Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsOnset of EffectsRelaxation or DrowsinessEuphoria or GiddinessChanges in MoodLowered InhibitionsImpulsive BehaviorSlowed or Slurred SpeechNausea and VomitingDiarrheaHeadacheVision and Hearing EffectsLoss of CoordinationMental FocusMemory GapsHangoverAlcohol Poisoning
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Onset of Effects
Relaxation or Drowsiness
Euphoria or Giddiness
Changes in Mood
Lowered Inhibitions
Impulsive Behavior
Slowed or Slurred Speech
Nausea and Vomiting
Diarrhea
Headache
Vision and Hearing Effects
Loss of Coordination
Mental Focus
Memory Gaps
Hangover
Alcohol Poisoning
Alcohol(ethanol) is an intoxicating substance found in beverages like wine, beer, and liquor.Shortly after consumption, your body rapidly absorbs alcohol into the bloodstream. Once in the bloodstream, alcohol affects every organ in the body, including your brain.
Drinking any amount or type of alcohol has a wide range of short- andlong-term effectson your physical and mental health. As acentral nervous systemdepressant, alcohol slows the body’s systems and leads to noticeable changes in cognitive and physical functions.
This article discusses everything you need to know about the short-term effects of alcohol.
Daniel de la Hoz / Getty Images
How Long Does It Take for Short-Term Effects of Alcohol to Appear?
The short-termeffects of alcoholappear quickly, typically within minutes after consuming your first drink. As you drink an alcoholic beverage, alcohol moves into your bloodstream through the stomach and small intestine.
Within five minutes, alcohol reaches your brain, slowing down the central nervous system and affecting the way you feel, think, and behave.
While the short-term effects of alcohol are universal, the time they take and the intensity of these effects vary from person to person. Alcohol can also affect the same person differently, depending on certain factors, including:
A Note on Gender and Sex TerminologyVerywell Health acknowledges thatsex and genderare related concepts, but they are not the same. To accurately reflect our sources, this article uses terms like “female,” “male,” “woman,” and “man” as the sources use them.
A Note on Gender and Sex Terminology
Verywell Health acknowledges thatsex and genderare related concepts, but they are not the same. To accurately reflect our sources, this article uses terms like “female,” “male,” “woman,” and “man” as the sources use them.
How Long Does It Take to Sober Up After Drinking?
Feelings of Relaxation or Drowsiness
As alcohol enters the bloodstream and reaches the brain, it binds to certainneurotransmitters(substances that facilitate communication between nerve cells) like gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate.
This slows the communication between brain cells and has a calming effect on the mind and body. This is why you might feel relaxed and as though your stress and tension are melting away when drinking alcohol. It’s also why alcohol can make you feelsleepyor drowsy, especially as your blood alcohol concentration rises.
How Do You Slow Your Heart Rate After Drinking Alcohol?
Alcohol consumption can sometimes lead to feelings of euphoria or giddiness. As alcohol enters the bloodstream and reaches the brain, it prompts the release ofdopamineandserotonin—two neurotransmitters associated with pleasure, reward, and happiness.
By promoting the release of these feel-good neurotransmitters, alcohol temporarily amplifies feelings of joy and lightheartedness.
While alcohol can initially boost your mood, these effects are temporary and wear off quickly.Alcohol impairs the brain’s ability to regulate emotions, and mood changes are common. As the night wears on, you may notice your cheerful feelings soon begin to shift to irritability, sadness, aggression, or anxiety.
Alcohol’s impact on neurotransmitters like serotonin and GABA can also contribute to mood changes the day after drinking.Once the effects of alcohol wear off,glutamate(a neurotransmitter) levels increase, which can lead to feelings of depression and anxiety, or"hangxiety" (hangover and anxiety), the day after drinking.
One of the best-known effects of drinking alcohol is lowered inhibitions. Alcohol disrupts the brain’sprefrontal cortex—the area responsible for judgment and self-control.When drinking alcohol, you may become less cautious and more likely to engage in behaviors and take risks you wouldn’t consider when sober.
For example, a usually shy and quiet person may become increasingly chatty, socially confident, and outgoing when drinking alcohol. Lowered inhibitions can also lead to poor decision-making and increase the risk of engaging in risky behaviors.
Lowered inhibitions when drinking alcohol can lead to impulsive behavior—engaging in behaviors without considering the potential consequences of your actions. The impairing effects of alcohol oncognitive functioning—including concentration, thinking, reasoning, and decision-making—play a role in increased impulsivity while drinking.
Impulsive behaviors can include making poor financial decisions (e.g., spending rent money on a round of drinks for your friends) or engaging in risky sexual behaviors (e.g., condomless sex).
Alcohol intoxication also is associated with an increased risk ofsuicidebecause lowered inhibitions and mood changes can lead tosuicidal ideation(thoughts or ideas about suicide) and increase the likelihood of impulsively acting on these thoughts.
Alcohol slows signals from the brain to the muscles responsible for the coordination and control of muscles involved in speech, leading to a noticeable slowing down or slurring of words when intoxicated.
Alcohol’s impact on cognitive functioning can also make it challenging for people drinking alcohol to form and verbally express coherent thoughts.
Alcohol increases the production of stomach acids and can lead to reflux (stomach acids backing up into the esophagus and the throat). Alcohol also irritates the stomach lining, leading to inflammation (gastritis), which can make you feel nauseated and throw up.
Yourliver breaks down alcoholand converts it into a toxin and known carcinogen called acetaldehyde.When you drink large amounts of alcohol or drink more quickly than the liver can metabolize it, alcohol accumulates in your bloodstream, triggering vomiting.
