--- title: Alcohol: Here's Who's Most Likely To Black Out While Drinking description: Blacking out, or getting so drunk that you can't remember anything that happened the night before, is all too common among underage drinkers canonical: https://time.com/3635960/drinking-blackout/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-16T21:39:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:45:21.696Z article:section: Health og:title: Here's Who's Most Likely To Black Out While Drinking og:description: Blacking out, or getting so drunk that you can't remember anything that happened the night before, is all too common among underage drinkers og:url: https://time.com/3635960/drinking-blackout/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbf72e52feb99bd0a/69876f3c8e0601c2fd45943c/passed-out-girl.jpg?branch=production&width=933&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 933 og:image:height: 525 og:image:alt: passed out girl og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's Who's Most Likely To Black Out While Drinking twitter:description: Blacking out, or getting so drunk that you can't remember anything that happened the night before, is all too common among underage drinkers twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbf72e52feb99bd0a/69876f3c8e0601c2fd45943c/passed-out-girl.jpg?branch=production&width=933&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's Who's Most Likely To Black Out While Drinking > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=a2fd285f-25d3-4a63-92c4-30ea374378f1&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: This Type of Alcohol Makes You Feel Sexy, According to Science [Watch (HLS stream): This Type of Alcohol Makes You Feel Sexy, According to Science](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/2cLAha1L.m3u8) (1:59)  _Published 2017-11-22. If you’re trying to wind down after a long day, wine may help you relax, a new study suggests. But if you’re more in the mood to feel sexy and confident, order spirits instead._ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Dec 16, 2014 9:39 PM UTC  Unconscious drunk teenage girl. Unconscious drunk teenage girl. Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Dec 16, 2014 9:39 PM UTC Blacking out, or getting so drunk that you can’t remember anything that happened the night before, is all too common among underage drinkers, according to a new [study](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acer.12601/abstract) published in the journal _Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research._ In the study, Marc Schuckit, professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego, and his colleagues looked at data on 1,402 drinking teenagers in England when they were 15, 16, 18 and 19\. They discovered that by the time the teens reached 19, 90% of them had drank so much they experienced a blackout. About half of them had blacked out multiple times. More than half of people reported having a blackout at every year of follow-up. Teens who blacked out while drinking tended to be female—likely because they weigh less and have less body water to dilute the alcohol—to smoke, have sensation-seeking and impulsive behaviors, lack conscientiousness and have friends who also drank or used other substances. “It’s not as if a blackout in these kids was an isolated phenomenon,” says Schuckit. “Blackouts are unfortunately often considered to be a funny thing as opposed to dangerous. I am not sure the average person realizes the dangers associated with blackouts.” A blackout can occur when someone drinks well over their limit. Alcohol is considered a depressant, and when the dose is high enough, depressants are known to impair memory acquisition. When someone blacks out, it means that while they appear to be awake, alert and intoxicated, their brain is actually not making long-term memories of what’s happening. If a person experiencing a blackout is asked what happened to them just 10 minutes ago, they will have no idea. There are very few, if any, longitudinal studies that have looked at the impact of blacking out on the brain, but experts guess that it isn’t good. High blood alcohol levels are known to cause memory problems later in life, and blacking out is an indicator of drinking too much. Some people may hit that point with fewer drinks than others, and it’s possible that some have a genetically predisposed sensitivity to alcohol’s effects—but blacking out always means you’ve drank too much. For young people, that behavior concerns experts. “When you really get drunk, literature shows you are opening yourself up to a huge number of problems,” says Schuckit, citing a greater likelihood of getting into accidents and fights, or doing things that one may later regret, including sex. The study looked at British students, and prior data suggests that they drink more than American students. Still, Schuckit says it should be taken more seriously among young drinkers everywhere. _Read next:_ [_This is What Alcohol Does to Your Sleep_](http://time.com/3636485/alcohol-sleep-results/?xid=time%5Freadnext) ## Transcript ( Music ) [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3635960/drinking-blackout/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3635960/drinking-blackout/"},"headline":"Here's Who's Most Likely To Black Out While Drinking","datePublished":"2014-12-16T21:39:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:45:21.696Z","description":"Blacking out, or getting so drunk that you can't remember anything that happened the night before, is all too common among underage drinkers","url":"https://time.com/3635960/drinking-blackout/","keywords":["Addiction","Living","Alcohol","Teens","High School","Booze","Research","drinking","blackout"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbf72e52feb99bd0a/69876f3c8e0601c2fd45943c/passed-out-girl.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbf72e52feb99bd0a/69876f3c8e0601c2fd45943c/passed-out-girl.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"passed out girl","caption":"passed out girl","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/addiction/","name":"Addiction"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3635960/drinking-blackout/","name":"Here's Who's Most Likely To Black Out While Drinking"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"This Type of Alcohol Makes You Feel Sexy, According to Science","description":"If you’re trying to wind down after a long day, wine may help you relax, a new study suggests. 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