At some point, most adults have experienced a morning of regrets. Drinking too much alcohol could cause you to wake up with a hangover, or you may even still feel intoxicated if you drank late into the night. The answer to the question of how long does it take to sober up from a night of drinking can vary according to many different factors. Some people’s bodies metabolize alcohol faster than others. Stronger drinks take longer to break down, and even the food that you ate the night before can impact how soon you begin to feel normal again. As a general rule, your liver can process about one standard drink an hour. Typically, your blood alcohol content will stay below the legal BAC limit of .08% if you stick to a drink every hour or so, which can be a good way to make sure that you avoid becoming overly intoxicated.
If you did overdo it, then you could still be feeling the effects of alcohol well into the next day. Someone who drank multiple alcoholic beverages to the point of serious intoxication might need over 12 hours to completely sober up. Naturally, this means that you may still be feeling intoxicated or sick for the majority of the next day. On top of making you feel bad, there are some serious issues to consider about still feeling drunk the next day. Heavy drinking could lead to you still being too intoxicated to drive when you wake up. This often creates a problem when people assume that they are sober enough to drive since they technically slept it off. However, only time and you body processing the alcohol can actually make you sober up. Waking up still drunk can place you at risk for getting a DUI, and you’ll likely notice that it significantly impairs your ability to be productive during the next day.
Could Your Binge Drinking Be a Sign of an Addiction?
Drinking too much on one special occasion might not be a huge concern, but it is important to ask yourself if this is something that keeps on happening. Many people who binge drink don’t always realize that they have a problem with alcohol until their addiction has gone on too long. You might be binge drinking due to an alcohol addiction if you recognize these signs as being true regarding your behavior and experiences.
- drinking four or more drinking in two hours
- feeling like you need to drink heavier on the weekends
- drinking more than you plan to do on multiple occasions
- feeling shaky, nauseous or anxious the day after drinking
- noticing that you always binge drink
- forgetting things that happened the night before
- passing out on nights that you drink a lot
Binge drinking is a tricky form of alcohol addiction because society tends to create the idea that it is normal. Movies are filled with storylines that include college kids going all out on their weekend parties, and there is currently a “wine mom” culture that normalizes the need to drink multiple glasses of wine to supposedly make it through the day. The truth is that binge drinking has serious consequences for your physical and mental health.
Binge drinking regularly could also be a sign that you are trying to escape from your daily stresses or self-medicate an underlying mental health disorder. Many people who binge drink occasionally can also find that their drinking sessions start to increase in number. That weekend party binge can easily turn into you drinking too much during the week if you give it enough time. Whether you’re a weekend drinker or have started going overboard during the week, it just doesn’t feel good to wake up the next day wondering what you’ve done to your body. That fuzzy headed feeling of wondering what embarrassing things you might’ve done or said the night before also isn’t fun.
Alcohol addiction treatment isn’t just for people who drink the majority of the day. You can also get help if you binge drink often enough that you’re noticing that it has become a regular behavior pattern. Seeking help with binge drinking can prevent you from needing to drink even more to feel normal, and addiction treatment can help you to begin addressing the issues that might be causing you to pick up one drink after another.
Are you tired of waking up with worries and regrets? We can help you break the binge drinking cycle. Give us a call today at 833-610-1174 to begin finding out if you need professional addiction treatment.