[sondr3]

After getting a Garmin watch I’ve noticed that any drinking wreaks havoc on my body, and heavy drinking lingers for a long time. I’m getting the same readings when I’ve had a bit to drink from heart rate variability, sleep quality and such as when I’m really sick. It’s started to push me to drinking less, but I’ll never quit entirely. Life is too short and my mental health enjoys a glass every now and then.

[imp0cat]

Get rid of the watch then! And everything will be fine again. ;)

[benjaminwootton]

Same. It wrecks my sleep the first night and makes me bloated and slightly off the pace mentally for the following 2-3 days. I only have a drink once or twice a year now as the after effects just aren't worth it to me.

[cyrillite]

Have you experimented with ways to offset that at all?

I wonder if the impacts you’re experiencing are basically a mix of a spike in oxidative stress, sleep deprivation, dehydration, and probably coincidental poorer nutrition on the night you’re drinking. So, equally, I wonder if making a sustained effort to address each of those factors the next day would bring you back to baseline quickly.

[walthamstow]

What's annoying about drinking less often is that when I do drink (something like one big night with work people every 6-8 weeks) it absolutely destroys me the next day in a much worse way than my colleagues who drink multiple times a week. So I'm being punished for being a less frequent drinker!

[edelans]

It's funny, because I see it the other way around: I drink less often than I used to, and now I need less alcohol to feel the effects, and I find it cool that way :).

[JodieBenitez]

Experiencing this too... I used to get like 225cl of 6% alcohol beer on fridays. Now I've reduced and 75cl gives me the same pleasure and effect. Less money spent, less damage on the body, feeling better in the morning...

There's no way I will stop drinking completely, I like beer too much. But reducing has really no downsides at all.

[Mashimo]

> I used to get like 225cl of 6% alcohol beer on fridays

That's like 6 to 7 cans? Dang boi, you really like beer.

[JodieBenitez]

Not a "boi", but yes, I love it.

[nikonyrh]

Well if you drink from 4pm to 4am, that is only half a small can per hour. Maybe I shouldn't write this, but try 1 or 2 cans per hour ;)

[taylodl]

Right? And then you can improve the quality of the alcohol so when you do drink - it's awesome!

[Ma8ee]

I think they just can handle being destroyed better because they are kind of used to feeling a bit miserable. It’s not that it isn’t affecting them.

[AdamN]

I remember I was eating very healthfully for a while and then when heading to my job I absolutely needed food quickly and went to McDonalds. I felt pretty crappy a few hours later. The lesson ironically was that I should be eating more mcdonalds because that's the environment I live in and I should be better acclimatized :-)

[dguest]

Hard to establish cause and effect here.

[JCharante]

why not drink less in that session?

[Aromasin]

Same here. I knew my workouts were harder if I had a couple of beers the previous evening, or a big session a couple days prior, but having the data to say "your heart rate is bouncing around like a moth near a lightbulb" makes ignoring it much harder. My midweek drinking has diminished to nothing now, because I like feeling well rested all day more than I appreciate a glass of wine after work.

[etrautmann]

Isn’t heart rate variability a good thing?

[8bp]

Mostly, yes. Heart rate variability ties into the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. When both are in balance, heart rate will fluctuate with the alternating activation of those nervous systems.

Although I'm sure there's variations in heart rate that aren't healthy.

[edelans]

Same here. I was astonished when I realized the device could very consistently "spot" when I have been drinking alcohol. It made me realize the effect of alcohol on the body are very measurable, and lasts multiple hours after your last drink.

[loa_in_]

I think drinking once in a while actually helps your organism flush out things that are alcohol soluble, and maybe that's why you have symptoms? It enters your bloodstream?

[cromka]

This would imply drinking alcohol actually has serious cons, and I doubt such statement was made so far on that basis.

[woleium]

seems unlikely, alcohols halflife is pretty short at 4-5 hours

[HlessClaudesman]

I hear you, but you have direct evidence that booze is stressing out your system.

Have you considered that cutting it out entirely would also be good for your mental health?

[orwin]

Drinking helped me when I was a shy teenager. I also thought drinking occasionally was keeping my mind healthy and helped me socialize (I.E find a random girl at a random bar). When I started a diet, I cut alcohol before anything else (highest glycemic index of what I was eating at the time). After a year, i was certain I would never drink again, bar some occasion (close family funerals). It improved my mental health by a lot, I can still socialize, except now I can actually care about the people I met and they're not random to me, and overall it's a better experience (except on sport nights).