Hangxiety: Anna Lembke on why you feel anxious after drinking

Hangxiety is the anxiety that follows a night of drinking: the worry about what you said, the low mood, the sense that something is wrong. It's common and well documented. Across 22 studies, hangovers went with more anxiety, stress and low mood (Rothman et al., 2026). Experts explain it as a rebound, the brain pushing back after the lift a drink gives, though that part is explanation rather than measurement. A drink the next morning only postpones it. What helps is planning the next occasion, and knowing when the feeling is more than a hangover.

On The Diary Of A CEO in January 2025, Anna Lembke, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine and the author of the bestseller Dopamine Nation, explained what alcohol does with a set of scales and a few splashes of spirits (The Diary Of A CEO, 16:26 to 21:39). One side of the balance is pleasure, the other pain. A drink presses down on pleasure, and "no sooner has that happened than our brain will try to compensate or adapt" (16:47).

The compensation overshoots. In her picture, the brain's counterweights stay on the pain side "until we're tilted an equal and opposite amount" (19:03). When the host asked whether that's what a hangover is, she agreed: "That's the hangover, the come down, the blue Monday, or on a much smaller scale, just that moment of craving" (19:03).

She is careful about how far the picture goes. "This is a metaphor. It's an oversimplification," she says (16:26). Asked why the brain overshoots at all, she offers "an evolutionary just-so story" and adds, "we don't really know why this mechanism exists" (19:46).

That care matters, because the research on hangxiety is narrower than most of what you'll hear. Below: what it found, why one more drink doesn't settle it, where a bad morning ends and a reason to see a doctor begins, and what to plan for next time.

Why do you feel anxious after drinking?

1. The relief is real, and so is the dip

The Royal College of Psychiatrists' public leaflet on alcohol and mental health says that at low levels alcohol "can make you feel calmer, or less anxious", and that a hangover "can make you feel ill, anxious and jittery".

Aaron White, a scientist at the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, described the second half on NPR's Life Kit: "the brain is always trying to push back from the effects of a drug. And in doing so, when the drug wears off, the brain can push too far in the other direction" (NPR Life Kit). You might drink at night to ease your anxiety, he said, and feel more of it the next afternoon or evening, "which then motivates you to drink again". Neither he nor Lembke cites a study that measured this loop at everyday amounts.

2. Look at what the studies actually measured

The clearest summary is a systematic review of 22 studies with 6,152 people, average age about 27, 57% of them women (Rothman et al., 2026). Across them, hangovers went with more anxiety, stress and low mood. It's an association, the samples were young, and we could read only its summary.

Two details matter for what you do next. People who went over and over things, avoided their problems or were more anxious to begin with felt worse. Support from other people and resilience seemed to protect. The authors also suggest that the bad feeling may help keep heavy drinking going, which is their hypothesis rather than a finding.

Lab research points the same way. Across 41 experiments with 2,403 people, those put in a bad mood drank a little more, and wanted a drink more, than people who weren't (Bresin et al., 2018). The effect was small to medium, and studies that followed people's moods in everyday life found a less clear link.

3. Expect it to hit harder if you're anxious anyway

Alex George, a GP, TV doctor and author, described his own hangxiety on a panel video made by the health insurer Bupa: "the feeling you get the next day of being anxious, worried about what happened last night. Can you remember everything?" (Bupa Health, 12:13). It can be worse, he said, "if you're someone who has anxiety anyway" (12:34). For him it didn't stop at one day: five or six drinks on a Friday meant "anxious Saturday and Sunday" (13:12).

Research supports the overlap without settling which comes first. In a meta-analysis of 17 general-population studies with 382,201 adults, people with depression or an anxiety disorder were about twice as likely as others to report a drinking problem (Puddephatt et al., 2022). That's a link, not a cause.

Andrew Huberman, a Stanford neuroscientist whose podcast is paid for by sponsors, including a supplement drink read straight after this segment, offers a hormonal explanation. He says regular drinking, even one or two drinks a night or a few at the weekend, raises the stress hormone cortisol at times when you aren't drinking, so people "feel more stressed and more anxiety when they aren't drinking" (Huberman Lab, 37:17). He applies it to hangxiety too (1:00:49). The episode notes list no study for it, so treat it as his hypothesis.

The neuroscientist George Koob describes a stronger version of the loop in addiction, where the low after drinking grows and drinking turns into relief from it (Koob, 2021). That theory rests mostly on animal studies and people with addiction, a different situation from a Saturday morning after a party, and closer to the separate line below.

Why doesn't one more drink fix it?

4. Know that the hair of the dog only moves the hangover

Lembke's balance gives the same answer: a fresh drink presses on the pleasure side again, and the pushback comes later. Since a low mood makes a drink more wanted, as the lab studies found, expect the pull on a hangxious afternoon and plan for it.

5. Treat a drink to steady yourself as a different signal

The program's body check asks: "Have you ever had a drink, or a sleeping pill, to steady those feelings or to get going in the morning?" A yes moves the plan onto a doctor-first route, because it can mean the body has got used to alcohol. If your body may have got used to alcohol, stopping or cutting down quickly can make you unwell, sometimes seriously. Talk to a doctor before you change how much you drink. A doctor can help you cut down or stop safely, usually without a hospital stay.

When is it more than hangxiety?

Most of this article is about the ordinary version: the worried, low morning after a night that went further than you meant. The program draws a separate line.

The program's body check counts the morning after a heavy night too, because, as its own help text says, it may be a hangover or your body getting used to alcohol, and "the timing can't tell them apart". So the signs below aren't something to manage with the steps in this article. Before any break or stop, the program asks you to read this line once:

Changing how you drink can also stir up feelings for a while. The program's reviews say it plainly: "Changing your drinking can stir up low mood or worry for a while. If it feels like too much, or dark thoughts come, see your doctor. You don't have to wait for the plan to finish." Our guides to Dry January and moderate drinking cover breaks and cutting down in more detail.

