What does a blackout feel like?

If you have a blackout, you lose consciousness temporarily. Before that, you might fall down, have blurred-vision, or be confused. Sometimes, people experience memory loss and describe this as a blackout – for example, after they have drunk a lot of alcohol or taken illicit drugs.

How do you know when you are blacked out?

Blacking out is different from passing out. When you pass out, you lose consciousness, and your body stays where it is. When you black out, you still seem to function normally to everyone around you. It’s only when you wake up the next day and can’t remember what happened that you can tell you blacked out.

Can you blackout and still be awake?

A blackout is not the same as “passing out,” which means either falling asleep or losing consciousness from drinking too much. During a blackout, a person is still awake but their brain is not creating new memories.

Can you act normal during a blackout?

During a blackout, an intoxicated person can still function as normal. They may seem articulate because most parts of the brain are alcohol-tolerant. They can still eat, walk, hold conversations, have sex, drive, and get into fights. They just can’t record any of the memories.

What causes someone to blackout?

The most common cause of blacking out is fainting. Other causes include epileptic seizures, syncope due to anxiety (psychogenic pseudosyncope) and other rare causes of faints. Other causes of blacking out may be due to low blood sugar (hypoglycaemia) and lack of oxygen (hypoxia) from a variety of causes.

How do blackouts occur?

Blackouts occur when your body’s alcohol levels are high. Alcohol impairs your ability to form new memories while intoxicated. It doesn’t erase memories formed before intoxication. As you drink more alcohol and your blood alcohol level rises, the rate and length of memory loss will increase.

How do power blackouts happen?

There are many causes of power failures in an electricity network. Examples of these causes include faults at power stations, damage to electric transmission lines, substations or other parts of the distribution system, a short circuit, cascading failure, fuse or circuit breaker operation.