Alcohol
Health
What's the quickest way to sober up?
by John Risby
Published: May 05, 2019 Last updated: November 30, 2023
Question
What's the quickest way to sober up?By getting only very slightly drunk.
Seriously, as has been said, there’s really nothing you can do to speed it up.
You get sober as your body processes the alcohol.
The average liver processes 1 unit of alcohol (1 unit, not one drink) per hour. As an example a pint of 5.2% beer is about 3 units.
How quickly your body processes alcohol can vary based on a few factors (weight, gender, if you are taking medication, how fast your metabolism works in general etc) but 1 unit per hour is roughly correct.
So 12 units of alcohol would take 12 hours to leave your body.
Sorry.
About This Q&A
Over the years I’ve replied to quite a lot of questions asked on Quora. I thought I’d post some of them here. I’ll post the reply I gave at the time and I won’t edit the original answer unless they are very embarrassing 😉 or to fix typos, but I may add an update or correction as a reply if needed. Please feel free to add/disagree etc in the comments section! This answer was originally posted on Quora on 5th May 2019.
How much did you learn from this article?
Welcome to the sobering world of alcohol processing. Today, we will explore what quickens the sobering process after consuming alcohol. Don't worry, this isn't a test on biology, just a fun quiz on alcohol processing in the human body based on the article you've just read. Ready to dive in? Let's get started!
About The Author
John Risby
Co-Founder of The Alcohol-Free Shop and AlcoholFree.com. John is a recovering alcoholic who stopped drinking in June 2004. Born and raised in Manchester, he now lives in Malaga with his wife and young daughter. He came to terms with being an alcoholic many years ago, but still finds the concept his daughter is Spanish very strange.
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