Hangover...is it Really Over?

Alcohol and its variety of effects is a widely known subject, yet the extent and severity of a hangover was what was brought into question in this particular research study. The main item they attempted to find results on was how driving was impacted the morning after about ten drinks were consumed. It was a highly naturalistic study in that the participants went drinking the night before out of their own free will, danced at the bar if they pleased, stayed out as late as they wished, and chose to sleep in their own beds or not. The next morning they arrived for the study, took a breath analyze test, a pregnancy test, gave a urine sample, and had a few other requirements in order to participate such as having a valid driver’s license for three years. They completed a sixty-minute driving simulator test that recorded their results and logged their lapses and response times. After they also gave a self-report on their driving performance, 0 being “I drove exceptionally poorly” and 20 being “I drove exceptionally well”. They also scored themselves on six scales of foolish to wise, dangerous to safe, and tense to relaxed to name a few. Not only did the quality of their driving prove lacking but also their driving style such as being more aggressive when hung-over.

Although this information may not be extremely shocking since it is quite apparent to bystanders when someone is drunk, evidence through research is proving that those effects can last well into the hangover the next morning not just the initial rising of BAC level. There are many implications to this research in that it shows how severe the effects of alcohol really are on one’s body and the toll that it takes. Alcohol impairs one’s senses and rational judgments and thinking immensely which needs to begin to carry more weight on one’s drinking decisions than just caring if they’ll have a good time or enjoy a night out.

As is true with most all research, there are limitations to this study. The researchers did a good job in that it was highly naturalistic by allowing the participants to go about their regular night out and drink as much as they pleased and go home when they wished. One limitation is that their research was performed in a driving simulator instead of a real life driving course which is going to be less realistic and not have real life results and consequences such as injury from a car crash or actually having to pay a speeding ticket and such. Also, knowing that they had signed up to participate for this research study they may have chosen to drink certain alcoholic beverages and not others or to head home earlier to sleep it off or other such decisions which could alter their results a bit. 

Verster, J. C., Bervoets, A. C., Klerk, S., Vreman, R. A., Olivier, B., Roth, T., & Brookhuis, K. A. (2014). Effects of alcohol hangover on simulated highway driving performance. Psychopharmacology, 231(15), 2999-3008. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00213-014-3474-9

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