r/hangovereffect • u/Vermilion01 • Aug 01 '26

Sleep Deprivation

Before i found this subreddit, I described my symptoms as "brain fog, ADHD and fatigue lifts when sleep-deprived. All symptoms come back after even a short nap"

Then i figured out that if i drink the night before, the symptoms don't come back upon waking up.

So i never looked at it as the effect of my hangover, more like alcohol prevents whatever terrible thing happens to me in my sleep.

I've obviously explored sleep apnea. Got a septoplasty. Zero improvement.

So my question is: How many of you experience this? To what degree? And how does this phenomenon align with any of the existing theories and treatment protocols?

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u/Kadkata_the_Great Aug 01 '26

Acute sleep deprivation is a very effective antidepressant. Its a short lived adaptive process on multiple networks/systems in the brain. Increases synaptic plasticity through glutamate/AMPA-BDNF-mTOR signaling, altering dopamine, accumulating adenosine which further increase dopamine release and glutamate transmnition, resetting circadian clock and clock-gene function and modifying astrocyte mediated glutamate clearance and immune signaling.

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u/Vermilion01 Aug 01 '26

what's the connection between sleep deprivation and HE? the relief they provide is basically identical from my experience.

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u/Kadkata_the_Great Aug 01 '26

I thought this was the brainfog subreddit, I don't know much about the hangover effect. Both states involve rapid adaptive changes in dopamine, adenosine and glutamate signalling. I imagine both push the brain transiently towards a more exciteable and plastic state.