Being drunk typically lasts 4 to 6 hours for most people, though it can stretch longer depending on how much you drank, your body size, and whether you ate beforehand. Your body clears alcohol from the bloodstream at a steady rate of about .015 to .020 BAC per hour, which means someone at the legal limit of .08 BAC will take roughly 4 to 5 hours to reach zero.
How Alcohol Moves Through Your System
After your last drink, alcohol levels in your blood continue to rise for a period before they start falling. BAC peaks about one hour after drinking on an empty stomach. So if you finish your last drink at midnight, you may actually feel the strongest effects around 1 a.m., not at midnight. This catches people off guard, especially those who feel fine when they stop drinking and then feel noticeably worse a short time later.
Once your BAC peaks, the decline is remarkably linear. Your liver processes alcohol at a near-constant rate regardless of how much is in your system. You can’t speed this up. That fixed rate of .015 to .020 per hour is why the math is straightforward: three standard drinks on an empty stomach might put a 160-pound person around .06 BAC, taking about 3 to 4 hours to fully clear. Six drinks could push someone to .12 or higher, meaning 6 to 8 hours before they’re back to zero.
What Makes It Last Longer or Shorter
Food is the single biggest variable you can control. Drinking on an empty stomach allows nearly all the alcohol to reach your bloodstream, producing higher peak levels and a longer period of intoxication. Eating a full meal before drinking reduces the amount of alcohol your body actually absorbs to roughly 66 to 72 percent of what it would be on an empty stomach. That’s a meaningful difference. A meal doesn’t just slow absorption; it genuinely reduces how drunk you get from the same amount of alcohol.
Body weight and composition matter too. A smaller person reaches a higher BAC from the same number of drinks simply because there’s less blood volume and body water to dilute the alcohol. Women generally reach higher BAC levels than men of similar weight because women tend to carry proportionally more body fat and less water, concentrating the alcohol in a smaller fluid volume. Hormonal differences also affect how quickly the liver processes alcohol, with enzyme activity varying between sexes.
The type and pace of drinking plays a role as well. Carbonated mixers can speed absorption slightly. Drinking quickly over a short window produces a higher, sharper peak compared to spacing the same number of drinks over several hours. A person who has four drinks in one hour will feel significantly more impaired, and for longer, than someone who has four drinks over four hours.
A Realistic Timeline
Here’s roughly what to expect after a moderate to heavy night of drinking for an average-sized adult:
- 0 to 1 hour after last drink: BAC is still rising or near its peak. You feel the full effects: impaired coordination, slowed reaction time, lowered inhibitions.
- 1 to 3 hours: BAC begins its steady decline. You may start to feel slightly more clearheaded, but you’re still legally and functionally impaired.
- 3 to 5 hours: If you had a moderate amount (3 to 4 drinks), your BAC is approaching zero. You’re sobering up but may feel tired, foggy, or slightly off.
- 5 to 8 hours: For heavier drinking sessions, this is when BAC finally reaches zero. The “drunk” feeling is gone, but the hangover phase may be starting.
These windows shift based on the factors above. Someone who weighs 120 pounds and had five drinks on an empty stomach could still have a measurable BAC eight or more hours later.
Why You Still Feel Bad After Sobering Up
Hangover symptoms often begin right as your BAC drops to zero, not while you’re still drunk. This is why people sometimes feel worse the morning after than they did when they stopped drinking. The body is dealing with the aftermath: dehydration, inflammation, disrupted sleep, and irritation of the stomach lining.
Most hangovers resolve within 24 hours, though severe ones from very heavy drinking can linger into the following evening. The intensity depends largely on how high your BAC got and how dehydrated you became. There’s no reliable shortcut to make a hangover disappear faster, just as there’s no way to speed up the drunk phase itself.
Coffee, Cold Showers, and Other Myths
Nothing speeds up alcohol metabolism. Coffee, cold water, fresh air, exercise, and food after drinking all fail to lower your BAC any faster. The CDC is clear on caffeine specifically: it does not reduce the effects of alcohol on your body. What caffeine does is make you feel more awake while still impaired, which can be dangerous because it masks how drunk you actually are. You end up alert but still unable to react, judge distances, or make good decisions.
The only thing that sobers you up is time. Your liver works at its fixed pace regardless of what you do.
How Long Alcohol Shows Up on Tests
Even after you feel completely sober, alcohol or its byproducts can still be detected. A standard blood alcohol test picks up alcohol for roughly 12 hours after your last drink. Urine tests using newer methods that detect alcohol metabolites can flag drinking for up to 72 hours or more. Breath tests align closely with blood tests, reflecting your current BAC in real time but losing accuracy once your BAC hits zero.
For practical purposes, if you drank heavily the night before and have to drive or go to work in the morning, do the math. Count your drinks, estimate your peak BAC, and subtract .015 to .020 for each hour that’s passed since your peak. If the numbers don’t add up to zero, you’re not yet sober, even if you feel fine.