How to Sober Up Quickly
Go to any bar or any party, and you'll find someone repeating the myth: All you need to do to sober up is drink a few cups of coffee, take a cold shower, breathe heavily or run around the block. Generations of barflies and party-goers swear that these or other simple tricks can reverse the effects of alcohol on your nervous system. But they're wrong: The simple scientific fact is that time is the only thing that will clear the booze from your body. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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If You Need To Be Sober
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1
Stop drinking alcohol. Your body needs time to get rid of whatever you've been drinking, so the sooner you stop drinking, the sooner you'll be sober. If you've been drinking heavily, drinks you had an hour or so ago might just now be finding their way into your bloodstream.
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2
Count how many drinks you've had. For purposes of estimating your blood alcohol content, a standard drink is a 12-ounce beer of moderate alcohol content (about 4.2 percent), a 4-ounce glass of wine, or a 1-ounce shot of 80-proof liquor.
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3
Allow an hour for every drink to pass. Most people's bodies metabolize alcohol at a rate of about .015 percent of blood alcohol content every hour. If you've been drinking slowly and evenly (one standard drink an hour for two hours), your blood-alcohol content should return to its pre-drinking level about an hour after your last drink.
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4
Factor in your blood-alcohol content. Just about everyone eliminates alcohol at the same rate, but what varies is how each drink affects your impairment. Differentiating factors include gender (women absorb alcohol faster than men) and size. For a quick estimate, some police departments offer on-line calculators (see Reference 1). There is also a mathematical formula to estimate your blood-alcohol content (see Tips.)
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5
Wait it out. Coffee, exercise, a cold shower and deep breathing may make you feel more sober, but you're not--you're just more alert.
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Tips & Warnings
Experts use the following formula to estimate blood alcohol content: Percent BAC = (A x 5.14/W x r) - .015 x H. To apply this formula, multiply the ounces of alcohol you have consumed (A) by 5.14. Then multiply your weight (W) by alcohol distribution ratio (r), which is 0.73 if you are a man and 0.66 if you are a woman. Divide the first number by the second number. Then subtract from that number the hours since you started drinking and multiply by .015.
Simply having a blood-alcohol content lower than .08 does not mean you are safe or legal to drive. Even though .08 is the legal standard all states use in their drunken-driving laws, some drivers may be impaired at lower levels. Also, police can arrest a suspected drunken driver at their discretion, even if blood-alcohol content is lower than .08.
If you use a blood-alcohol calculator, remember that it will not be 100 percent accurate.
