I’ve noticed my Recovery tanks after a couple of drinks or a late-night meal. Why does that happen, and is there anything I can do about it?
Hi there! Alcohol and late night eating can definitely impact your Recovery score.
A big part of recovery is HRV. Alcohol acutely increases sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity - or “fight or flight” - and suppresses parasympathetic activity - or “rest and digest.” This will reduce your HRV, and therefore your Recovery score. Additionally, it alters sleep architecture—reducing REM sleep, fragmenting deep sleep, and increasing nighttime awakenings. These factors can also contribute to a reduction in Recovery. There are other ways that alcohol impacts your health - like dehydration, inflammation, and more - but these factors don’t directly contribute to Recovery scores acutely.
Late night eating can have similar impacts. It can disrupt your sleep due to glucose spikes interfering with your body’s normal responses while trying to rest, leading to reductions in SWS and more frequent awakenings. Additionally, parasympathetic tone normally dominates at night, but feeding is a cue for sympathetic activation - meaning it is likely to also reduce HRV, just like alcohol.
In terms of what you can do about it, WHOOP research shows that keeping alcohol consumption at least 6 hours from sleep can reduce some of the negative impacts associated with drinking. Additionally, you may see a small benefit via logging hydration in your journal before going to bed, and logging electrolytes and cold exposure/showers the day after to rehydrate, increase blood flow, and fight inflammation.