why do people see double when they are drunk?
In: Biology
Has anyone actually experienced this? I never have from alcohol personally, though I have from unrelated medications. It feels like it’s just a TV trope, along the lines of seeing pink elephants.
[removed]
Alcohol slows the pace of communication between neurotransmitters in the brain.
Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that communicate info around the body.
The delay in communication between the Brian and eyes means there not able to function effectively, and weakens coordination. This is what causes double or distorted vision.
Toxic amblyopia is the term used to describe permanent loss of vision and blindness caused by alcohol.
Hope you have a nice day:)
Alcohol relaxes you muscles. Your eyes have muscles. When you are sober your eyes are very slightly crossed to see at different distances. Alcohol retards those muscles so they both point directly forward.
If you have 2 working eyes, you are always seeing double, in a way. Hold a fingertip up in front of your face, and look straight at it, focusing on it. While you’re doing that, notice how the more distant background seems to split into doubles. Now, look at some far-off object in the distance, and notice how your finger seems to have doubled!
Your brain is good at merging the 2 images from your 2 eyes, into one unified visual impression, and it partly achieves this by carefully managing your eyes’ rotation so that whatever you’re looking at, is perfectly centered in each eye. When you’re drunk, that ability is diminished. Double vision will probably happen whenever your eyes are not both pointing straight at the same spot.
If you’re getting disoriented by it, the easiest thing is to just shut one eye and try to focus on it with the other.
[Here’s another](https://michaelbach.de/ot/sze-Frankfurter/) version of the same trick.
Alcohol screws with the cerebellum, which is important for keeping your eyes aligned. When your eyes don’t line up with each other you will see two images instead of one.
The cerebellum also is important for coordinating movement, so alcohol also makes you uncoordinated when walking/moving.
Latest Answers