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. 2021 Dec 3;10(23):5691.
doi: 10.3390/jcm10235691.

The Relationship between Alcohol Hangover Severity, Sleep and Cognitive Performance; a Naturalistic Study

Elizabeth Ayre  1 , Andrew Scholey  1   2 , David White  1   3 , Grant J Devilly  4   5 , Jordy Kaufman  6 , Joris C Verster  1   7 , Corey Allen  8 , Sarah Benson  1
Affiliations

The Relationship between Alcohol Hangover Severity, Sleep and Cognitive Performance; a Naturalistic Study

Elizabeth Ayre et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Alcohol hangover (AH) has been associated with poor sleep due to the negative effects of alcohol intoxication on sleep quantity and sleep quality. The aim of the current study was to further explore the relationship between AH severity and sleep using a naturalistic study design. A further aim was to determine whether quantitative aspects of sleep were a mediating influence on the relationship between AH severity and cognitive performance. As part of the naturalistic study design, 99 drinkers were recruited following a night of drinking in an Australian state capital, with breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) measured as participants were leaving the entertainment district. The following morning at home, participants answered online questions regarding their drinking behaviour on the previous evening, current AH symptoms and sleep quality. Participants also completed an online version of the Trail-Making Test B (TMT-B) to assess cognitive performance. The findings reveal the duration of nightly awakenings to be negatively related to six individual AH symptoms as well as overall AH severity. The number of nightly awakenings, sleep quality and total sleep time correlated with four AH symptoms including overall AH severity. Total AH severity accounted for a moderate amount of variance (11%) in the time to complete the TMT-B. These findings confirm that alcohol consumption negatively affects sleep, which is related to higher next-day hangover severity ratings and poorer cognitive performance.

Keywords: alcohol hangover; attention; executive functioning; sleep quality; sleep quantity; working memory.

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Conflict of interest statement

S.B. has received funding from Red Bull GmbH, Kemin Foods, Sanofi Aventis, Phoenix Pharmaceutical, GlaxoSmithKline and BioRevive. A.S. has held research grants from Abbott Nutrition, Arla Foods, Bayer, BioRevive, DuPont, Fonterra, Kemin Foods, Nestlé, Nutricia-Danone and Verdure Sciences. He has acted as a consultant/expert advisor to Bayer, Danone, Naturex, Nestlé, Pfizer, Sanofi and Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical, and has received travel/hospitality/speaker fees from Bayer, Sanofi and Verdure Sciences. He is on the Scientific Advisory Board of Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical. Over the past 36 months, J.C.V. has acted as a consultant/expert advisor to KNMP, More Labs, Red Bull, Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical, Toast!, Tomo and ZBiotics. D.W. has received research funding from Abbott Nutrition, Arla Foods, Bayer Healthcare and Fonterra, and consultancy/speaker honoraria from Neurobrands, Naturex and Bayer Healthcare. G.J.D. and C.A. have received no funding from local or state governments, political organisations, lobby groups, registered health charities that promote temperance or companies involved in the supply or sale of alcohol.

Figures

Figure A1
Figure A1
Mediation model for the relationship between AH severity, total sleep time and TMT-B completion times, with age as a covariate.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Mediation model for the relationship between AH severity, TMT-B (secs) and total sleep time.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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