Ever Wondered?

Why does my head spin when I’m drunk?

Not much can be done to stop a spinning head after an alcohol overdose, but we can understand why it happens and how to avoid it.

February 8, 2011

We’ve all been there: at the end of a long night on the town, you hit the sack and shut your eyes, only to find that the room seems to be spinning uncontrollably. It’s an unfortunate and expected side effect of heavy drinking, but why does this happen?

Although hangovers have been with us for centuries—mentions of them appear in ancient Egyptian and Greek artifacts and writings—scientists are still unsure what causes the condition. Indeed, some researchers prefer to leave the mysteries of the hangover in the dark, as they figure the unpleasant hangover experience will deter some from excessive drinking. For those of us suffering spinning heads, there’s similarly no sure answer, though science can lend some insight on likely causes.

Contrary to intuition, that spinning head feeling all starts in the ear. Besides hearing, ears are also responsible for helping with balance. If you took an anatomy course in high school or college, you may recall an appendage within the ear composed of three intertwined tubes—the semicircular canals, which may conjure up images of the infamous chestburster from “Alien” or conversely an elegant abstraction from a Klimt painting.

From within the semicircular canals and their neighboring olfactory appendages, balance can be maintained or thrown terribly awry. When your body moves, tiny hairs attached to jelly-like blobs within the semicircular canal also move. When these hairs bend with gravity, they send an electric signal to an attached nerve that in turn fires the signal to the brain and creates the sensation of motion.

Alcohol throws off this delicate balance, wreaking havoc on the finely scaled inner workings of the ear. When alcohol hits the blood stream it is transported all over the body, including to the ear. Blood laced with alcohol has a different density than its teetotaling counterpart and thus distorts the shape of the inner ear. The swollen ear parts push on the tiny sensory hairs, deceiving the brain into producing the sense of motion, or spinning. When in the dark—in other words, in bed after a drinking bout—the spinning sense is enhanced, since you can no longer rely upon visual cues to counteract the false sense of motion.

Luckily, as the night wears on, your blood alcohol levels subside and the spinning feeling gradually fades away. If you’re stuck with a spinning head, though, these moments can stretch on and on. Unfortunately, preventative measures backed by science are few and far between. Besides the radical “medicine” of simply abstaining from heavy drinking, it seems hangover symptoms can be lessened by drinking beverages containing more pure ethanol such as gin and vodka rather than things like whiskey and red wine, which contain more add-ons. So next time you’re out drinking, go for the vodka-cranberry instead of the whiskey sour and save yourself some of the headache. Either way, though, if you overindulge, you’re probably in for a tilt-a-whirl-like ride

About the Author

Rachel Nuwer

Spending her early years exploring the bayous and beaches of Southern Mississippi, Rachel Nuwer’s love for nature and science has been a life-long romance. Rachel pursued this passion at Loyola University New Orleans where she earned a bachelor’s degree in biology. During her time at Loyola she had the opportunity to travel to Laos to research Mekong River fishes, sparking a new-found obsession with travel and exploration. This wunderlust has since taken her to 41 countries as well as encouraged her to spend a year teaching in Japan. In 2010 Rachel returned to Southeast Asia to investigate illegal wildlife trade and natural resource use in Vietnam for her ecology master’s thesis at the University of East Anglia. When not trekking through a swamp, Rachel can be found taking photos, rehabilitating stray kittens, or eating phở.

Discussion

4 Comments

Dana says:

So why is it that I drank last night, come home and slept for six hours, took a nap, and now trying to go to bed and the spinning is still happening almost 24 hrs later?

Kim says:

Oh man.. You come he at 3:10AM, can’t sleep because your head is drifting around the room like a spinning top do you hit this website on your iPhone and try to find some peace. It didn’t work now I’m going to try and expunge myself that should do the trick. I mean at the end of the day it’s your own fucking fault eh

Ashley Wallace says:

Feel breaths can help with the head spins.

Littlegin says:

BUT I DRANK GIN TONIC, AND ONLY 2 GLASSES AT THAT….

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