How Long Until I'm Sober?
If you’re reading this article, it’s not a wild guess to say you’ve probably done some partying, either last night or in the recent past. I remember back in my late teens and early twenties, during my college years and the years immediately after college, having too much alcohol on quite a few occasions and wondering the next morning “How long until I’m sober after drinking alcohol”.
I also remember hearing some of the advice from friends after a night of heavy drinking about how to sober up. “Have loads of coffee” one guy would say. Another used to swear by having plenty of water. He used to say that it watered down the concentration of alcohol in your body. Another guy firmly believed a cold shower would do it.
So, is any of this true? In this article, we’ll explore some of the common myths about how to sober up and find the truth about blood alcohol content. We’ll explode the popular belief that there are things you can do to sober up faster and we’ll get the facts on the amount of time it takes for alcohol to fully leave your body.
How Long Alcohol Stays In The Human Body?
Most people believe that if you’ve been drinking the night before and your last drink is at 2 am you’re fine by 8 am. This is totally incorrect! If you are a heavy drinker, alcohol can still be detected in your urine up to THREE DAYS afterward!
For the average person, the general rule is that your body can process alcoholic drinks at a rate of one standard drink every 1-2 hours. This does not mean that after four drinks you are safe to drive after four hours!
What Length Of Time Does It Take To Sober Up?
Our metabolism of alcohol (in other words, how long it takes to eliminate alcohol from your system), is individual. Numerous factors affect your alcohol metabolism including:
- your body weight
- whether you were drinking on an empty stomach or a full one.
- your age
- whether you are male or female
- your rate of liver metabolism (how healthy and how large your liver is)
What Is My Blood Alcohol Level?
Your blood alcohol content (BAC) is literally the amount of alcohol in your bloodstream. Your BAC levels are normally expressed as either grams per 100 milliliters or as a percentage. This is typically measured by a simple blood test. Just so that you understand this a bit better, I’ve given an example below of a person’s blood alcohol concentration and the effects of that level of alcohol intake.
- 0.0g/100ml – you’re totally sober so you’ve probably been drinking water, soda, or non-alcoholic beverages
- 0.05g/100ml – you have had several drinks and are now feeling alcohol’s effects, including inhibitions being lowered, conversing easier and maybe a little louder, etc.
- 0.10g/100ml – a sober person would now start noticing that their speech is a little affected by the alcohol. You may start slurring slightly.
- 0.15g/100ml – you are now what would be described as drunk. Your balance is a bit dodgy and you might even vomit.
- 0.30g/100ml – you are now into alcohol poisoning territory and probably should be going to the emergency room.
What Is A Unit Of Alcohol?
That depends on where you live. If you are living in the United States, a unit of alcohol equals 14 grams of alcohol in contrast with the UK where a standard unit is 8 grams of pure alcohol. So as a practical example, an average pint of beer in the UK contains two units of alcohol. The same pint in the US is just over one unit.
What Is The Legal Limit For Driving?
United States – it’s 0.08% blood alcohol level
United Kingdom – it’s also 0.08% except for Scotland where it’s just 0.05%
Various other countries have different levels. You may do some further research on Wikipedia if you wish.
Rather than trying to figure out if you are within the limit or not by using a blood alcohol calculator, I think it’s much easier to have a blanket rule – if you are drinking, don’t drive! Don’t even consider it!
Self-Hypnosis Audio To Overcome Alcohol Addiction
Self-hypnosis can be a great tool to learn how to overcome alcohol addiction.
What Are The Effects Of Alcohol On My Body?
The most common myths about alcohol are that there’s no real long-term effect and that you’ll just have one or two withdrawal symptoms the next day such as a headache, feeling a bit weak, etc. That’s what we call a hangover! However, the truth is a bit scarier! Here are some of the rather scary long-term effects of drinking too much:
- Liver damage
- Liver disease
- High blood pressure
- Heart disease
- Permanently slurred speech even when sober
- Alcohol use disorder
- Alcoholism
What Is Considered A Normal Amount Of Alcohol To Drink?
