of the group averaged 73 bpm and an 88% SpO2.

The averages for the group that slept in the lab:

• Non-alcohol: 64 bpm and a 96% SpO2
• Alcohol: 77 bpm and a 95% SpO2

The participants who drank alcohol before sleeping in the altitude chamber also spent less time in the deepest stage of sleep (average of 46.5 minutes) compared with people in the sleep lab (after alcohol, 84 minutes and without alcohol, 67.5 minutes).

“Together, these results indicate that, even in young and healthy individuals, the combination of alcohol intake with sleeping under hypobaric conditions poses a considerable strain on the cardiac system and might lead to exacerbation of symptoms in patients with cardiac or pulmonary diseases,” the researchers said.

The study was published online in the journal Thorax.