Here’s a typical student dilemma: midterm Monday morning, best friend’s birthday party Saturday night. It’s generally accepted that getting wasted at the party will be no detriment to your midterm performance. That is, if you sleep off the effects of all that booze on Sunday before hitting the books later that night.
But the effects of that Saturday-night kegger can apparently linger in ways that we hadn’t expected.
A new study found that weekly binge drinkers require more attentional effort to complete tasks, and also find it harder to differentiate between relevant and irrelevant information.
Binge drinking apparently affects parts of the brain that don’t completely develop until one turns 25, and consuming a lot of alcohol all at once causes more damage than consuming the same amount over a longer period of time.
Students probably know that binge drinking has long-term effects such as liver failure or memory loss. But it’s now apparent bingeing can also affect this year’s GPA.
Going out with friends and having a good time is not a bad decision. But thinking twice about overindulging could be a good idea – one that could make or break the school year.