Water is the single most important thing to drink the morning after, but it’s not the only thing that helps. Alcohol suppresses a hormone that tells your kidneys to retain water, so you lose far more fluid than you take in while drinking. That dehydration drives the headache, fatigue, and brain fog you’re feeling. Beyond plain water, a few specific drinks can target the other things going wrong in your body: depleted minerals, low blood sugar, and an irritated stomach.
Water First, but Slowly
Start with water before anything else. Drink it steadily rather than chugging a full glass at once, which can trigger nausea on an already sensitive stomach. Room temperature or slightly cool water tends to be easier to keep down than ice cold. Aim for at least two to three glasses over the first hour or so after waking up, then keep sipping throughout the morning.
Why Electrolytes Matter More Than You Think
Alcohol doesn’t just flush water out of your body. It also depletes key minerals, particularly sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium. These losses explain many hangover symptoms you might not associate with dehydration. Low sodium causes headaches, nausea, and muscle cramps. Low potassium leads to muscle weakness and spasms. Low magnesium causes tremors and fatigue, and it also makes the potassium and calcium problems worse because your kidneys can’t hold onto those minerals when magnesium is depleted.
This is why plain water alone often isn’t enough. An oral rehydration solution like Pedialyte contains significantly more sodium and potassium than a sports drink like Gatorade, with less than half the sugar (about 9 grams per serving versus 22 grams). That makes it a better choice for hangover recovery, where the goal is mineral replacement rather than fueling exercise. If you don’t have Pedialyte on hand, a sports drink still beats plain water for electrolyte replenishment. You can also make a simple rehydration drink by adding a pinch of salt and a squeeze of citrus to water.
Coconut water is another solid option. It’s naturally rich in potassium and contains moderate amounts of sodium and magnesium, making it a good middle ground between plain water and a commercial electrolyte drink.
Drinks That Help With Low Blood Sugar
Your liver was busy processing alcohol all night, which means it wasn’t doing its other job: releasing stored glucose into your bloodstream. Alcohol directly inhibits the liver’s ability to produce new glucose, a process called gluconeogenesis. The result is that blood sugar levels can be significantly lower the morning after drinking, particularly between 7 and 11 a.m. That drop contributes to shakiness, weakness, irritability, and difficulty concentrating.
Fruit juice is one of the most effective morning-after drinks for this reason. It delivers fructose, the natural sugar in fruit, which your body can use quickly. One study found that fructose reduced the duration of alcohol intoxication by about 31% and sped up alcohol clearance from the bloodstream by nearly 45%. Orange juice has the added benefit of providing vitamin C and potassium. Apple juice is gentler on the stomach if you’re feeling queasy. Diluting juice with water (half and half) can help if full-strength juice feels too acidic or sweet.
A smoothie with banana, berries, and a splash of juice combines fructose for blood sugar with potassium and other minerals. Adding a spoonful of honey to tea or warm water gives you another quick fructose source.
Broth and Bone Broth
Warm broth, whether chicken, miso, or bone broth, works on multiple fronts. It delivers sodium and water simultaneously, which is exactly what your body needs. It’s also easy on a sensitive stomach because it’s warm, salty, and liquid, three qualities that tend to settle nausea rather than provoke it.
Bone broth in particular contains the amino acid cysteine, which is a building block for glutathione, your body’s main antioxidant. Glutathione helps neutralize acetaldehyde, the toxic byproduct your liver creates when it breaks down alcohol. That said, while the theory is sound, clinical trials testing cysteine supplements at doses of 650 to 1,200 milligrams haven’t shown a significant reduction in hangover severity. The amounts in a cup of broth are lower still. Broth is still worth drinking for the hydration, sodium, and comfort factor, but don’t expect it to be a miracle cure.
Ginger Tea for Nausea
If nausea is your primary symptom, ginger tea is one of the best options. Ginger reduces nausea, delays the onset of that queasy feeling, and shortens recovery time. In studies on nausea induced by motion, doses of 1,000 to 2,000 milligrams of ginger (roughly a one-inch piece of fresh ginger root, grated or sliced) were effective. Steep fresh ginger in hot water for five to ten minutes, and add honey for the blood sugar benefit.
Peppermint tea is another option that can calm an upset stomach, though ginger has stronger evidence behind it.
The Case Against Coffee
Coffee is tempting because you’re exhausted and caffeine feels like the obvious fix. It will help with alertness, and if you’re a regular coffee drinker, skipping it entirely might give you a caffeine withdrawal headache on top of the hangover. But caffeine has real downsides when your body is already stressed. It’s a mild diuretic, which can worsen dehydration. It stimulates stomach acid production in a gut that’s already irritated by alcohol. Gastrointestinal upset, including nausea, stomach pain, and diarrhea, is one of the most commonly reported effects of caffeine, affecting roughly 15 to 20% of people even under normal circumstances.
If you do drink coffee, keep it to a small cup, have it after you’ve already hydrated with water and electrolytes, and eat something alongside it. Black coffee on an empty, hungover stomach is a recipe for more nausea.
Skip the “Hair of the Dog”
Drinking more alcohol the morning after is one of the oldest hangover “cures,” and one of the worst ideas. While a morning drink may briefly dull hangover symptoms by numbing your nervous system again, it adds to the existing toxicity your liver is still working to clear. It also increases the likelihood of continued drinking, which is a pattern that can slide toward dependence over time. Your body needs to finish metabolizing the alcohol from last night, not take on a new load.
A Practical Morning-After Drinking Plan
The order in which you drink things matters almost as much as what you choose. Here’s a practical sequence:
- First 30 minutes: Two glasses of water, sipped slowly. If you have an electrolyte drink or oral rehydration solution, use that instead of plain water.
- Within the first hour: A glass of diluted fruit juice or coconut water to bring blood sugar back up and add potassium.
- If nauseous: Ginger tea with honey, sipped warm.
- With your first meal: Broth or a small coffee if you’re a regular caffeine drinker. Eating something with carbohydrates and protein alongside your drinks helps stabilize blood sugar further.
Recovery from a hangover is fundamentally about replacing what alcohol took: water, minerals, and glucose. No single drink does all three perfectly, but combining a few of the options above covers most of the damage and gets you feeling functional faster.