1. THE REBOUND
Wine Quiets Cortisol at 7pm. Then It Spikes It Back at 3am.
Alcohol suppresses cortisol while you're awake — that's the landing feeling, the "okay I can finally stop now." But while you sleep, your body rebounds. Cortisol surges to compensate, usually between 1am and 4am. That's not bad sleep. That's a predictable cortisol event.
That's where the 3am problem comes in. The wine isn't failing you. The rebound mechanism is. And the rebound gets worse over time as your baseline climbs — which is why you need more to feel the same thing, and why mornings keep getting harder.
