Additionally, alcohol causes skin inflammation, which can lead to inflammatory skin diseases such as psoriasis. How Alcohol Affects Your SleepAlcohol may help you fall asleep initially, but it actually disrupts deep and restorative sleep. Regularly drinking any amount of alcohol will raise levels of estrogen in the body, which increases breast cancer risk. Both heavy drinking and binge drinking can increase levels of cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone. While any amount of alcohol has been found to be harmful for certain markers of aging, long-term, heavy alcohol use and binge drinking are more likely to age you faster than low-to-moderate doses.