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The body is always making adjustments to things like temperature, blood sugar, heart rate and alertness. This ongoing process is called homeostasis.
When we get hot, we sweat. When our blood sugar drops, we feel hungry. And when something pushes the nervous system too far in one direction, the body makes adjustments in the other.
Most of the time, we don't even notice this happening. We just notice how we feel afterwards, without realising what caused it.
Alcohol becomes part of this process because it slows activity in the nervous system. And for a short time, that slowdown can feel like relief, quiet or drowsiness.
What alcohol changes
There is some chemistry behind this. GABA helps slow things down in the brain, while glutamate helps keep us alert. Alcohol affects both, which is part of the reason it can make us feel calmer or drowsy.
We don't need to remember the names. What matters is that the body notices the slowdown and begins making adjustments in the other direction.
With repeated drinking, those adjustments can become stronger. So the same amount of alcohol might not give us the same feeling anymore, and we need more to get the effect we used to get from less. This is tolerance.
What happens as alcohol wears off
The alcohol can wear off before all those adjustments do, and that can leave us feeling more switched on or stimulated than we were before.
And the result might be broken sleep, a racing mind, irritability, tension or waking up early and just being unable to settle again.
The next day, we might put the whole feeling down to work, anxiety or poor sleep. And yes, those things can be involved, but alcohol is usually part of it too.
How this can play out
The cycle might look something like this:
- We feel tense after work and have a drink to relax.
- The slowdown gives us a quick sense of relief.
- The body begins making adjustments in the other direction.
- The alcohol wears off, but those adjustments are still there.
- We sleep lightly and wake up feeling tired or on edge.
- By late afternoon, another drink looks like the quickest way to change how we feel.
The timing is what makes this so easy to miss. We feel the relief straight away, but the restless sleep or tension arrives later. So alcohol gets the credit for the relief, while work or life gets blamed for what comes afterwards.
When the usual drinking time comes around, another drink changes the feeling again. This makes it seem like alcohol is solving the problem, even though it's helping to keep the same cycle going.
What changes when we stop
Once alcohol is out of the routine, the nervous system isn't being pushed around in the same way. It has time to find its balance again.
Some people notice their sleep, anxiety and mood improving as things settle down. For others, it takes longer, particularly after long-term or heavy drinking.
The body isn't working against us. It's just responding to what alcohol is doing.
When we see that, the relief from the next drink makes a lot more sense. It changes the feeling for a while, but it also keeps the same process going.
— Brent
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