A poolside margarita, a frosty beer at a Memorial Day barbecue — summer, you could argue, is made for a cold drink on a hot day.
But why does a daytime buzz feel different from after-dinner drinks? And is there any way to ward off the evening hangover?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there have not been robust clinical trials evaluating the health effects of day drinking. But psychiatrists and alcohol experts said there are a few unique factors that influence how daytime drinking can differ from nighttime consumption.
At night, you might be more attuned to the signs it’s time to stop — after your dinner winds down, for example. But the novelty of an afternoon alcoholic beverage means people don’t always keep tabs on how much they’re consuming, said Dr. Akhil Anand, a psychiatrist at the Cleveland Clinic.
If you’re drinking throughout the day, and not necessarily keeping tabs on where to get your next snack, it also stands to reason that you wouldn’t have food in your stomach to help slow down the rate at which your body absorbs alcohol — which means you’re likely to get more intoxicated over a shorter period of time.
Drinking while the sun is out — particularly in the summer — makes you more likely to become dehydrated, and dehydration can intensify the effects of intoxication: You may feel fatigued, lightheaded, woozy or just generally out of it, said Dr. Sarah Andrews, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
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