How to survive a hangover after a night heavy drinking

Here are a few tips to help you survive the mother of all hangovers after a night out drinking. I'm forty now so I think I'm qualified to speak about this. That's not to say that I'm a binge drinker, although I've had one or two heavy sessions in my time.

These days I tend to take it considerably easier and hangovers are few and far between. However, I had one of those rare hangover days recently after visiting some friends in Stevenage and the more I thought about it, the more I realised they actually can be avoided relatively easily. I think I'll call this the five Ds approach to surviving a hangover for those who dare to dance with the demon drink and are destined to feel dire the next day. Sorry about all the Ds, just couldn't resist! But please read on...

How to survive a hangover without pills

Don't - Probably the best way of avoiding a hangover is not to drink to excess in the first place. Be the designated driver or pace yourself by slipping in the odd alcohol free drink every now and then.

Drink - No I don't mean the hair of the dog. You're probably very dehydrated and sinking more alcohol won't do you any good. Have a pint of water before you go to bed and keep something by your bedside. My sister swears by a cup of tea after a night out and I've personally found that a nice cold glass of apple juice in the morning works wonders. As mentioned above, having some alcohol free drinks (lime and soda?) during the night will also help reduce the magnitude of your hangover.

Diet - Nothing settles a queasy stomach quite like a bit of food. It can be hard to think about at a time like this but getting some food inside you is really one of the best things you can do. A slice of toast or some cereal maybe? One of my friends always swore by fish and chips washed down with a can of coke. I can't vouch for putting coca cola (don't they use that to clean engines?) but I've certainly reaped the benefit of a trip to the chippy.

Duvet time - Now it might feel that you're wasting your Saturday or Sunday by not doing anything, but what's worse, doing lots of stuff and feeling like a bag of crap or having a little bit of downtime. Oh, and it's probably best to avoid a night out during the week. The boss generally can figure out when it's an alcohol induced "sickie" and when it's the real deal. A fair majority of people will have a "duvet day" after a night out at some point in their life but it's really not a good habit to get into. Come to think of it drinking to excess isn't a good habit either, but you knew that right?

Don't drive - It may seem obvious but so many people think they can hop straight into a car after a heavy night out and they'll be okay. The chances are they're probably not and they're putting others at risk as well as themselves because they're coordination and reactions are probably still impaired from the alcohol. The best thing to do is to try and avoid driving after a night out, or at the very least leave your journey until much later on.

How to survive a hangover after a night heavy drinking

How to survive a hangover without pills

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