Could Alcohol Potentially Improve Your Memory?

_{Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education}

Hello you beautiful/handsome/non-binary reader. I’m sure you’re finding it hard to believe the title of the post. Yet you still clicked because you probably figured to yourself that it wasn’t just a baseless claim. Don’t worry, this is news to me too.

Not too long ago we made a post explaining why the act of being drunk feels fun. In it, there was a part where we mentioned how certain neurotransmitters are affected by alcohol, then make you forgetful. So how could it possibly improve one’s memory?

_{Let’s find out:}

Walking The Tightrope Of Intoxication

It’s a fact that alcohol messes with the way we remember certain moments, especially after consuming countless drinks back-to-back. However, according to The Guardian, they’ve discovered that alcohol might actually help recall moments rather than just forget them.

In some instances, our brains experience a phenomena called ‘state-specific recall‘. While some memories can be recalled by revisiting the place you acquired them, state-specific recall works when you brain is an altered state (e.g: buzzing on alcohol), hence the name.

This phenomena only occurs when your brain is at the point before you consider yourself drunk – so when you’re tipsy basically (but not too tipsy, mind you). It’s at this stage of mild intoxication where certain pieces of information are better ingrained.

The Wonders Of Mood Poisoning

Your mood when processing information also plays a fairly large role in how well you remember the info presented to you. You may find this surprising (I did), but recalling very specific moments is easier to do if you were in a bad mood at the time.

Think about it for a moment, then tell me which memories you have (where alcohol was present) stick out more. The ones where you were having the time of your life or really bad moments which lead to horrible incidents?

Perhaps you’d say the positive ones stick out more, which is fair – but if something bad happens, we’ll subconsciously train our brains to forget those types of events. But just think and you’ll remember every single detail like it had only happened recently.

^{(Unless of course you were blackout drunk, but as I said earlier – tipsy, not drunk).}

Tipsy And The Brain

Even science has yet to explain why this phenomena occurs or even exists at all. That being said, I’m not encouraging you to be in a bad mood when going out for a drink (because nobody likes a party pooper).

Remember, the keyword is tipsy. Regardless of what mood you’re currently feeling at that stage of your drinking session, information given to you will stick in your head much easier.

^{Still don’t believe me? Put this theory to the test with today’s daily picks:}