{"id":2390,"date":"2017-10-30T21:18:05","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T21:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/screening.mhanational.org\/article\/is-it-normal-to-black-out-when-drinking\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T16:07:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T20:07:32","slug":"it-normal-black-out-when-drinking","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/screening.mhanational.org\/es\/content\/it-normal-black-out-when-drinking\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00bfEs normal perder el conocimiento cuando se bebe?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is blacking out?<\/h2>\n

Drinking lots of alcohol can temporarily prevent you from making new memories. It won\u2019t affect your memories of what happened before you started drinking. But you might wake up the next morning not knowing where you are, how you got there, or what you did past a certain point the night before.<\/p>\n

Blackouts aren\u2019t always quite so obvious. Maybe you think you remember everything that happened, until a friend tells you about something you did that you don\u2019t remember at all. Sometimes you\u2019ll be able to remember certain details if someone refreshes your memory. Some people call these less severe blackouts \u201cbrownouts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blacking out is different from passing out. When you pass out, you lose consciousness, and your body stays where it is. When you black out, you still seem to function normally to everyone around you. It\u2019s only when you wake up the next day and can\u2019t remember what happened that you can tell you blacked out.<\/p>\n

Is it dangerous?<\/h2>\n

Blacking out is usually associated with high-risk drinking or binge drinking\u2026 which can be dangerous whether you black out or not<\/a>. The more you drink, the more likely you are to make poor decisions or get in an accident. You\u2019re also more likely to experience long-term health risks, like liver problems, high blood pressure, and some types of cancer.<\/p>\n

Blacking out can also be really scary. If you don\u2019t know all the people you were with, it can be hard to know if something dangerous happened while you were blacked out. Did you have risky sex with someone? Did you fall down and hit your head at some point? In some cases, you might never know.<\/p>\n

How can I avoid blacking out again?<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s no magic number of drinks<\/a> you have to have in order to black out. It has to do with your blood alcohol level, which can be affected by lots of things\u2014how quickly you\u2019re drinking, how much you\u2019re eating between drinks, your body size, and how your brain is wired<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve only blacked out a few times, you can probably avoid it in the future just by being a bit more careful about how much you drink and how quickly:<\/p>\n