Dissolving Metal Reductions of Organic Compounds
There are plenty of examples where ethanol is present at over 10ml/g for this reaction. The key thing is that this is transfer of a single electron from Na initially. Where would this go onto ethanol? Clearly, it is faster to transfer an electron to an unsaturated compound i. e. The carbonyl compound. Once this occurs, protons are transferred. The movement of electrons and protons is fast compared to getting the two requisite H's together to form hydrogen and drive the alternative reaction.