We’ve all seen people either personally or in videos taking a pretty serious tumble while drunk. Why do they seem to be able to get back up seemingly unhurt? I mean from personal experience I know that falling while drunk may not hurt at the time but it should of. What makes us seemingly impervious to pain whilst drunk?
Thanks!
In: Biology
First, alcohol inhibits the sensation of pain, meaning a drunk individual just won’t feel the pain as sharply as someone sober. Second, alcohol relaxes the muscles slightly, meaning that barring landing on something sharp, odds are a drunken individual will not tense up before the impact like a sober person might; in fact, this is part of why learning to fall properly is a large part of martial arts – uncontrolled muscle tension is liable to leave worse damage than relaxed muscles when hitting the ground. Also, a drunk person may look as though they have a nasty fall, but chances are they more like roll softly to the ground like a towel than topple over like a log. That distributes the energy from the impact over time as well as surface, as opposed to hitting the ground with every body part at once.
Obviously, this is a simplification, if not an oversimplification, and I feel compelled to point out that a drunk person is vastly more likely to actually suffer those tumbles than someone sober. 😉
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