Have you ever woken up after drinking and struggled to remember how you got home? This gap in memory is known as an alcohol blackout. But what does alcohol blackout mean, and why does it happen?
At Altruism Counseling Services, we want everyone in our community to have a safe and positive future. Alcohol blackouts can lead to serious risks and consequences. That’s why we’re exploring what alcohol blackouts are, how alcohol impacts short-term memory, and how you can prevent them.
An alcohol blackout occurs when heavy drinking prevents the formation of memories. Knowing what causes alcohol blackouts helps you prevent them. There are two main types: fragmented blackouts, where memories are hazy, and en bloc blackouts, where memories don’t form at all.
Alcohol blackouts prevent the brain from properly forming and retaining memories.
The first is a fragmented blackout, sometimes called a “brownout” or a “greyout.” After you’re no longer intoxicated, you can remember bits and pieces of what happened the night before, but the details are hazy. Often, there are gaps of time in between short memories. In some cases, you may better remember what happened by talking to someone who recalls the blackout or by using other memory cues.
The other type of blackout is what’s called “en bloc”. In this type of blackout, you have no recollection of events that occurred after you started drinking. The memories simply didn’t form, and you don’t have the ability to regain them. From your perspective, it will be like nothing happened during this period. With an en bloc blackout, you will likely pass out due to your BAC. When you wake up, you will be able to form new memories again, but you won’t have any recollection of what happened to you before you passed out.
Alcohol blackouts happen due to alcohol disrupting memory formation in the hippocampus. This explains what happens when you blackout from alcohol.
When you’re forming short-term memory, the hippocampus temporarily stores information while pieces of information go to different brain regions for long-term storage. The cerebral cortex is then responsible for most long-term, episodic memories. Other memories, like emotions, are stored in the amygdala.
When you black out from alcohol, it’s because your high BAC is interfering with this process. Specifically, alcohol alters the function of the synapses within the hippocampus. Since the hippocampus is the key to forming new memories, the memory-making process breaks down at this early stage. The severity to which the hippocampus is impacted depends on how much alcohol you have in your system at one time, which is why some people experience partial blackouts. In contrast, others lose entire chunks of time.
The severity to which the hippocampus is impacted depends on how much alcohol you have in your system at one time, which is why some people experience partial blackouts, while others lose entire chunks of time. Additionally, understanding how long alcohol stays in your system can help you better manage your drinking habits and reduce the risk of blackouts.
Blacking out isn’t just about losing the memory of what happened while you were intoxicated. There are other short and long-term consequences of impaired decision-making.
In the short term, drinking to the point that you black out could lead to:
Regularly drinking to the point that you black out can also lead to serious health conditions that impact you in the long term. Common examples include:
Blacking out from alcohol consumption can also cause other issues. Extreme alcohol consumption contributes to complicated social relationships, financial strain, and difficulty managing your responsibilities.
Understanding the stages of alcoholism can help you identify when drinking behaviors become problematic and may lead to blackouts. The progression typically includes early-stage alcohol misuse, increased tolerance, dependence, and chronic alcoholism. Recognizing these stages early can be key to prevention and effective intervention.
Alcohol blackouts prevent the brain from properly forming and retaining memories.
It’s difficult to know exactly how common blackouts are, but we do know that people are more likely to make poor decisions when they drink heavily enough to black out. In 2022, 21% of all fatal car accidents involved alcohol. How many of those drivers would have been able to remember the night’s events if they’d lived to see the next morning?
Understanding what happens when you blackout from alcohol highlights risks like accidents, mood changes, violence, unsafe sex, and impaired decision-making. Regular blackouts can lead to severe long-term health problems.
Anyone with a BAC of about .16% or higher is at immediate risk of experiencing a blackout. To get a BAC that high (twice the legal limit), you would have to consume a lot of alcohol quickly, otherwise known as binge drinking. Some data suggest that certain people are at a higher risk of binge drinking than others. Having a high BAC due to binge drinking is primarily what causes blackouts when drinking alcohol. Other risk factors include genetics, mental health conditions, and certain social situations.
Binge drinking is defined as 5 or more drinks in one sitting for men and 4 for women. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), roughly 1 in every 6 Americans participates in binge drinking, and 25% of that group does so on a weekly basis. According to a study by the CDC, binge drinking is most common among white adult men between the ages of 25 and 35. Men who were widowed or divorced were at significantly higher risk for binge drinking than married men. The study also indicated that binge drinking was most common among people who made less than $75,000 a year. However, it was more common among people with a college degree than those with a high school diploma or less.
Other risk factors can make you much more likely to binge drink to the point that you black out as well. Having a familial history of alcohol use disorder (AUD) increases the chances that you’ll binge drink. You’re also more likely to drink in excess if you are trying to manage a mental health condition.
Just because you don’t belong to one of these groups doesn’t mean that you can’t black out from drinking. For example, even though women in this study binge drank less often than men, women reach their peak BAC more quickly than men, which means they can black out faster.
Binge drinking is also more common under certain circumstances, like when you’re playing a drinking game or you’re not measuring out your drinks. These conditions make blacking out much more likely.
If you’re living with AUD, it might feel like blackouts are a normal part of drinking, but there are steps you can take to prevent blackouts without giving up alcohol altogether.
4 strategies for preventing blackouts include:
Excessive drinking can lead to immediate dangers and severe long-term health issues
If you or your loved one has blacked out due to alcohol consumption, you know just how frustrating these blackouts can be. Often, repeated blackouts are a warning sign of a complicated relationship with alcohol. If you’re living with AUD, then alcoholism treatment would be a good fit for you.
Altruism Counseling Services is located in Lexington, KY. Rooted in the principles of AA, we prioritize individual counseling for all of our clients who are recovering from alcohol use disorder. We also provide DUI classes at some of the lowest rates in the state. To get started today, call us at 859-310-6505.
