Ever been hungover? You wake up, you’re tired, you can’t bring yourself to do anything, so you just lie under the covers like a potato. The day after drinking is sacrificed and the momentum you’ve built up in whatever you’re striving to achieve is killed. A decision most people wouldn’t make in hindsight.
So don’t drink? A perfect solution in theory, but not the option most people with a social life in their 20s want to hear. As someone in the middle of that demographic, I want to enjoy the odd night out with friends without destroying my productivity the day after. This guide is everything I’ve learned so far about defeating the hangover.
Expect to understand why we get hungover and what makes this feeling worse, as well as how to design your night so the hangover doesn’t hit as hard. ENJOY.
Understanding the Effects of Alcohol
Lets talk about the effects of alcohol.
Why do we get drunk?
- Alcohol moves from your stomach, to your bloodstream, to your brain
- Neurotransmitters (messenger chemicals in the brain) are affected by the alcohol and begin to behave differently
- GABA (responsible for relaxation) increases, leading to lower anxiety and inhibitions
- Glutamate (responsible for mental clarity) decreases, leading to slower thinking and reaction times
- Dopamine (responsible for motivation) increases, leading to more confidence and sociability
- As you drink more and more:
- GABA continues to increase, slowed brain activity, lower awareness
- Glutamate continues to decrease, issues forming memories, coordination and movement issues, slurred speech
- Dopamine plateaus and then drops, energy dips
Why do we get hungover?
- Poor sleep: Alcohol disrupts your REM (deep) sleep, causing you to fall asleep faster but get worse quality of sleep. A late night under the lights of a bar or club will also disrupt your circadian rhythm, causing you to be even more sleepy the next day.
- Headaches and nausea: Alcohol is broken down by the liver into a toxic compound called acetaldehyde. This is poisonous to the body and causes the headaches and nausea you feel after a night out.
- Dehydration: Alcohol makes you go to the toilet more. This, along with the sweat you produce on a night out, causes you to lose electrolytes and become dehydrated.
- Blood sugar crash: Alcohol blocks your liver from releasing glucose into the bloodstream, causing low blood sugar. This is made worse by sugary mixers, causing a blood sugar spike and crash that leaves you with shakiness and cravings the next day.
- Dopamine depletion: Your dopamine will initially increase on a night out, resulting in a crash for the morning after. This causes low motivation and mood.
A hangover is a cocktail of these side effects which stack up to make you feel like shit. It’s these things together which make you incapable of even the smallest of tasks the day after.
How to Not Get Hungover
This section will give you a full protocol on how to save the day after a night out. Doing everything listed will work best, but also may be a bit extreme for some – just take the bits that work for you. Even if you do everything, this isn’t magic, you still won’t feel 100% the next day. The idea is to salvage enough life in you for it not to be a complete write off.
What to do before drinking
Hydrate:
Hydrate well throughout the day, make the extra effort
90 minutes before:
Eat a medium sized meal with protein, carbs, and healthy fats – this will slow down the absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream. Avoid takeaways.
- Light fat is okay, healthy fats eg salmon, avocado, eggs. These are good because they slow alcohol absorption
- Takeaways are bad, high fat can cause bloating, you absorb the alcohol slower but it just delays the peak and you feel sick later on
- Too much salt is bad, you don’t want to dehydrate yourself before drinking which takeaways can often do
- Carbs, stick to wholewheat if possible, or things like sweet potatoes
- Proteins, any lean meat (or otherwise) is fine
60 minutes before:
- Drink electrolytes (with 0 sugar) to maintain hydration.
- Set yourself a mini task for the next day. Even better if you can write it somewhere visible in your room. Make it something small, productive, and active, that doesn’t require much brain power. Think cleaning, chores etc. This is going to help you get the ball rolling for the day.
What to do during drinking
Stick to clear spirits
- Dark drinks have more of something called congeners which are by-products of the alcohol making process. These contribute to worse hangovers
- Vodka, gin, white rum, and high-quality tequila all contain fewer congeners, and are the best drinks for minimising hangovers.