Here’s what actual “normal drinking” looks like:
- Two standard drinks or less for a guy per day
- One standard drink or less for a girl per day
What Is Binge Drinking?
Government guidelines in the US state that binge drinking is:
- 5 drinks or more for a male in two hours
- 4 drinks or more for a female in two hours
Stop for a moment and think of the last time you went out with the guys on a Friday night, or you went to a hen party with your girlfriends. I’ll bet that nearly everyone who ever reads this post will say “Yep – that’s me” to the above amounts of drinks. The problem is that we regard that as normal drinking when, in fact, it’s actually binge drinking.
Self-Hypnosis Audio To Overcome Alcohol Addiction
Self-hypnosis can be a great tool to learn how to overcome alcohol addiction.
What Is Alcohol Abuse?
Alcohol abuse is where the effects of your alcohol use could lead to harmful long-term consequences. Anything more than 4 drinks on any one day or a total of 14 standard drinks in the week for men is enough to be classified as alcohol abuse. Anything more than 3 standard drinks in any one day (or 7 in a whole week) for a woman is considered alcohol abuse.
Most people who drink alcohol have fallen into the alcohol abuse category at one time or another during their lives. This generally tends to happen more often during college years or your twenties which are regarded by many as “party-time”.
As a nation, we have a tolerance for the abuse of alcohol. We regard it as a “phase” or a “rite of passage”. When we talk about “substance use” most people think immediately of drugs. The sobering thought (if you’ll pardon the pun) is that tobacco comes in first place closely followed by alcohol as the two major substances abuse by Americans.
Is My Alcohol Consumption A Bit Much?
Are you worried? Have you blacked out a couple of times from a night’s partying? Are you starting to drink a bit more often? Do you drink more than your friends? Here are some questions to consider that will help you decide if you are drinking a bit much:
- Have you ever been late for a college lecture or late for work because you were drinking the night before?
- Has your romantic partner ever been annoyed at you because of your drinking?
- Have friends or family members ever commented on how much you drink?
- Do you ever plan how much you are going to drink and then exceed that?
- Are you drinking more now to get the same effect as you used to get with less alcohol in the past?
- Have you tried cutting down and failed?
If you are concerned about your drinking, the best way to tackle the problem is to start with some professional medical advice.
Treatment Options For Excessive Drinking
- NIAAA Treatment Navigator – this is a relatively new service that can help you find qualified help close to your location
- Self Hypnosis Downloads – you could try my “Overcome Alcohol Addiction” recording if you think you’d like to try sorting it by yourself first.
- Alcoholics Anonymous – find a local meeting near you or read more about AA by following the link
- Talk to your local doctor
Self-Hypnosis Audio To Overcome Alcohol Addiction
Self-hypnosis can be a great tool to learn how to overcome alcohol addiction.
Self Hypnosis For Alcohol Addiction
Self-hypnosis can help with many alcohol problems, from binge drinking to full-blown alcohol addictions. For most people, they think that hypnosis will suddenly turn them into teetotallers, and, of course, that is not the case.
Self-hypnosis for alcohol addiction shines the light on those emotions you are trying to soothe using alcohol and prompts you to find healthier ways of dealing with them. It can help you by reminding you every day why you want to be sober, and the major benefit is that, by listening to a self-hypnosis recording, you can visualize how enjoyable it will be to be a non-drinker. There will be suggestions to help you never have that first drink and to find a glass of water much more attractive than a glass of wine.
My self-hypnosis recording is called “Overcome Alcohol Addiction” and it helps to make sober living so attractive to you. This will help you to see a bright future without alcohol and keep you right on track with your recovery journey.
Author: Paul Hunter
Although thousands of people read his blog every month, Paul's path to success was not an easy one. Click here to read his amazing story "From Unwanted Baby And Adopted To A Respected Self Help Blogger". If you want to send Paul a quick message, then visit his contact page here
