Why Alcohol Makes You More Tired as You Get Older

You probably don’t need an expert to tell you that alcohol is harming your body, especially when you’re well past your college years. Alcohol can make you more anxious as you get older, for example (hello, “anxiety”) and generally make you feel worse or even more tired.

If a night out is starting to end a lot quicker than usual, or if drinking isn’t fun anymore because you’re feeling sleepy instead of stupid, you’re not alone — and there’s a scientific reason.

In an upcoming article, addiction experts explain why drinking alcohol is more likely to make you tired when you’re older, other effects you might notice, and when they typically appear.

Here we look at one main answer.

“Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, and the brain becomes more sensitive to its sedative effects as we age,” said Dr. Urvi Natha, a licensed clinical psychologist at Oro Recovery and founder of Shanti Recovery and Wellness.

This is due to changes in body composition. “As we age, lean mass and total body water decrease, leaving less volume in which alcohol can distribute,” said Dr. Amy Swift, psychiatrist and physician assistant at Silver Hill Hospital.

It also starts earlier than you think.

“Starting around age 30, we lose about 3 to 8 percent of our lean muscle mass every decade,” said Dr. James Sherer, an addiction psychiatrist and medical director of the Hackensack Meridian Health Addiction Service network. “Adipose tissue then replaces the lost muscle mass. »

If you think fatigue might help you fall asleep easier, not so fast. Worse yet, even if you’re sleepy, you probably won’t sleep well. Talk about a double whammy.

“Although alcohol can make you pass out, it destroys sleep quality by blocking REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and deep, restorative sleep,” Sherer explained. “Because the natural architecture of sleep already becomes lighter and more fragmented as we age, adding alcohol ensures that you will wake up feeling exhausted, irritable, and physically tired.” (Note: “Junk sleep” or fragmented sleep is also linked to 172 diseases.)

It should also be considered that older people may be more likely to have additional health problems or take more medications.

“Medications, sleep apnea and other medical problems can make the problem worse,” said Dr. Lucas Trautman, an addiction psychiatrist at the American Addiction Center.

He remembers patients reporting that they slept a full seven or eight hours after drinking, but still woke up feeling exhausted.

“Alcohol may facilitate unconsciousness, but unconsciousness and healthy sleep are not physiologically equivalent,” he said.

Feeling extra tired isn’t the only complication you’ll notice. As mentioned earlier, anxiety is a major problem. Doctors also listed the following:

• Alcohol can make high blood sugar worse.

• Taking more medications means more possible interactions with alcohol. This could contribute to increased drowsiness, dizziness, or make the medication less effective, to name a few.

• You may continue to lose sight of the seriousness of your drinking.

• You are more likely to notice cognitive effects, especially on balance and memory. The former contributes to a higher risk of falls and fractures.

• The after-effects can be more pronounced and disturbing the next day.

• Alcohol can affect many parts of the body in several ways, such as contributing to dehydration, worsening GERD, and triggering atrial fibrillation. It is also a carcinogen.

There’s no particular age to notice these changes, experts say. Plus, other factors always come into play, like body composition, health profile, gender, and what you ate that day.

However, Swift noticed that people in their 40s generally find that alcohol “goes to their heads” more quickly, and she noted that physiology supports this. Sherer has heard of people experiencing this phenomenon as early as their 30s.

Natha added that different stages of life can lead to different effects of alcohol. Generally speaking – and unfortunately – you will notice fatigue getting worse. She said young adults can recover more quickly, then middle-aged people, then older adults.

Even for young adults, these side effects can be problematic.

“A younger adult can tolerate dehydration and a disrupted night’s sleep and still function reasonably well the next day, (but) that doesn’t mean the alcohol had no biological effects,” Trautman said.

Sherer spoke more about the effects that middle-aged people often experience. “People in this age group often report that drinking immediately makes them drowsy, and persistent fatigue from disrupted sleep lasts well into the work week,” he said. “That’s when the famous ‘two-day hangover’ appears.”

Trautman added that these people are more likely to notice difficulty concentrating, irritability, fatigue and decreased physical performance.

By the time you reach your 60s and 70s, Sherer said, alcohol “works strongly as a sedative” and your aging body “just can’t process” that much alcohol safely. Trautman noted “a larger effect” on balance, reaction time, blood pressure, cognition and medical safety.

These age-related changes also appear when people become sober from alcohol.

“In addiction treatment, this contrast can be stark,” Swift said. “A 20-year-old who drinks 10 beers a day may show few signs of withdrawal, while a 60-year-old who drinks a bottle of wine every day may require withdrawal management under medical supervision.”

So while it may be annoying, it’s true: alcohol has worsening effects on the body as we age. It’s just not worth it.

“Although our drinking habits remain the same, as we age, their impact on our bodies becomes more profound,” Natha concluded.

However, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you are “too young” for this.

“I’ve seen serious consequences of alcohol use disorders in remarkably young people,” Trautman said. “I have treated patients in their 30s who already suffered from liver failure and other advanced alcohol-related medical complications. This clinical reality challenges the idea that serious alcohol-related illnesses only develop in old age or only after several decades of alcohol consumption.”

Need help with a substance use disorder or mental health issues? In the United States, call 800-662-HELP (4357) to obtain the National SAMHSA Helpline.

The original version of this story was published on HuffPost earlier.