HangoverCure.org is dedicated to providing quality information on the subject of hangovers, alcohol and the products and solutions available to support a healthy lifestyle. Typically, it will clear up within a few days but it could linger. Take care of yourself and stay away from alcohol for a while if brain fog is becoming an issue.

• Because drinking is often an evening activity, hangovers are commonly described as “morning-after” effects.
• Your blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) measures how much is in your blood.
• Many people experience ‘hangxiety’ along with brain fog while hungover.
• You’re also already dehydrated, and the sweating can make hangover symptoms worse.

How much alcohol does it take to get a hangover?

Download an easy word puzzle app or go old-school with a book of crosswords or Sudoku. By the end of the day, you’ll be confident enough to switch from pencil to pen. While you’ll be back to your sharp self shortly, taking these steps to alleviate brain fog can reduce your symptoms and help you get back up to speed. Here’s what you need to know about how to reduce brain fog symptoms. One involves the two-step process that rids the body of the alcohol.

• However, you may not want to sleep all day and have other obligations like work or school.
• A 2017 study found that these aspects of cognitive function were all highly impacted during a period of hangover symptoms.
• Doctors often use the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, which was designed to uncover extreme mental problems in elderly people with dementia, and “isn’t validated for anyone under age 55,” Hellmuth told me.
• Royle points to recent research that shows that defacating can alleviate symptoms, because it stops us from continuing to absorb alcohol from the intestine.
• But the best hangover cure is to wait it out and drink lots of water.
• And what’s more, experts say that sleep deprivation can increase your risk for chronic health problems such as high blood pressure, obesity, and heart disease.

How can I prevent a hangover (or reduce its severity)?

In fact, a 2021 study found that 7 percent of people with long-haul COVID-19 reported brain fog. You may build a tolerance to alcohol if you drink enough consistently. This occurs when your body learns to adjust to the presence of alcohol and produce more enzymes to break down alcohol in your system. Let’s look at how to tell the difference between a mild, temporary hangover that you can treat at home and one that may need some extra medical attention. Typically, your symptoms are the worst when your blood alcohol level returns to zero. Migraines are still pretty mysterious, which means there’s no conclusive way to fully prevent someone from getting a migraine hangover once the pain has started.

Hangover Brain Fog – Final Words

New research focuses on the theory that hangovers involve inflammation. Studies have found that people who were hungover had high levels of cytokines, proteins that act as messengers for your immune system. When you feel terrible after drinking too much, it may be the result of both dehydration and an inflammatory response. You may have dry mouth, headache, dizziness, or nausea and be tired, shaky, thirsty, or sensitive to light and sound.

Ways to Reduce Brain Fog After Drinking Alcohol

If you drank too much alcohol and feel sick, try at-home hangover remedies like drinking plenty of water, eating some carbs and sleeping. If excessive drinking and hangover symptoms are interfering with your life, talk to your healthcare provider. For some drinkers, hangxiety—that’s alcohol withdrawal brain fog hangover anxiety, for the uninitiated—is almost as reliable as the pounding headache and queasy stomach. It’s the feeling of dread that follows a night of heavy imbibing. That chill, fun vibe that accompanies having a few (or a bunch) of drinks is gone.

And despite its nebulous name, brain fog is not an umbrella term for every possible mental problem. At its core, Hellmuth said, it is almost always a disorder of “executive function”—the set of mental abilities that includes focusing attention, holding information in mind, and blocking out distractions. These skills are so foundational that when they crumble, much of a person’s cognitive edifice collapses. Anything involving concentration, multitasking, and planning—that is, almost everything important—becomes absurdly arduous. “It raises what are unconscious processes for healthy people to the level of conscious decision making,” Fiona Robertson, a writer based in Aberdeen, Scotland, told me.

• While you’ll be back to your sharp self shortly, taking these steps to alleviate brain fog can reduce your symptoms and help you get back up to speed.
• Here’s what you need to know about how to reduce brain fog symptoms.
• We exist in a culture where it’s socially acceptable to consume caffeine and alcohol, especially in moderation.
• You might notice some things that triggered your symptoms (and that you can avoid during this recovery period), like bright fluorescent lights at work and loud noises from an event.
• Waiting is typically the most common way of dealing with hangovers because they tend to resolve on their own.

If you don’t eat anything and drink on an empty stomach, for example, you may feel worse because your bloodstream will take in the booze more quickly. And if alcohol use disorder runs in your family, you may have certain genes that affect the way you process liquor. It’s possible to reduce hangover symptoms by eating food and drinking plenty of water while you’re consuming alcohol, but there’s only so much you can do to avoid one.

When is hangxiety a problem?

Caffeine certainly won’t cure your hangover, but as a stimulant, it could help with the grogginess. As Adams points out, most medications go through a rigorous process of testing for safety and efficacy before they’re approved. “Because ‘hangover’ isn’t a medical condition, you could pretty much develop anything you like and say it cures hangovers,” Adams says. If you’re trying to cope with drinking too much, talk with your healthcare professional. You might have heard people comparing your brain to a computer, but the truth is a lot more complicated than that. So if your mind’s feeling off, it might be helpful to get moving.

How can you beat back hangxiety if you feel it coming on?

Sometimes, hangovers can be more serious and can cause health issues that require medical attention. Some may tell you to sweat it out, but we don’t advise hitting the gym. When you have hangover brain fog, you’re more at risk of having an accident. You’re also already dehydrated, and the sweating can make hangover symptoms worse. Post-exertional malaise is so common among long-haulers that “exercise as a treatment is inappropriate for people with long COVID,” Putrino said.