Does drinking Alcohol affect Memory?
Some people wake up the next morning from a night of heavy drinking and think, what happened last night? Does drinking alcohol affect memory? Yes, there is a well-established connection between alcohol and memory impairment. Memory impairment can show up as anything from fuzzy recall to full-on blackout memory loss.
One of the major risks of alcohol abuse is the impact on memory. Research has found that alcohol primarily interferes with the brain’s ability to form new long-term memories. Alcohol impacts memory shortly after drinking and long after long-term use. This is due to its effect on memory consolidation, which is the process of transferring information from short-term to long-term storage.
How Alcohol and Memory are connected
When your brain takes in information, it gets stored in a place where it can be pulled back up later. When alcohol enters the brain, it disrupts this process, which is why drinking can impact memory-making. It changes how brain cells communicate with each other, especially in the areas that help you learn new information and build memories. Impairment of memory can begin even before you notice it.
Attention is the doorway to memory and if you’re not fully paying attention, the brain doesn’t encode the moment correctly. There are different regions of the brain that are involved in the formation, storage and retrieval of different types of memories. One of the most impacted areas of the brain that impacts memory is the hippocampus.
Research has consistently found that alcohol disrupts hippocampal activity in the brain. The hippocampus area of the brain is the part that helps people form and maintain their memories. Alcohol and hippocampus damage can make it more difficult to learn, remember names, or retain what you have just read.
The ability to store information across longer than a few seconds or to recall previously established long-term memories can be disrupted with alcohol abuse.
Symptoms of Alcohol-Related Memory Loss
- Being unable to recall events that occurred while drinking alcohol
- Difficulty remembering conversations had while under the influence of alcohol
- Experiencing gaps in memory or recalling only some events and not others that occurred while drinking alcohol
- Not remembering how you got home
- Missing chunks of the night despite being awake and active
- Relying on friends to fill in the gaps
- Finding evidence of actions that you cannot recall engaging in
Does drinking Alcohol affect memory? What is the impact on short-term and long-term memory?
Does drinking affect short-term memory? Yes. It can be the reason why people text the same thing twice, misplace items or lose track of conversations while drinking.
- Reduced focus and mental tracking
- Slower reaction times
- Forgetting what someone said just minutes before
- Repeating stories or questions
- Forgetting small events like where you put your keys
- Forgetting big events like what happened the night before
Does drinking impact long-term memory? Yes. Long-term and heavy alcohol users often experience malnutrition, which leads to a deficiency in vitamin B1. This specific nutrient provides energy to the brain and various nerve cells. This eventually leads to the inability to effectively process and retain memories from short-term to long-term.
Alcohol Induced Blackouts
Blackouts are common among heavy drinkers and those who have an alcohol addiction. They represent an episode of amnesia. Alcohol impairs the ability of a person to form new memories while they are intoxicated. Research has found that alcohol induced blackouts are more likely to occur when someone drinks on an empty stomach, drinks too quickly, or engages in binge drinking.
These types of problematic drinking patterns lead to a rise in blood alcohol content, which impacts blackouts. The amount of alcohol it takes to impact memory varies by each person. But it usually occurs when the blood alcohol concentration level reaches around 0.16%.
During a blackout, a person may walk, talk or even seem “okay”, but the brain isn’t saving the files into the storage.
There are two main types of alcohol induced blackouts.
En bloc blackouts occur when there are no short-term memories that are transferred to the long-term storage. A person will not be able to recall any details of events that occurred while under the influence of alcohol, even if they are reminded of details by friends or family. En bloc blackouts are complete memory gaps for a period of time and no amount of prompting can bring them back.
Fragmented blackouts are ones where a person may have spotty memories while drinking. They cannot recall the full event because only some of the short-term memories have been transferred to long-term storage. A person might be able to recall some details after others have confirmed them.
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Alcohol Induced Dementia
Dementia is a chronic degenerative condition that causes difficulty in thinking, lack of attention, short-term memory loss, behavioral changes and can cause changes in personality. It leads to impaired memory, thinking and overall memory functioning. Chronic alcohol use can lead to permanent brain damage and memory impairments also known as alcohol related dementia.
There are many factors that can contribute to the development of alcohol related dementia. Alcohol and its byproducts are toxic to the nervous system. Ingesting alcohol puts a person at risk for toxicity to the brain and body, which can increase the risk of alcohol related dementia. Heavy alcohol use also leads to a thiamine deficiency; this impacts memory function and overall brain function.
Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome
One of the most severe side effects of alcohol-related memory impairment is Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. This condition occurs in those who have a severe thiamine deficiency. It is also referred to as wet brain.
Common signs of this condition include:
- Confusion and disorientation
- Visual problems due to abnormal eye movements
- Lack of coordination and difficulty walking
- Memory impairment out of proportion to the situation
- Difficulty acquiring new memories
- Problems with critical thinking and decision making
- Making up stories to fill in the gaps – confabulation
- Coma
The recovery timeline: when does your memory come back?
The good news is that a lot of alcohol related memory difficulty is preventable and might even be reversible if treated effectively and early enough. The recovery timeline after heavy drinking varies.
The best way to heal the brain is to stop drinking alcohol completely. Once you do that, your memories may begin to come back slowly. The next day you may experience brain fog, poor attention and some recall of memories. After about 48 to 72 hours, some people may experience rebound sleep and an improvement in focus. After a few weeks, mood, energy and concentration are noticeably improving once heavy drinking stops. In the long run, with sustained abstinence from alcohol, some people see major improvements.
Reach out to Hotel California by the Sea
We specialize in treating addiction and other co-occurring disorders, such as PTSD. Our Admissions specialists are available to walk you through the best options for treating your addiction.
Treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder
Alcohol can play a considerably important role in memory and memory loss. Alcohol induced memory loss can last anywhere from minutes to hours to days to years depending on the severity of the alcohol abuse. Quitting alcohol is the best way to improve memory and heal the brain.
Hotel California by the Sea provides treatment at all levels of care including detox, residential, PHP and IOP. We offer evidence-based treatment methods such as CBT, DBT and group therapy. Hotel California by the Sea is dedicated to helping clients reach their goals in sobriety and overcome their addiction.
References:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6668891
https://www.healthline.com/health/alcoholism/alcohol-and-memory-loss
https://alcohol.org/health-effects/memory-loss
