It's like when I down a couple of pints of my Pliny the elder Beer which is at about 9% double APA and hopped up to the max.Very tasty but also is a great night cap/ killer lol.
It's not just the alcohol working on you, it's the mega hop load. Hop oils have a therapeutic effect on you. I have a couple of old hippy mates that actually like grabbing some pellets / flowers from my brew house and smoking them when they are over downing a few of my beers. They recon it's a nice mellow affect after a few of them. Although I don't smoke, I did try this once with them and found after a few conical shaped amounts lol, I did get a mellow sort of state for say 10 mins, nothing to rave about but they did do something.
I prefer to drink them.
I was told by an old brewer once, but in the old days when hops commercially were picked by hand, they sometimes would find a hop picker or 2 sleeping amongst the vines from the oils getting into their skin.
Not sure if it's that true, but hops do contain compounds that act like a sedative.I like telling the story after pulling out a keg of Pliny to end a party . Lol
There are natural remedies etc about that use hop compounds from what I've been told.