Millions of stressed out Brits are boozing themselves to sleep every night.
Under pressure men and women are ditching Ovaltine, Horlicks, cocoa, hot milk and other traditional bed time drinks and turning to alcohol instead, according to a new study.
More than five million adults are reaching for the drinks cabinet and downing wine, spirits, lager and beer to help make them drowsy.
Around 1.6 million men (7.5%) pour a glass of whiskey every night to help them drop off while almost one million will reach for other spirits like Bacardi, vodka, gin and cognac.
Over 650,000 men drink wine, lager or beer.
Females prefer wine. Almost 1.3 million (5.8%) sit down at the end of the night with a glass of red or white.
More than 400,000 down lager or beer, while over a third of a million will have a whiskey or other spirits.
In all 3.27 million men are boozing before bed to help them unwind along with 2.08 million women, according to a survey by Travelodge.
And while tea came top of the 2,000 people study by the hotel chain with around a quarter of the nation admitting they prefer a cuppa, the real shock was the amount of Brits who prefer booze.
The top tipples for men are tea (25%) and coffee (12%) with the same number - 7.5% turning to cold milk, water or whiskey.
Womens bedtime drink list is topped by tea (22%) with water coming in second 15 followed by coffee (8%), hot chocolate (6.3%) and wine (5.8%).
Travelodge's Director of Sleep, Wayne Munnelly said: "Our poll does not really make encouraging reading for the nation. Tea and alcohol are not ideal bedtime drinks. Tea contains caffeine, a stimulant, which has an alerting or wake-up effect and will not aid a good night's sleep - in fact it has the opposite effect.
"Alcohol may initially calm you, but will result in disrupting effects on your sleep during the night. It will also dehydrate you.
"To aid a good night's sleep you should take a glass of warm milk 15 minutes before going to bed. If you dont like milk, try a cup of hot camomile, catnip, anise or fennel tea. All contain natural ingredients which will help you sleep".
Millions more men are also finishing the night off with sugary snacks. Just over 10 million men (46%) have a snack before bed - but more than two million blokes (19.9%) are turning to fattening biscuits, chocolate or cake.
Thats almost ten times the number of women. Just over 4.5 million women have a snack before they hit the sack but only 281,000 give in to their sugar cravings each night.
-ENDS-
For further information, please contact:
Shakila Ahmed
Travelodge PR Manager
Direct Line: 01844 35 8638
Mobile: 07802 702 499
Notes to Editor -
The table below illustrates UK city breakdown of bedtime alcoholic drink preference
Aberdeen - Whiskey
Belfast - Wine
Birmingham - Wine
Bradford - Spirits
Bristol - Whiskey
Leicester - Whiskey
Leeds - Spirits
Liverpool - Spirits
London - Wine
Maidstone - Wine
Newcastle - Wine
Sheffield - Lager
Swansea - Lager
Southampton - Wine
Wolverhampton - Wine
Travelodge research conducted by 72 point in June 2006 among 2000 UK adults.
Figures based on Office of National Statistics:
- 46,613,000 Britons over 18 yrs (24,121,700 women and 22,491,300 men)
Travelodge was the first budget hotel brand to launch in the UK in 1985. There are 292 Travelodge hotels in city centre's, airports and near all major attractions.
For more information on Travelodge, visit www.travelodge.co.uk