Lifehacker has an interesting piece on the effects of alcohol on your brain as well as the rest of you. Most of this isn’t news to me, but they do a good job debunking some persistent myths. If you’re going to enjoy beer in a responsible manner you should know this stuff.
Lifehacker: What Alcohol Actually Does to Your Brain and Body
Everyone, it seems, takes their cues on how alcohol affects the mind and body from an eclectic mix of knowledge: personal experience, pop culture, tall tales of long nights, the latest studies to make the health news wires, and second-hand tips. You might have gathered that alcohol is a depressant, that it’s dehydrating, that you can drink about one drink an hour and stay relatively sober. Some of that is true. But much of it depends on a large number of factors.
Bet you didn’t know: It’s not great as a sleep aid.
Just as with caffeine, your brain proves remarkably adept at adapting itself and responding to the ethanol molecules jamming up its receptors and interfering with neuron firings. It takes a bit for the brain to catch up, though, and when your brain starts kicking in and reclaiming all its nooks and crannies, it can wreak havoc on your crucial REM sleep, along with your more passive, general resting. If you’ve had caffeine, too, it’s a drug that can take up to 5 hours to break down half a dose. If it’s in your system at the same time as your brain is trying to compensate for alcohol, the combined “revenge” of both drugs can lead to some fairly restless sleep, according to [Stephen] Braun’s Buzz[: The Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine].
I’m a fan a D.G. Yuengling & Son. Since it’s the first brewery I ever toured it will always have special place in my heart. And, of course, I’m an NPR junkie. And on a recent Morning Edition, these two things intersected.
Yuengling, Oldest U.S. Beer Maker, Eyes Expansion