- Beer? Lighter beers are going to be better, but beer in general will cause a degree of bloating. Avoid anything dark or with added sugar.
- Wine? Same principle, if you want to drink wine, stick to white wine. Because of the sugar content in wine, it often causes some of the worse hangovers.
Avoid sugary mixers
Sugary mixers and cocktails cause a sugar rush and crash which contributes to a hangover
- Soda water is your best bet with fresh lime
- After that, anything diet or zero sugar is fine, or something like squash and water if you’re into that
- Fresh juice still has loads of sugar
- Avoid regular non-zero mixers if possible
- Avoid caffeinated mixers if possible
- Avoid cocktails if possible
Interval drinks
- An interval drink is a drink that isn’t alcohol that you drink in between your alcoholic drinks
- This keeps you hydrated
- Stick to a small glass of water or soda water with no sugary extras (no lime cordial for example)
- Drink this in one for efficiency, or sip slowly to pace your drinking better and allow your body to process some of the alcohol in your system. Personal preference.
Avoid shots
Kind of boring but you’ll thank yourself in the morning
- Shots hit hard and are absorbed fast, leading to a sharper spike in acetaldehyde because your liver can’t keep up
- Acetaldehyde is the toxic compound largely responsible for hangovers, as discussed
Stop drinking at least an hour (ideally 2) before bed
- This gives time for the alcohol to clear from your system, meaning your sleep won’t be impacted as much
- There’s nothing worse than trying to get to sleep and the room is spinning and bouncing around you
What to do immediately after drinking
Avoid a takeaway
I can guarantee that no one is ever going to listen to this step
- Ideally, you’d have something small with carbs and protein, rather than something big and greasy (for the same logic as for the pre-drinking meal)
- You want to settle the stomach without being bloated or having loads of food to digest (this would disrupt sleep)
- A big, greasy takeaway is packed full of salt and oils, causing dehydration and inflammation, two things which play leading roles in a hangover
Another electrolyte drink
- For the same reason as before: combat the dehydration from alcohol and the electrolytes lost while you’ve been out
No scrolling, avoid social media
Similar to avoiding a takeaway, this is a tough one. Your willpower isn’t exactly at its peak after a night out
- Scrolling and social media depletes dopamine more, causing a larger loss of motivation in the morning
- It also keeps you awake for longer, meaning you’ll be more tired in the morning
- Phones and the TV emit blue light if you don’t have a filter on.
- Ideally, we want to let our brains rest, they’re pretty exhausted.
What to do the morning after drinking
- Get up
- Don’t lie in bed in a dark room like a potato, this will make you feel worse
- Stop scrolling
- Electrolytes
- Cold shower
- Cold showers are shown to increase dopamine
- Not too cold, just uncomfortable, 1-3 minutes
- Don’t take a cold shower while still intoxicated
- See How to Do Cold Water Exposure: The Complete Guide for more
- Walk
- Get the sunlight
- This will reset your dopamine
- Nature heals
- No music or phone – want to reset dopamine
- Healthy breakfast
- More carbs and protein
- Again, avoid anything too heavy and greasy
- Caffeine
- Optional – good if you handle it well
- Only after food
- Don’t have too much, you’ll get jittery
- That one productive mini-task / chore that you set yourself
Conclusion
There’s so much information here, take what you need, use it, see what you think. Really, it’s all damage limitation, but the more you do, the better you’ll feel the day after. Are nights out worth it? Depends what your goals are and how much the hangover will throw you off track. But if you do decide to drink, have fun, stay safe, hopefully this guide will help you feel better in the morning.
Notes
Notes
Next iteration on this guide should have some points on supplementation. I’m currently experimenting with NAC and DHM to combat hangovers, so would be good to get a separate section on these. Not medical advice.
Sources & Further Reading
https://www.flyby.co/blogs/news/dihydromyricetin
Talks about the supplement DHM as well as hangovers in general
14:00 – 24:00 ish talks about the effects of alcohol in more detail but then a huge section 1:04:25 – 1:17:16 all about hangovers and how to reduce them.
