The “Introvert Hangover”: Real or Not Real?

Anecdotally, introverts who overdo social activity suffer aftereffects. What does science say about this?

Blogs by and for introverts describe the aftermath of too much “people time” in terms analogous to the well-known penalty for too much drinking: headache, crankiness, sore neck and shoulders, ringing ears, inability to make decisions or speak coherently, and the urge to curl up and hide for a time. 

After an intensive day of meetings in London, for example, one woman says, “I’m stumbling over words. I’m fumbling. It's just so fuzzy, fuzzy, fuzzy in my brain.”  Jenn Granneman of Introvert Dear describes the oversocializing hangover as “like being completely wiped out after running a marathon.”  Another woman confesses that after social events, “even my skin hurts for hours, from pushing myself too hard.”

In my case, I might suddenly feel like the connection between my mouth and my brain has become coated with molasses.  Thoughts get stuck, and I can no longer carry on conversation.  My facial muscles freeze.  I have regressed to a state of incredible stupidity.  This tends to come upon me while I am still in the social situation rather than the morning after, but I think it’s the same phenomenon as the “introvert hangover.”  If I’m able to duck away from the crowd for some refreshing privacy, I rebound gradually and completely.

Given such anecdotal detail, I was surprised to come across a study by Finnish researchers showing little or no differential in energy depletion by personality from social interaction.  Extroverts and introverts in this study reported the same degree of post-socializing exhaustion.  “After going out, everyone needs a bit of a break,” concluded the article where I read about this research.  And generally speaking, there appears to be no peer-reviewed scientific evidence confirming the reality of the “introvert hangover.”

So let’s review the unofficial explanations for why introverts particularly seem to have physical and psychological repercussions from what we experience as an overload of social interaction.

Factor one is differences in brain activity between introverts and extroverts.  According to scientists, compared to extroverts, introverts tend to have higher levels of activity in the brain’s frontal lobes, where internal processing and decision-making take place.  This means that external stimulation more quickly puts introverts over the top, into over-stimulation.  Extroverts, in contrast, need comparatively more external stimulation to reach their optimal level of performance.

Factor two is differences in neurotransmitters.  Because the chemical substance dopamine produces feelings of pleasure, excitement and satisfaction, it’s known as the “feel-good” hormone.  Extroverts have more dopamine receptors in their brains than introverts do.  To feel happy, they therefore need more dopamine from external activities like talking, laughing and moving.  Introverts, on the other hand, feel happy with a minimal amount of dopamine in their system.  Too much quickly overwhelms us.

Put together, factor one and factor two add up to a higher tendency for introverts to get overloaded in social situations where extroverts feel just fine and dandy.  However, I have noticed that the dynamics of overstimulation and its aftereffects tend to be described with energy metaphors that do not correlate with known scientific principles.  For instance, many refer to an inner “energy tank,” like a gas tank, that gets filled up and drained or depleted. 

But what exactly is the “energy” in that “energy tank”?  Intuitively the idea makes sense to most of us, but as far as I can tell, energy is a complex mix of physical sensations and psychological feelings that no one has pinned down to something that can be measured.  I wonder whether the Finnish study referenced above failed to show differences between extroverts and introverts after partying because it asked about physical tiredness.  Feeling energetically depleted is not the same as feeling tired, however. Yet like everyone else I can’t specify clearly what the distinction between physical exhaustion and energy depletion comes down to. 

All in all, then, I conclude:  We await further research.