Only what works best. This isn’t medical advice: if you have a chronic condition or take medication, check with your doctor.
Water and electrolytes — the foundation
- 500–1,000 ml of water in the morning
-
- electrolytes: ORS, Pedialyte, Sponsor, Pocari Sweat (a pharmacy ORS beats fizzy drinks and energy drinks)
Takes care of thirst and a dry mouth. It won’t cure the headache: dehydration comes along with a hangover, but it doesn’t decide how bad the hangover is.
Painkillers
- Ibuprofen/Nurofen is OK (if you don’t have gastritis, an ulcer or kidney problems)
- Paracetamol is best skipped after a heavy night: the NHS says it may not be suitable for people who have drunk a lot in a short time
Light food
- eggs / an omelette (protein; cysteine has the backing of just one small study)
- bananas (potassium)
- broth / soup / rice / toast
Reduces nausea and brings your energy back.
Gentle movement
- a 10–20 minute walk or some light yoga
- no “sweating it out until you drop” — dehydration will only make things worse
Helps take the edge off anxiety and gets the body going again.
Sleep and rest
- sleep for another 1–2 hours once you’ve done all of the steps above
- avoid overexertion and strong coffee if your heart is “pounding” or you feel anxious
What not to do
- “hair of the dog” — drinking more alcohol
- taking paracetamol
- downing energy drinks
- working out “until you sweat”
- sorbents and vitamins — it’s too late for them by now
Why the morning looks like this
A hangover is several things at once, and the protocol above allows for each of them.
Alcohol flushes out fluid, hence the thirst and dry mouth, which is why water with electrolytes comes first. But according to a 2024 study, dehydration comes along with a hangover rather than deciding how bad it is: the headache and wrecked feeling hang around even after you’ve drunk plenty of water, so water alone won’t cure a hangover. The main cause of the nausea and exhaustion is now thought to be an inflammatory response: while the liver deals with the last of the alcohol and its breakdown products, the body reacts to them with something like inflammation. Acetaldehyde, long blamed for hangovers, is now just one hypothesis among several. There’s little you can do to speed this up — time and food are what help. The third is the one people underrate most: sleep after alcohol is structurally broken, so eight hours in bed doesn’t give you eight hours of rest. Nothing fixes that except a normal night’s sleep afterwards.
What you decide the night before
It’s cheaper to pay in the evening than in the morning. Eat before your first drink, alternate with water and call it a night early — the time between your last drink and sleep matters more than you’d think.
When it’s no longer a hangover
Vomiting that won’t stop, confusion, seizures, slow or irregular breathing, pale or blue-tinged skin, low body temperature, loss of consciousness, chest pain or blood in the vomit — that isn’t just “one too many”. Call an ambulance: 1669 in Thailand, and in Bangkok 1646 works too. Don’t leave the person alone, and don’t try to fix it with broth.
Why sleep after alcohol doesn’t restore you — a look at the architecture of sleep. And separately: Thailand has banned selling alcohol to drunk customers.
