How to avoid a painful morning after

Your head's banging and your mouth feels like it has been lined with cheap carpet. Even your skin seems to be objecting to last night's excess. Hangovers hurt. The only guaranteed way to avoid a hangover is not to drink alcohol. The next best thing (and almost guaranteed to work) is to stay within the sensible daily drinking guidelines. If however the allure of another night out gets too much, there are steps you can take to reduce the risk of getting drunk, protect your health and keep that hangover away.

Before

Think about setting yourself a limit as to how much you are going to drink before you go out – and stick to it. The UK Government advises that men should not regularly drink more than three to four units a day and women not more than two to three. It's the strength and size of a drink that determines how many units it has. For example, a standard (175ml) glass of Chardonnay contains just over two units and an average pint of larger (4%) just under two and a half units. If you are confused about the number of units in your preferred drink, our unit calculator will help.

If you know you're going to be drinking alcohol, make sure you eat before you go out, preferably a substantial meal. Complex carbohydrates such as pasta and bread are good because they take longer to digest. This means any alcohol you drink will also take longer to be absorbed from your stomach into your bloodstream.

Drink plenty of water and or soft drinks before you go out, during your night out, and when you get home. Alcohol acts as a diuretic, which means your body retains less water. When this happens your body loses water, including your brain, which causes it to shrink. And that's one of the main reasons why your head hurts the next day.

During

Avoid getting into rounds because it makes it harder to control how much you drink.

Drink plenty of water or fruit juice between alcoholic drinks, or opt for shandies and spritzers. However, be aware that the alcohol in carbonated drinks (such as beer) is absorbed faster than in non-carbonated ones, so it has its effect more rapidly.

Choose light coloured drinks, if you can. Alcohol contains ‘congeners’, impurities caused by the distilling process. Dark drinks such as red wine, whiskey and bourbon can result in a worse hangover because they contain more congeners than lighter drinks such as white wine, gin and vodka.

Try not to mix your drinks. You're only adding to the number of toxins your body has to deal with.

Avoid being tempted by double measures of spirits just because they are cheap. Opt for a small rather than large glass of wine – a large one can contain up to three units of alcohol.

If you are drinking alcohol at home, keep an eye on how much you’re pouring. Pub measures of shots are 25ml. This doesn’t look like much in a glass so you’re likely to serve yourself much more at home. Avoid ‘topping up’ your glass before you’ve finished as this makes it difficult to see how much you have drunk.

Your body takes about one hour to process each unit of alcohol. Watch your units and consider stopping drinking well before the end of the evening, so the process can begin.

After

Try and get as much sleep as possible. Alcohol affects the quality of the sleep we get and hangovers often feel worse because we're tired.

Your instinct might be to reach for the painkillers. These may ease headaches, but will do nothing for the alcohol in your system. Some (like paracetamol) also give your liver even more work to do, and others (like aspirin) can irritate your stomach.

And of course, make sure you drink plenty of water and soft drinks to help battle the effects of dehydration

Page last updated by

Root User, 19 Apr 2010.

Page checked on

26 Aug 2009