How long does alcohol stay in your system
While you may think you had those few drinks long enough ago to get behind the wheel, you could be dead wrong. The process of getting alcohol out of your body can take longer than you think.
Here's how you do the math:
For each half-pint of lager, or 25 ml of another spirit, it is going to take one hour to burn it out of your body. For every pint you drink, that's 2 hours of waiting for it to wear off, for mixed drinks, that's an hour for every shot that goes into the drink. If it's a double or there is some heavy pouring going on, add at least an hour onto the clock for each one you drink.
If you're like most people, you do not take 2 hours to nurse a pint or a single spirit drink. That means there's compounding going into effect.
If you've had a couple of shots, then someone bought a round, then you bought a round, and so on, the best thing to do is find a sofa at the end of the night, unless you want to spend the next 4-6 hours watching the clock to wait for it to wear off.
Have to drive, but want to enjoy some drinks? Drink early! If you really want to have a few drinks, but want to be able to drive home, do the math. If you are going to a party and will be there for 4 hours, get your first drink right away. Just make sure you don't go past the amount of drinks that you can metabolize in that time. After you get to the stopping point, spend the last few hours drinking water (which your body is going to need to counter the dehydrating effect of alcohol) and have some snacks. This way you should be safe to drive after enough time has passed.
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