Alcohol causes irritation and inflammation along your gastrointestinal (GI) tract, disrupting normal digestive function. Evidence suggests that certain alcoholic beverages, such as wine and beer, appear to accelerate the movement of food and waste through the digestive system, which can lead todiarrhea.
Alcohol can also disrupt the balance of bacteria in yourgut microbiome(the community of microbes that live in your digestive tract), leading to an overgrowth of certain bacteria that contribute to GI inflammation and diarrhea.
Getting a headache is a common experience after drinking too much alcohol. A combination of factors can contribute toalcohol-induced headaches, including the following:
Does Alcohol Dehydrate You? (And What You Can Do About It)
Changes in Vision, Hearing, and Perception
Alcohol disrupts the communication between the brain and sensory organs (e.g., eyes and ears), leading to changes in vision, hearing, and perception of the sounds and sights around you.
Alcohol can disrupt the transmission of auditory signals from the ears to the brain and increase blood flow to the ears, resulting in tinnitus (ringing in the ears), difficulty distinguishing sounds, and trouble perceiving subtle differences in pitch or tone.
Excessive drinkingalso commonly causes vision changes, such as blurred vision, double vision, or difficulty focusing. Alcohol impairs the signals from the eyes to the brain and affects the muscles that control eye movement, leading to weakened eye-muscle control and decreased peripheral vision (seeing to your left and right sides).
Loss of coordination (ataxia) is a common short-term effect of alcohol and is linked to how alcohol affects the brain’s cerebellum. The cerebellum is the brain’s control center for movement, balance, and coordination.
Alcohol impairs the cerebellum’s ability to process information and coordinate muscle movements effectively, leading to a loss of balance, unsteady gait (manner of walking), and difficulty performing fine motor skills (e.g., grasping).
What’s the Link Between Alcohol and Heart Disease?
Trouble Focusing or Making Decisions
Alcohol disrupts the brain’s functioning in several ways, leading to trouble focusing and making decisions. Because alcohol is a depressant, it disrupts normal brain functions, making it harder to concentrate on tasks that require focused attention.
The frontal cortex is the brain’s center for higher-order functions like planning, decision-making, and impulse control. Alcohol disrupts frontal cortex functioning, leading to poor judgment, difficulty weighing options logically, and increased impulsivity.
Alcohol also impairs working memory, making it harder to keep track of details, follow instructions, and complete complex tasks that require ongoing mental processing.
Loss of Consciousness or Gaps in Memory
After a night of drinking, you may have gaps in memory, in which you recall some details from a situation or event but forget others. Alcohol’s impact on memory and consciousness is based on its effect on thehippocampus, the part of the brain that controls memory and learning.
When you consume alcohol, the effects of alcohol on the hippocampus make the formation of long-term memories less likely. Alcohol-related blackouts (gaps in your memory while drinking alcohol) can occur because alcohol hinders the ability of the hippocampus to transfer short-term memory to long-term storage in the brain.
While the short-term mood-boosting effects of alcohol can be enjoyable for some, they often come with a price: ahangover. A hangover is a set of unpleasant symptoms that can occur after consuming too much alcohol, including:
Several factors can contribute to a hangover, including:
Can Alcohol Cause a Heart Attack?
Alcohol poisoning, or alcohol overdose, occurs when you drink more than your body can handle. Your BAC increases to the point that it disrupts areas of the brain controlling essential functions like heart rate, breathing, and temperature control.
Symptoms of alcohol poisoning include:
Alcohol poisoning can quickly become life-threatening and requires prompt medical treatment. Call911for help if you suspect someone is experiencing alcohol poisoning. Symptoms can vary from person to person, so it’s best to exercise caution and seek medical help if someone you are with shows signs of extreme alcohol intoxication.
A Word From VerywellAlcohol poisoning can be dangerous and life-threatening. It is important to always consume in moderation and to seek care if you exceed your limits. Luckily, alcohol poisoning is very treatable with prompt care.—MICHAEL MENNA, DO, MEDICAL EXPERT BOARD
A Word From Verywell
Alcohol poisoning can be dangerous and life-threatening. It is important to always consume in moderation and to seek care if you exceed your limits. Luckily, alcohol poisoning is very treatable with prompt care.—MICHAEL MENNA, DO, MEDICAL EXPERT BOARD
Alcohol poisoning can be dangerous and life-threatening. It is important to always consume in moderation and to seek care if you exceed your limits. Luckily, alcohol poisoning is very treatable with prompt care.
—MICHAEL MENNA, DO, MEDICAL EXPERT BOARD
Summary
The short-term effects of alcohol develop quickly—within minutes after your first drink—impacting mood, coordination, speech, memory, and behavior.
While many people who drink alcohol initially experience relaxation or euphoria, these feelings are temporary. Negative emotions, poor judgment, and changes to your vision, hearing, coordination, and memory-making abilities often follow.
Alcohol disrupts normal brain function, leading to lowered inhibitions, impulsive behavior, and difficulty focusing or making decisions.
Binge drinking(drinking excessive amounts) and drinking too quickly can trigger unpleasant symptoms that occur the night of or the day after drinking, including headaches, diarrhea, dehydration, nausea, and vomiting. Drinking too much or too quickly can lead to alcohol poisoning. This is a potentially life-threatening situation that requires immediate medical attention.
If you choose to drink alcohol, drink responsibly. This means pacing yourself, eating before drinking, knowing your limits, and avoiding excessive consumption.
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