Academics found that those who drank after a period of study were better at recalling what they had learnt earlier than people who did not. In the study, 88 social drinkers were given a word-learning task. They were then split in two groups at random and told either to drink as much as they liked or not to drink at all.

GETTY Alcohol can imrove consolidating memory in some people, according to a new study

The next day, they all did the same task again and those who had drunk alcohol - an average of four units - remembered more of what they had learned. Researchers at the University of Exeter stressed this limited positive effect should be considered alongside the well-established negative effects of excessive alcohol on memory and mental and physical health. Professor Celia Morgan said: “Our research not only showed that those who drank alcohol did better when repeating the word-learning task, but that this effect was stronger among those who drank more.

GETTY Academics found that those who drank after a period of study were better at recalling what they had

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“The causes of this effect are not fully understood, but the leading explanation is that alcohol blocks the learning of new information and therefore the brain has more resources available to lay down other recently learned information into long-term memory.

The causes of this effect are not fully understood Professor Celia Morgan

“The theory is that the hippocampus - the brain area really important in memory - switches to 'consolidating' memories, transferring from short into longer-term memory.“ The effect noted by the researchers has been shown under laboratory conditions before, but this is the first study to test it in a natural setting with people drinking in their homes. There was also a second task which involved looking at images on a screen.

GETTY The effect noted by the researchers has been shown under laboratory conditions before