Alcohol affecting sleep

I was a daily drinker for years. I always managed to sleep fine when drunk, to the point that sometimes I could drink several bottles of wine and wake up feeling hungover but rested enough to carry on with my day. Obviously there were bad days but generally I slept fine and always managed to rest enough.

Over the last couple of months I have been sleeping terribly after drinking, to the extent that I can have a couple of beers and then try to sleep several hours later and struggle throughout the night. I always manage to get to sleep fine but then will wake up several times during the night for various reasons. Sometimes to be pee, sometimes for water but sometimes completely randomly. I can also tell that I have never been achieving deep sleep. I then really struggle to get back to sleep afterwards. Sometimes not manageaing to at all.

The unexpected benefit of this is that I have slashed my drinking habit and have been getting better rest when having a sober day. I have trialled this theory by drinking occasionally. On these days, without exception, the problem returns. I’m not drinking excessively when I do this. Last night I had two beers with dinner and then went to sleep about 3.5 hours later and had a terrible night’s sleep.

Any ideas what going on here? Is it a physical or mental problem? I’m open to any ideas or suggestions.