If the film breaks, you can no longer remember an entire evening or at least certain phases. You can find out what happens in your brain here.
If we drink large amounts of alcohol, it can happen that we wake up the next morning and can hardly remember the previous evening. This is called a film tear or blackout. We then no longer know what we said or did in certain situations and may therefore feel shame and insecurity.
According to the Federal Center for Health Education (BzgA), a distinction is made between the complete and the fragmentary film tear, depending on how much we can still remember. With the former, a person cannot remember the entire evening. In the second case, only certain phases of the evening are missing. The addiction doctor and specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy Andreas Jähne explains to the Berliner Kurier that some scraps of memory only return a few days later. Which memories return, however, is pure coincidence. Some are lost forever.
But what processes actually take place in the brain when the film breaks?
Film tear: A special form of amnesia
According to Andreas Jähne, a film tear as a result of alcohol consumption has a similar effect to fainting: Our brain is sedated, i.e. it has reduced functionality and cannot store any new information. According to the science magazine Spektrum, from a medical point of view, this is temporary anterograde amnesia. This means that our brain cannot form new memories for a limited period of time because it cannot store what it has experienced. The opposite is what is known as retrograde amnesia. Our brain forms memories and stores them. However, those affected do not have access to this memory store. However, since no memories are formed in the short-term and certainly not in the long-term memory in the event of alcohol excess, those affected can no longer retrieve the lost memories, according to the BzgA.
The fact that a few scraps of memory still come back after a few days is because the effect of the alcohol slowly builds up as you drink. According to addiction doctor Jähne, there is a gray area in which information sometimes no longer reaches the brain, but it can still store some memories. Drunk people usually do not notice at first that the brain is no longer working properly.
This is how a film tear occurs: processes in the brain
(Photo: CC0 / Pixabay / Rebcenter-Moscow)
Why and how a film tear occurs has not yet been scientifically clarified. What is clear, however, is that processes in the hippocampus are disrupted, says Spektrum. The hippocampus is an area of ​​the brain that is responsible for forming and storing memories, but also for recalling these memories. It is also active when we learn something new.
Normally, information is transferred between nerve cells (neurons) to form memories. This happens via the synapses. Alcohol disrupts the activity of the synapses so that no transmission can take place. According to Spektrum, the fact that the synapses can no longer work properly is due to the fact that the activity of certain receptors and hormones changes as a result of alcohol consumption.
Incidentally, for a long time researchers assumed that a film tear occurs because alcohol kills nerve cells. Today we know that this is not true. Nevertheless, alcohol can damage nerve cells and thus our memory in the long term.
How dangerous is a blackout?
The amount of alcohol at which the film tears cannot be determined in general terms, but depends on individual factors. According to the BzgA, research shows that the risk of film tearing is higher when people consume a lot of alcohol in a short period of time. From about 1.5 per thousand in the blood, the probability increases significantly. Therefore, a film tear is always a sure sign of harmful alcohol excess.
According to Jähne, alcohol not only damages your nerve cells and your memory, but also your liver and other organs. Last but not least, other dangers lurk in the short term if your brain is not functioning properly. According to addiction doctor Jähne, for example, the risk of injury, hypothermia, causing accidents or harming other people increases due to your limited perception. A film tear is therefore always associated with high short-term and long-term risks.
To avoid it, the following therefore applies: Drink less! Keep an eye on your alcohol consumption and drink non-alcoholic beverages regularly in the evening. In order to reduce or question your alcohol consumption in the long term, an alcohol-free month (e.g. Dry January) can also be useful. You can find more tips and information here: Drink less alcohol: These tips will help you.
Read more on Techzle.com:
- Study: Even a little alcohol shortens life expectancy
- Alcohol-free cocktails: Unusual recipes for every taste
- What helps against a hangover? – Tips and home remedies for too much alcohol