Do you deal with your fear of flying by downing two or three of those mini-bottles and passing out? You might be risking more than a headache. A study in Germany found falling asleep after drinking on a plane could KILL you.
Airplanes are pressurized, so it’s like being 8,000 feet up where air pressure and oxygen levels are a lot lower. And that affects our body in different ways.
They studied the effects by having 48 adults sleep for four hours in a pressurized chamber. Once with no alcohol, and once after they had two drinks.
In the lower air pressure, sleeping after drinking put a “considerable strain” on the heart, causing heart rates to rise and blood oxygen levels to plummet, sometimes below 85%. And all that combined could cause a medical episode.
They think older people with heart conditions are at the highest risk. But it even strained the hearts of people who were relatively young and healthy.
They say it might affect people in first class more than people in coach . . . because when your seat is small and cramped, it’s harder to fall asleep and stay asleep. So, that’s good news.
Still, study authors say people should be aware of the risks. And airlines might want to think about serving less booze, or not serving it at all.
(EurekAlert / CNN)
