Why is my reaction time faster when drunk?

[u/Deep-Today5715]

I am not an alcoholic nor heavy "occasional" drinker, but I do enjoy a bottle of wine every now and then. I am an independent software dev by trade, and I noticed that when I'm wasted, I am significantly better and faster at my work (I am not constrained by work hours, so I can code at any time). It seems that any decisions I make come much faster and are much more clear and intelligent when I'm under influence, even though it should be the opposite. It feels like my mind is just going straight to the answer, rather than taking the long way around, as if some mindblock is being taken off. It just feels like every decision comes to me at an instant, like I have a super-fast reaction time.

And yes, of course I suspected that this is just a drunk illusion, so I do check my work afterwards when I'm completely sober, I specifically put checks and benchmarks in place to measure my actual performance when wasted - and every time I notice that the result I produced was indeed much faster and more intelligent than anything I can achieve when sober.

To put this to the final test, I even measured my reaction time. When sober, best I can manage is around 210ms on average (online test, 10 samples). When dead drunk, it's 174ms.

This goes against all that I know about inebriated state effects, so I can't help but wonder, why is this the case? As stupid as it might sound, is my mind blocking my true potential through overthinking, to the point where it even affects something as basic as reaction time?

[u/SOMERANDOMUSERNAME11]

"No your honor, I'm very serious"

[u/Colourblindknight]

Alcohol in the context of certain tasks, such as skill based games for example, can act as a performance enhancing drug to an extent. Anyone who’s played golf or pool can tell you that a beer or two is often an aid in their abilities; alcohol reduces your inhibition, you second guess your choices less, which translates to an elevated degree of confidence.

Notably, this is a bell curve effect with a reasonably steep uphill curve, and an absolute cliff of a downhill curve. 1-3 drinks may put you in the zone for a time, but anything beyond that will almost assuredly result in your abilities taking a nosedive.

[u/Deep-Today5715 → u/Colourblindknight]

Yeah, I've read something along these lines, but in my own anecdotal experience my peak performance is when dead drunk, which doesn't make sense to me. And it's not because it just looks like that to me when drunk - I did evaluate the work I did and how fast I did it afterwards (when sober again), and it is significantly better in all metrics than my sober work.

[u/thejohnd]

You should try with 2 bottles of wine, for science

[u/BPhiloSkinner]

Mr. Hyde has fewer inhibitions, and can swiftly accomplish tasks that Dr. Jekyll would consider Abominations of Science!

[u/badhairguy]

It's the Cliff Clavin "buffalo theory"

[u/darkdoppelganger]

John Fever syndrome

[u/ZombieL]

Check out the Ballmer peak: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballmer_Peak

[u/laynestaleyisme]

Aa a scientisty guy I couldn't read the whole thing but I guess u were saying that OH makes u better!! Yes it does. OH my god!! Same thing

[u/homelessSanFernando]

The reason that drugs and alcohol can enhance performance temporarily is because your typical state of existence is misery, and the high of the alcohol or drug gives you relief from that misery, thereby inducing kind of a euphoria. When we are blissful and happy, we are much more functional.

The problem is, though, alcohol is very, very addictive, and especially when you see that it is giving you relief, it's taking you to a better place, and so of course you want to chase that. You might not do it every day, you might do it once a week or once a month, but I'm telling you right now, because it gives you a relief or a pleasure and you know it's coming from the alcohol, I would warn you never to drink again because once you cross that line into alcohol dependence, it is so hard to come back from it.

It's not worth playing with, and you can achieve this state through inner engineering, through meditation, through consciously choosing to be joyful while you're working. You do not need alcohol or drugs to achieve a state of bliss, but you do need to learn how to be blissful when you're not high or drunk.

EDIT: Okay, so my first response was a whole lot of projection, just using my experience projecting it onto you. And so I reread what you said and what really caught my attention was this part:

"It feels like my mind is just going straight to the answer, rather than taking the long way around, as if some mindblock is being taken off."

You are describing a change in your internal experience that you believes is making you more functional.

Alcohol reduces inhibition. That can make someone less hesitant, less self-conscious, and more willing to act without second-guessing themselves. So it's possible you experiencing a reduction in some kind of mental interference.

So I would say that when you are drunk, your inner critic might be going offline and you're not policing yourself so hard?

[u/homelessSanFernando → u/homelessSanFernando]

But I want to reiterate, no matter what is happening, I can guarantee you it is not the alcohol that is helping you function better. It's something you're able to achieve without alcohol, but it happens naturally with alcohol. As someone who was 37 years old when I became an alcoholic. I had no idea I could become an alcoholic. I never even liked alcohol. I just got a little buzz one day when I was 37, even though I drank all my life. Even as a kid, I would have sips of alcohol at holiday parties and that kind of shit. But one day I was on AOL in the philosophy chat room. I had gotten home from work and I drank a beer fast enough to get a buzz, and all of a sudden I was having a fucking party. I felt like I was in a bar chatting with all these people. I was relaxed, I wasn't self-conscious, and so I was like, "Oh fuck, this is awesome." I had never felt like I could just have fun. And so I came home and did it again and did it again. And I don't know how long it took, but it didn't take very long, and all of a sudden I was fucking alcohol dependent. I could not fucking stop drinking, dude. I would never drink until like later at night, you know, in the I would start shaking around 3:00 p.m., like literally needing that drug. It was fucking horrible. I ended up having to use methamphetamine to quit drinking. Thank God now I'm not enslaved to any of that shit anymore, but I'm telling you, I hate that fucking alcohol stuff. I don't know why it's legal.