A drink after a hard day, a few at the party to loosen up, and then the next morning your heart is racing and your mind won’t settle. Here’s why alcohol and anxiety feed each other, and how to get out of the loop.
Alcohol can ease anxiety for an hour or two, but as it wears off anxiety rebounds, often worse the next day, a feeling people call “hangxiety”. Over time, heavy drinking raises anxiety and disrupts sleep. Anxiety usually eases within weeks of cutting down or stopping.
Why a drink feels calming
Alcohol dampens the body’s stress response for a while. Lab studies show it takes the edge off worry about uncertain threats, the “what if” kind of anxiety. That’s why the first drink can feel like relief.
The rebound
As alcohol wears off, anxiety bounces back. With regular heavy drinking, the brain’s stress systems become more active between drinks, so you feel more on edge when you’re not drinking. Over time, people drink less for pleasure and more to get rid of that uneasy feeling, and the loop tightens.
“Hangxiety” is real
A 2025 review of 22 studies of more than 6,000 people found hangovers are linked with more anxiety, stress and low mood. It’s worse for people who already feel anxious or tend to overthink.
In a small UK study, very shy people felt slightly calmer while drinking but noticeably more anxious the next day, and the bigger the rise, the more signs of problem drinking they had. Hangxiety doesn’t mean you have a drinking problem, but it’s a warning sign worth taking seriously.
Alcohol and sleep
A drink can help you fall asleep, but it disrupts the second half of the night and cuts down dream (REM) sleep. You wake unrested, and poor sleep makes anxiety worse the next day. For people who’ve been drinking heavily, sleep can take a month or more to settle after stopping.
When anxiety and drinking go together
Anxiety disorders and alcohol problems occur together about twice as often as chance would predict. Up to half of people in treatment for alcohol problems also have an anxiety disorder.
The biggest warning sign is drinking to cope. About one in five people with anxiety disorders drink to control their symptoms, and they’re more likely to become dependent on alcohol later. Social anxiety usually comes first: in one large survey, it came before alcohol dependence in about eight in ten people who had both.
In Nigeria, students in one university study described drinking to cope with stress and heartbreak, and for “academic courage” before seminars and exams. If that sounds familiar, the anxiety underneath deserves help of its own.
Suggested read: Social Anxiety at Parties and Owambes
Breaking the cycle
- Notice the pattern. For two weeks, jot down what you drank, how anxious you felt the next day, and how you slept.
- Cut down or stop. If you drink heavily every day, don’t stop suddenly; see a doctor first. Our guide to stopping drinking safely explains how.
- Give it a few weeks. In one study of men in alcohol treatment, anxiety fell back to the normal range by the second week without alcohol and kept improving. In a large US survey, very heavy drinkers who cut down had lower odds of anxiety or depression three years later.
- Get the anxiety assessed if it stays. UK guidance says to deal with the drinking first, then check the anxiety again after three to four weeks without alcohol, and treat it if it’s still there.
- Treat both together. Therapy that works on both the anxiety and the urge to drink tends to do better than treating either alone. CBT can do both.
- Find other ways to switch off: slow breathing, exercise, time with people, a wind-down routine at night. See our guides to breathing techniques and anxiety’s physical signs.
- Don’t mix alcohol with sleeping pills or sedatives.
You can find a therapist who works with anxiety, by video, voice or chat. Read more about anxiety and alcohol addiction in Nigeria.
Frequently asked questions
Does alcohol cause anxiety?
It can make anxiety worse. A drink may ease anxiety briefly, but as it wears off anxiety rebounds, and regular heavy drinking raises anxiety over time. Anxiety and alcohol problems often occur together.
What is hangxiety?
The anxiety, dread or low mood many people feel the day after drinking. A 2025 review of 22 studies linked hangovers with more anxiety and stress.
Why do I feel anxious the day after drinking?
As alcohol leaves your body, your stress systems rebound, and alcohol also disrupts your sleep. Both leave you more on edge the next day.
How long does anxiety last after quitting alcohol?
In studies, anxiety often eases within a couple of weeks of stopping and keeps improving, though sleep can take a month or more. If it continues after three to four weeks, get it assessed.
Is it OK to have a drink to calm my nerves?
It’s better not to rely on it. The relief is short, anxiety tends to come back stronger, and drinking to cope raises the risk of alcohol problems.
This article is awaiting clinical review. It’s based on published research and health guidelines, and we’ll update it once a clinician has reviewed it.
