"Hangxiety": Why You Feel Anxious the Day After Drinking

What alcohol does to your brain

Alcohol turns up the brain's calming system (GABA) and turns down the alert system (glutamate). That is the relaxed, chatty feeling. Your brain fights back to stay balanced. When the alcohol wears off, the calming side drops and the alert side is still cranked up. The result is a nervous system running hot: anxiety, a jumpy heart, poor sleep in the second half of the night.

Why your body makes it worse

Dehydration raises your heart rate and makes you feel shaky, which the anxious brain reads as more danger. Low blood sugar from drinking and skipping food adds to the shakes. Alcohol also wrecks deep sleep, and a bad night's sleep lowers your ability to handle stress the next day. People who are already anxious, and people who drink to calm nerves, tend to get hit hardest.

What helps

• Fluids and electrolytes. Steady sips of water or an electrolyte drink through the morning.
• Eat. Eggs, toast, fruit, something with protein and carbs. Get your blood sugar back.
• Skip the coffee for a few hours. Caffeine on an anxious, dehydrated body adds to the racing heart.
• Move gently. A walk, not a hard workout.
• Give it time. For most people hangxiety fades within the day as the brain rebalances.
• If it does not fade, or it happens every time you drink, talk to a doctor. Alcohol and anxiety feed each other, and that is worth looking at properly.

Where a drip fits

A Hangover drip puts back the fluids, electrolytes and B vitamins your body spent, in about 45 minutes, which takes the physical part of the shakes off the table. With a provider's order the nurse can add anti-nausea support. It does not treat anxiety, and we will not tell you it does. It gets your body steady so your brain has less to fight. A licensed nurse comes to you anywhere in New York and New Jersey, 8 AM to 11 PM.

Rough morning? Book a Hangover drip at zenivspa.com. If anxiety is a pattern, please talk to a doctor.

All treatments are medical services. Every guest is screened, and every treatment is provided only under the clearance, prescription or standing protocol of a licensed medical provider. Compounded peptides are not FDA-approved unless stated. Nothing on this page is a diagnosis or a promise of results.