{"id":785046,"date":"2026-09-28T07:28:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T07:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/785046\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T07:28:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T07:28:49","slug":"why-alcohol-makes-you-more-tired-as-you-get-older","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/785046\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Alcohol Makes You More Tired As You Get Older"},"content":{"rendered":"

You probably don\u2019t need an expert to tell you that alcohol messes with your body, especially when you\u2019re well past your college years. Alcohol can make you more anxious as you age<\/a>, for example (hello, \u201changxiety\u201d) and just generally make you feel worse<\/a> \u2014 including more tired.<\/p>\n

If a night out is starting to lead to a night in much quicker than usual, or drinking isn\u2019t fun anymore because you feel sleepy instead of silly, you\u2019re not alone \u2014 and there\u2019s a scientific reason.<\/p>\n

Ahead, addiction experts share why drinking alcohol is more likely to make you feel tired when you\u2019re older, other effects you might notice and when they typically show up.<\/p>\n

Why Drinking Alcohol Is More Likely To Make You Feel Tired As You Age<\/p>\n

We\u2019re looking at one main answer here.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlcohol is a central nervous system depressant, and the brain becomes more sensitive to its sedating effects with age,\u201d said Dr. Urvi Natha, <\/a>a licensed clinical psychologist with Oro Recovery and the founder of Shanti Recovery and Wellness.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because of changes in body composition. \u201cAs we age, lean body mass and total body water decrease, leaving less volume in which alcohol can distribute,\u201d said Dr. Amy Swift, <\/a>a psychiatrist and the deputy medical officer at Silver Hill Hospital.<\/p>\n

This starts earlier than you might guess, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cStarting around age 30, we lose about 3% to 8% of our lean muscle mass each decade,\u201d said Dr. James Sherer, <\/a>an addiction psychiatrist and network medical director at Hackensack Meridian Health Addiction Service. \u201cFat tissue then replaces the lost muscle mass.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Feeling<\/p>\n

LordHenriVoton via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Feeling extra tired isn\u2019t the only complication you\u2019ll notice. As mentioned earlier, anxiety is a major one.<\/p>\n

If you think the tiredness may make it easier for you to fall asleep<\/a>, not so fast. To make matters worse, even though you\u2019re sleepy, you probably won\u2019t sleep well. Talk about a double-whammy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile alcohol might make you pass out, it destroys sleep quality by blocking REM<\/a> (rapid eye movement) and deep restorative sleep,\u201d Sherer explained. \u201cBecause natural sleep architecture already becomes lighter and more fragmented as we age, adding alcohol guarantees you will wake up exhausted, irritable and physically fatigued.\u201d (Side note: \u201cJunk sleep<\/a>\u201d or fragmented sleep is also linked to 172 diseases<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the fact that older individuals may be more likely to have additional health issues or take more medications.<\/p>\n

\u201cMedications, sleep apnea and other medical conditions can compound the problem,\u201d said Dr. Lucas Trautman, <\/a>an addiction psychiatrist with American Addiction Center.<\/p>\n

He recalled patients reporting they slept a full seven or eight hours after drinking, but still waking up exhausted.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlcohol may facilitate unconsciousness, but unconsciousness and healthy sleep are not physiologically equivalent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

How Alcohol Affects Your Body And Feels Different As You Age<\/p>\n

Feeling extra tired isn\u2019t the only complication you\u2019ll notice. As mentioned earlier, anxiety is a major one. Doctors also listed the following:<\/p>\n

Alcohol can worsen high blood sugar.<\/p>\n

Taking more medications means more possible interactions with the alcohol. This could contribute to increased drowsiness, dizziness or the medicine being less effective, to name a few examples.<\/p>\n

You may continue to lose sight of the severity of your drinking.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re more likely to notice cognitive effects, particularly with balance and memory. The former contributes to a higher risk of falls<\/a> and fractures.<\/p>\n

The aftereffects can be more pronounced and disruptive the following day.<\/p>\n

Alcohol can affect multiple parts of the body in multiple ways, such as contributing to dehydration, worsening GERD and triggering atrial fibrillation. It\u2019s also a carcinogen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

franck metois via Getty Images<\/p>\n

A nightcap may help you fall asleep faster, but it\u2019ll hurt the quality of your sleep throughout the night.<\/p>\n

Which Effects You\u2019ll Probably Notice From Alcohol, Depending On Your Life Stage<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no particular age when you\u2019ll notice those shifts, experts say. Plus, other factors are still at play, like body composition, health profile, gender and what you ate that day.<\/p>\n

However, Swift has noticed that people in their 40s typically find that alcohol \u201cgoes to their head\u201d more quickly, and she noted that physiology backs that up. Sherer has heard of people experiencing this as early as their mid-30s.<\/p>\n

Natha added that different life stages can bring different effects from alcohol. Generally speaking \u2014 and unfortunately \u2014 you\u2019ll notice the tiredness worsen. She said that young adults can recover from that most quickly, then middle-agers, then older adults.<\/p>\n

Even for young adults, these side effects can be problematic, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cA younger adult may tolerate dehydration<\/a> and a disrupted night of sleep and still function reasonably well the following day, [but] that does not mean the alcohol had no biological effect,\u201d Trautman clarified.<\/p>\n

Sherer spoke more about the effects that middle-aged people often experience. \u201cPeople in this age bracket often report that drinking makes them immediately sleepy, and the lingering fatigue from disrupted sleep lasts well into the workweek,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is when the infamous \u2018two-day hangover\u2019 appears.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trautman added that those individuals are more likely to notice impaired concentration, irritability, fatigue and reduced exercise performance.<\/p>\n

By the time you reach your 60s and 70s, Sherer said, alcohol \u201cfunctions heavily as a sedative,\u201d and your aging body \u201csimply cannot process\u201d as much alcohol safely. Trautman noted \u201ca more consequential effect\u201d on balance, reaction time, blood pressure, cognition and medical safety.<\/p>\n

These age-related changes show up when people are getting sober from alcohol, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addiction treatment, this contrast can be striking,\u201d Swift said. \u201cA 20-year-old drinking 10 beers daily may show little evidence of withdrawal, while a 60-year-old drinking a bottle of wine each day may require medically supervised withdrawal management.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, while it may be annoying, it\u2019s true: Alcohol has worsening effects on the body as we get older. It\u2019s just not worth it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile our drinking habits may stay the same, as we age, their impact on our bodies grows more profound,\u201d Natha concluded.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t fall into the trap of thinking you\u2019re \u201ctoo young\u201d for it, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have seen severe consequences of alcohol use disorder in people who are remarkably young,\u201d Trautman said. \u201cI have treated patients in their mid-30s who already had liver failure<\/a> and other advanced medical complications related to alcohol. That clinical reality challenges the idea that serious alcohol-related disease develops only in old age or only after many decades of drinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Need help with substance use disorder or mental health issues? In the U.S., call 800-662-HELP (4357) for the SAMHSA National Helpline<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You probably don\u2019t need an expert to tell you that alcohol messes with your body, especially when you\u2019re…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1934,235,17892,59,102,370,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-785046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-aging","tag-alcohol","tag-fatigue","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-sleep","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}