Plan for the next time, not the next drink

6. Notice the morning, and write it down

For learners who say their mornings after drinking feel low or anxious, the program adds one line: "Notice how the morning feels after a drinking night and after a dry one." A note in your phone is enough: how you feel, from 0 to 10, and what you drank the night before.

7. Don't spend the morning going over it alone

In the review, repetitive negative thinking and avoidance went with worse days after, and support from other people went with better ones. Those are associations, not a tested remedy, but the practical reading is cheap: send the message you've been dreading, get outside, and talk to someone rather than replaying the evening alone.

8. Decide the next occasion while you still remember this one

The program's first step for the evenings when a drink is how a hard day gets handled: "say what the drink would be for. Is it the stress, the worry, an empty evening, or sleep? Then give ten minutes to one other thing that does that job." Rachel Kazez, a therapist, suggests one question on NPR's Life Kit for the moment a craving arrives: "what do I truly want right now?" Then decide your number before the first drink. Our guides to how to drink less, the standard drink and alcohol cravings cover that part, and alcohol and sleep explains what a nightcap does to the night.

If this morning matches the line in the box above, skip the card and talk to a doctor first.

Back to the balance

Lembke's picture is a metaphor, and the research behind hangxiety is a set of associations. What it shows is consistent: the next day often costs something, and the low can pull toward the next drink. Alex George put the question that matters better than any study: "how do I feel, you know, with alcohol in my life?" (12:49).

To work on this with your own evenings, try the 1h Protocol to Reduce Your Drinking. The first chapter is free: it asks about your week, what the drink does for you and how your body reacts when you drink less, then names your pattern, one of which is the Relief Drink, and gives you a first step. The full program is practical education and takes about an hour. It walks one evening with you, from the plan to the next morning, and you leave with your goal, your starting changes and your first-drink line on one page, a moment card for your lock screen, a fourteen-day sheet, and days 7 and 14 in your calendar. Short check-ins follow by email on days 1, 7, 14 and 30, and the day-7 review asks the body question again. Start free

Frequently asked questions

What is hangxiety?

It's the anxiety and low mood that can follow a night of drinking. In a review of 22 studies with 6,152 mostly young adults, hangovers went with more anxiety, stress and low mood (Rothman et al., 2026). It's a popular name, not a diagnosis.

Why do I feel anxious the day after drinking?

Anna Lembke and Aaron White describe a rebound: the brain pushes back against alcohol's effect and overshoots as it wears off. That's their explanation. Studies have measured the link itself, which was stronger in people who went over and over things or were anxious to begin with.

How long does hangxiety last?

None of the sources here gives a typical length. The review looked at mood around the hangover itself, and Alex George's own account was two anxious days after a Friday night. If anxiety comes after you've stopped or cut down, and you also feel shaky, sweaty or sick, talk to a doctor before going further.

Does alcohol actually help anxiety?

At the time, many people feel calmer. The next day can cost that back, and people with depression or anxiety were about twice as likely to report a drinking problem (Puddephatt et al., 2022), a link rather than a cause. Most people don't drink mainly to cope, though: in a 2023 survey of 1,032 adults in five countries, coping came last of four reasons (Rupprecht et al., 2025).

What helps with hangxiety?

No drink, food or supplement removes a hangover. The Royal College of Psychiatrists says "there is no way to completely get rid of a hangover", and another drink only postpones it. Support from other people and not replaying the night went with better days after in the review. The bigger lever is the next occasion: decide what the drink is for and your number before it starts. If a plan isn't enough, talk to a doctor or a local alcohol service.

Sources

This article draws on Anna Lembke's interview on The Diary Of A CEO, Andrew Huberman's solo episode on Huberman Lab, Alex George on a Bupa Health panel, Aaron White and Rachel Kazez on NPR's Life Kit, the Royal College of Psychiatrists' public leaflet, the studies listed below, and the live copy of the 1h Protocol to Reduce Your Drinking.

• The Dopamine Expert: Doing This Once A Day Fixes Your Dopamine! What Alcohol Is Really Doing To Your Brain! (podcast episode with Dr Anna Lembke, The Diary Of A CEO, 2025)
• Rothman et al, A systematic review of the impact of the alcohol hangover upon negative affect (systematic review, 22 studies, 6,152 people, Drug and Alcohol Review, 2026)
• Bresin, Mekawi & Verona, The effect of laboratory manipulations of negative affect on alcohol craving and use (meta-analysis of 41 lab experiments, 2,403 people, 2018)
• Koob, Drug addiction: hyperkatifeia/negative reinforcement as a framework for medications development (narrative review, mostly animal and clinical research, 2021)
• Rupprecht et al, Alcohol use and drinking motives across five countries (online survey, 1,032 adults in the US, Great Britain, Mexico, Spain and Germany, 2025)
• Puddephatt et al, Associations of common mental disorder with alcohol use in the adult general population (systematic review and meta-analysis, 17 studies, 382,201 adults, 2022)
• What alcohol does to your body, brain and health (podcast episode, Huberman Lab, 2022)
• Rethinking drinking? What is sober curious? (panel video with Dr Alex George, Inside Health, Bupa Health, 2025)
• 6 strategies to help you take a break from drinking alcohol (podcast episode with Aaron White and Rachel Kazez, NPR Life Kit, 2020)
• Royal College of Psychiatrists, Alcohol, mental health and the brain (public information leaflet, 2024)