It is well-understood already that alcohol makes it easier to fall asleep but worsens sleep quality and reduces REM sleep. (Google “alcohol and REM sleep” to see what I mean)
Medical Xpress has misunderstood that the novel element here is the study of the impact on regular, consecutive consumption of alcohol, I think?
The linked paper is open access and explains the novel part very well but the watermark on the PDF makes my eyes bleed. Probably I should have linked it instead of the ScienceX recap, which I do fairly often.
On the other hand there are many papers that come to a strong conclusion but you wouldn't get that from reading the title and popular articles sometimes do do a better job of explaining the importance of the work. (e.g. some really technical thing about Metal Organic Frameworks might have big technological consequences) I find the HN community is likely to complain about a ScienceX post having obnoxious ads but that on Mastodon or Tildes I am likely to get comments like "I wish I could understand that" when I post journal articles, even when they are relatively easy to read.
Medical Xpress has misunderstood that the novel element here is the study of the impact on regular, consecutive consumption of alcohol, I think?